Sneaky Chicken Soup

I recently read through the Deceptively Delicious cookbook (kind of like Sneaky Chef) that a friend of mine loaned to me. I love how you can incorporate veggies in things that I never would have thought of before. While were iced in the house yesterday, I broke out some frozen chicken breasts from the back of the freezer (and then spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to fit everything back in the freezer that fell out). I rummaged around the fridge and the pantry and came up with this...

Sneaky Chicken Soup

--3 frozen chicken breasts
--sea salt
--ground pepper
--2 bay leaves (mine were little)
--parsley
--paprika
--basil
--onion powder
--garlic powder
--celery salt
--1 large potato
--1 can petite diced tomatoes
--1 package of frozen broccoli (steam in bag)
--2/3 cup of brown rice
--extra chicken broth (just in case)

1. Place frozen chicken in stock pot with enough water to cover the chicken a couple of inches. Turn heat on med-high while adding seasonings (sea salt through celery salt). I would give amounts but I kind of eyeball. I went light on the sea salt and light on the celery salt because I figured the two combined would be enough (and you can always add salt later). The other seasonings floated on the water so I made little piles of them figuring 1/4 to 1/2 tsp here and there. Give a good stir and then cover the pot. I simmered slowly for over an hour, turned off the heat, and let the chicken cool.

2. Remove chicken to cutting board and strain broth through a sieve. Cut up chicken (I cut and shredded) and return to clean broth. Turn heat back to medium. Dice up one larg potato and add to pot. I happened to have a large russet stuck in the bottom of the fridge. Empty can of tomatoes and juice into the pot. Add the rice. If soup has started bubbling, turn heat down to low.

3. Cook packet of broccoli in microwave according to directions. I had SteamFresh broccoli cuts that takes 5minutes in the microwave. There is no seasoning on the vegetables. After steaming, remove from packet and puree in blender (or handy dandy magic bullet) with some broth from the soup. Add puree to the soup pot.

4. Taste test soup. I had to add a little garlic salt for my own taste preferences. Cook for another 15 minutes (or 45 if you happen to have regular ole brown rice that takes 45 minutes to cook). Stir occasionally...the rice sticks around the bottom of the pot.

Serve and enjoy and tell no-one that there's a healthy green puree in your soup!