Tea Blog

Warm and inviting home made soup with the earthy rustic notes of wild rice, mushrooms, and Genmaicha tea. The techniques in this recipe for making a flavorful soup stock will be used over and over again. This is a recipe sure to be kept for generations.

½ cup dried Chanterelle mushrooms
2 tbsp Genmaicha tea (any rice flavored green tea)
8 cups water

Heat the water in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and steep the dried mushrooms and tea for 10 minutes. Once steeped remove the tea and strain the liquid to remove any sediment from the mushrooms. Place the mushrooms back into the steeped strained liquid and set aside.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 whole large white or yellow onion cut in half
2 tbsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 4-5 lb whole chicken
4 garlic cloves
4 cups chicken broth
3-4 center stalks of celery with the leaves left on
3 medium carrots unpeeled and washed
2-3 bay leaves

Over medium heat in a large stock pot pour the olive oil. Place one half of the onion (reserve the other half) cut side down in the pot and let cook for a few minutes or until the onion gets some color. Season the chicken with some of the salt and pepper then place in the pot to get a little color. Cook the onion and the chicken for about 4-6 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth to deglaze the bottom of the pot. Now add the reserved tea mushroom broth as well as the rest of the ingredients: garlic, celery, carrots, bay leaves and the rest of the salt and pepper. Let it come to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 45 minutes. Remove the chicken and place onto a cutting board. Pour the rest through a strainer to get a clean soup stock.. Throw out the strained items and place the broth back into the pot.

½ onion diced (reserved from earlier)
3 stalks celery diced
¾ cup wild rice (when substituting brown or white rice use only ½ cup)
3 cups of sliced button mushrooms
1 cup heavy cream

Place the large pot with the broth over medium high heat adding in the wild rice, diced onions and celery. Cover and bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Add in the sliced mushrooms and let simmer for another 20 minutes. Once the chicken has sat for about 15 minutes it will need to be shredded into bite size pieces. Do not cut the chicken it will make the breast pieces seem like dry bits of chicken. Once the mushrooms have cooked for 20 minutes add in the shredded chicken pieces and the heavy cream. Let heat through for about 2 minutes then remove from heat and serve.

Recipe serves 6-8 people.

See more of Janet Sanchez’s articles here.

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