What to eat Wednesdays - Butter chicken soup

This Destitute Gourmet Butter Chicken Soup recipe is so good. It freezes and re-heats well, so you can save leftovers for another night. And as an added bonus, it's frugal, as all good DG recipes are. This one can be found in Sophie Gray's Everyday smart food for the family.

Butter chicken soup.

Ingredients

Marinade for chicken

• 1T lemon juice
• 1t ground coriander
• 1t ground cumin
• 1t chilli powder
• 1t fresh ginger, grated
• 2 fat cloves garlic, crushed

Soup

• 1 large boneless chicken breast or equivalent weight of boneless thigh meat, marinated
• 1T butter
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1t ground coriander
• 1t ground cumin
• 1/4t chilli powder
• 1t fresh ginger, grated
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 3c chicken stock
• 1/4c basmati rice
• 2T tomato paste
• 1T plain flour
• 2T brown sugar
• 1/4c cream (or coconut cream)
• Natural yoghurt and fresh coriander to garnish

Method

1. Combine the marinade ingredients in a glass bowl. Cut the chicken into small pieces or slice thinly and mix into the marinade. Refrigerate for at least an hour. (Tip: the soup uses the same spice ingredients as the marinade, so measure these out at the same time and set them aside until you're ready to cook the soup.)

2. To make the soup, melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add marinated chicken and chopped onion.

3. Stir constantly until chicken is sealed (white-looking) and the onion is soft. 

4. Add the dried spices and ginger, then stir in the tomatoes and chicken stock.

5. When simmering, pour in the basmati rice, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Mix together the tomato paste and flour and whisk this, a little at a time, into the soup.

7. Add the brown sugar and cream, and season to taste.

8. Serve in soup bowls with a dollop of natural yoghurt or sour cream and some chopped fresh coriander. Provide some torn up naan bread for dunking.

Serves six.


Emma's notes
I've made this recipe a couple of times now. The first time I made it exactly according to Sophie Gray's recipe.

The second time I played around a bit to suit what we had in the house. I used a little bit of leftover roast chicken (without marinading it), and bulked the soup out with some soaked and cooked chickpeas. Because I hadn't marinaded the chicken, I doubled the amount of coriander and cumin I added to the soup.

Linked to Sunday Night Soup Night at Easy Natural Food.