Spicy chicken and rice soup

Can you really ever have too many chicken soup recipes? 🌞

Happy Tuesday, everyone. I know I just visited your inbox with chicken soup, but in my world, there’s no such thing as too much when it comes to the king of comfort food.

I combine a rich, spicy homemade chicken broth with the resulting shredded chicken, plenty of aromatics, and Rancho Gordo pinto beans in this take. Use dry or canned beans depending on your preference and time constraints.

Since I use fresh poblanos in the broth and ancho chile peppers are dried poblano peppers, I use ground ancho chile powder to marry the fresh and dried flavors together. The ancho chile powder is in addition to chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and paprika. If you can’t find ancho chile powder, use chipotle chile powder, smoked paprika, or guajillo chile powder instead.

Ready to cook? The full recipe is written out below, but for more tips, photos, and nutritional information, grab the recipe by clicking the link below.

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Spicy Chicken and Rice Soup

Ingredients

• 6 scallions, trimmed and rinsed, divided

• 1 cup dry pinto beans or use 2 15-ounce cans pinto beans

• 1 shallot, peeled and sliced

• 4- pound whole or cut-up chicken, giblets reserved for another use

• 3 jalapeños, halved

• 1 yellow onion, scrubbed and halved (no need to remove peels unless you want to)

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil

• 3 poblano peppers, trimmed, seeded, and diced

• 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced

• 2 tablespoons chili powder

• 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder (or use another tablespoon of chili powder)

• 1 tablespoon paprika

• 1 tablespoon cumin

• 2 teaspoons cayenne powder; use more or less to taste

• 1 cup white rice, thoroughly rinsed

For serving:

• Sour cream

• Minced red onion

• Lime wedges

• Cilantro

• Sliced radishes

Instructions

Prepare the scallions:

• Slice 2 scallions into thirds; these will simmer with the beans. Mince the remaining four scallions and set them aside.

Prepare the beans (if using dry beans):

• Place the beans, two sliced scallions, and the shallot in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour until mostly tender. Once tender, pluck out and discard the big pieces of scallion. No need to fuss over the shallot pieces; they can cook in the soup. Drain the beans and set aside.

Prepare the chicken and broth:

• Place the chicken, jalapeños, and halved onion in a large pot and cover with water. Add a generous sprinkle of salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

• Using tongs, carefully remove the bird and transfer it to a large bowl. Let cool.

• Turn the heat on the broth in the pot to a rapid simmer. Let simmer for 30 minutes or until it reduces to about 8 cups of broth. It will darken in color as it cooks down. Adjust the heat as needed if it reduces too quickly.

• Strain the broth into a large bowl through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard solids.

• Carefully wipe out the pot and return it to the stove.

• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pick the meat from the bones and shred the meat into bite-sized pieces. Reserve or freeze the carcass for stock later if you like.

Prepare the soup:

• Heat 2 tablespoons neutral oil in the pot. Add the diced poblano peppers and diced onion. Sauté for 8-10 minutes. Add the remaining 4 minced scallions, and drained beans. Season generously with chile powder, ancho chili powder, paprika, cumin, and cayenne. Add a sprinkle of salt.

• Pour in reserved broth and shredded chicken and bring to a boil.

Simmer the soup:

• Stir in the rinsed rice. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes until rice is tender. Add more salt if needed.

To serve:

• Ladle the soup into bowls. Serve with sour cream, radishes, minced red onion, cilantro, and lime.