It is important to start with real Minnesota Wild Rice. It is expensive, but well worth the price. Also it goes a long way in the recipe.
Here is what real wild rice looks like, left side is uncooked right side is cooked.
Here are the ingredients you will need;
4 oz Wild Rice
A whole chicken (2-3lb)
3-1/2 cups of water
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of carrot diced
1/2 cup of onion diced
1/2 cup of red pepper diced
1/2 cup of celery diced
1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon granules
3/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of flour
2 cups Half and Half
1/2 cup of dry white wine
The following pictures are for a double batch of the above recipes. It is important to get everything ready so I like to first boil the wild rice and chicken as follows:
In a bowel double or triple rinse the wild rice in cold water to remove the chaff. Drain and put into sauce pan with cold water (about double the volume of the rice or a little more). Bring to a boil, drain and add cold water again. Bring to a boil and continue to boil until the grains start to open up and curl over. Drain and set to the side.
While your wild rice is cooking you can clean the chicken and put into a pot. I like to use a dutch oven. Add the water, cover, and boil the chicken for 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and strain the stock. Set the stock off to the side. Remove the bones, skin, and cut up the meat into pieces no larger than 3/4 of an inch. Place the meat into a bowel and set off to the side.
If you have not already prepared your vegetables and measured out the other ingredients do so at this time.
Now I like to usually saute my vegetables in the soup pot, but as I was making a double batch I did not have a heavy bottom stock pan large enough. Therefor I sauted my vegetable first in a heavy bottom frying pan. You can just do this in a large stock pot if the bottom is thick enough to do so.
Put the olive oil in the hot pan and saute the vegetables for 5 to 7 minutes.
In the stock pot combine the sauted vegetables, reserved stock from boiling the chicken, bullion granules, salt, pepper, and the cooked wild rice. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
While simmering you can get the white sauce ready. In another pot melt the butter. Than add the flour and half and half while whisking it in. I like to add the flour first and get it blended and bubbly,
than I take it off the heat and add the half and half while blending it in. Once all the half and half is in I put it back on the heat and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Note: one you have added the half and half it will be not very thick, yet at the end of boiling for 1 minute it will become quit thick.
Turn off the heat on the white sauce. Now your stock, wild rice, vegetables, etc should have simmered for 20 minutes. While stirring add the white sauce a cup at a time and stir it until well blended.
Add the chicken and stir together, add the white wine and stir it together well. Simmer for 10 minutes and you now have a really great soup.
For storage you can keep in the refrigerator or for long term storage this soup freezes very well and will not separate.
