Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

This is another recipe from mykitchencafe.blogspot.com. I thought this was really good soup. It does make a lot so you may want to half the recipe.

½ cup butter

1 finely chopped onion

½ - 1 cup frozen corn (or ½ cup chopped celery, if preferred)

½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used a 6 oz box of Uncle Ben's Long grain and Wild Rice)

½ cup carrots, sliced

¾ cup all-purpose flour

6 ½ cups chicken broth (can use 7 bouillon cubes plus 6 ½ cups water)

2 cups cooked wild rice

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon mustard powder

½ teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 cup slivered almonds (I don't like almonds so I did not add)

2 cups nonfat half-and-half (use normal half-and-half if you prefer, but you won't believe how delicious this is with the nonfat variety!)

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

2. Stir in the onion, corn, chicken and carrots and saute for 5 minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and saute 3-4 more minutes.

4. Then add flour and stir well. Transfer mixture to large pot.

5. Over medium heat, gradually pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly until all has been added.

6. Bring just to a boil and then reduce heat to low and let simmer.

7. Add the rice, salt, curry powder, mustard powder, parsley, ground black pepper and almonds. 8. Allow to heat through and then pour in the half-and-half.

9. Let simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours. Be careful not to let the soup come to a boil or it won't thicken properly - let it simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.

I think this would be great with a bread bowl. I just ate it with crackers and loved it.