I didn’t used to believe soup could ever be a meal. Maybe if I’m sick or having a big meal in an hour or so. Then I started experimenting with one pot meals and fell in love with hearty soups! This Best Ever Chicken and Brown Rice Soup is seriously one of the most comforting, nourishing and tasty soups I’ve ever had. It’s gluten-free and loaded with veggies and delicious richness from “secret ingredients” to add oomph to your soup.
Soup Can Help You Lose Weight and Keep it Off!
- Research suggests that eating soup can help you eat less at your next meal without going hungry.
- How does it work? Healthy soup is low in calories but all of the water and vegetables fill up your stomach. You’ll feel full even though you haven’t taken in many calories. Another reason to enjoy soup: it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain that you’re full. Soup is hot and takes time to eat, helping you take your time and eat more mindfully.
- To make sure your soup will help you stay full longer, always include a protein-rich ingredient such as beans, chicken, seafood, fish or eggs.
- When you eat foods that are high in protein, your body releases more PYY (peptide tyrosine tyrosine), a hormone that tells your brain when you’re full. Levels of PYY are typically lower in people who are overweight or obese. That’s why plenty of research is being done on PYY as a potential weight loss treatment!
- This Chicken and Brown Rice Soup totally checks all of the boxes above! Rich in protein and low in calories. Just 1 cup of rice spread out amongst 8 servings!
Read this article on 5 Must-Have Ingredients to Boost the Nutrition in Your Soup for more ideas on tasty and healthy ingredients to add!
Oh, and I promised to let you in on a couple of “secret” ingredients that make this soup taste awesome.
First of all, tomato paste. Second, mushrooms. They add so much deliciousness to this soup thanks to their umami properties. Lip smackin’ goodness!!!
Boost #soup flavor w/umami from tomato paste, mushrooms & more! Click To Tweet
This soup is the perfect meal prep recipe because you can do it in the slow cooker and make a huge batch so it feeds you and yours over several meals. It also freezes well so you can put it into portion-sized containers and then have healthy meals whenever you’re pressed for time.
Added bonus: it’s budget-friendly. Each portion costs only $1.67! How awesome is that?!
Want #dinner for less than $2? This perfectly balanced chicken & brown rice #soup has you covered! Click To TweetGreat value when you’re making your own chicken soup is roasting a whole chicken and then boiling down the bones to make a super flavorful stock. Here’s how to roast a whole chicken and how to make vegetable stock (just add the chicken bones and you have chicken stock)!
When I don’t have the time to roast chicken, I’ll make this by roasting a bunch of chicken breasts and setting a couple aside for salads or other dinner recipes. Then I chop up a few of the chicken breasts and add them into the soup to get my protein in.
Best Ever Chicken and Brown Rice Soup – Gluten-Free Healthy One-Pot Meal
Enjoy this hearty and healthy soup! I hope you love it as much as I do.
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 8 | 7 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 50 minutes | 40 minutes |
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- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or meat from a whole chicken)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 4 carrots diced
- 4 stalks celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3/4 cup Cremini mushrooms diced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp dried thyme
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup brown rice rinsed
- 4 bay leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and put the chicken breasts on it, sprinkling with lemon juice and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees F.
- Meanwhile, in a large Dutch oven or soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, tomato paste, mushrooms and thyme and saute for 3 minutes or until the mushrooms develop some color.
- Top up the soup with your stock and water. Add the bay leaves and rice. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on medium heat for about 40 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
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