Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Soup

This is an easy and budget-friendly soup to make that is perfect on a rainy day.  I always add the wild rice to the serving bowls, but if you plan on not having leftovers you can add it directly to the soup (if the rice sits in the soup overnight it will get mushy and you'll have chicken-flavored rice pudding).

Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 16 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 2 chicken leg quarters
• 2 Tbsp. Wondra or AP flour
• 1/4 cup dry white wine, optional
• 2 cups stock
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 3 cups wild rice, cooked
• 1/2 to 1 cup cream, optional
• salt and pepper, to taste

​Serves 4-6
Cook Time: 45 minutes

In a medium Dutch oven, heat olive oil until it shimmers, add salted and peppered chicken leg quarters skin-side down.  Allow skin to brown, then flip chicken and saute on other side.  Once chicken is browned (not cooked through) remove to a plate and set aside.  Saute onion in chicken fat until softened; add garlic and saute one more minute.
Add butter and saute mushrooms until browned and cooked down by at least half.    Sprinkle with Wondra and cook for about a minute until Wondra is not longer raw white flour.  Deglaze with wine then add stock and milk.  Add chicken back to pan and allow to cook through as soup simmers on low.
Check your chicken temperature after 45 minutes, you need it to be at least 165 in the thickest portion (dark meat can handle being higher without any ill effect after only 45 minutes).  Meanwhile, cook 1/12 cups dried rice with 3 cups water until cooked through.
When chicken reaches an internal temperature of at least 165, remove from pot and allow to cool; once cooled remove skin and shred chicken (I like to save the skin and bones in the freezer to make stock later).  
Add chicken back to pan and add cream, if using.  If you are serving all the soup at once and do not anticipate leftovers you can add the cooked rice to the soup pot; however, if you are planning on having leftovers, add a few spoonfuls of soup to the individual serving bowls and ladle hot soup over the rice.