Slow Cooker Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

As the mom of an extremely active toddler, sometimes cooking dinner can be a challenge. Inevetably, everything needs attention at once-straining one pot, uncovering and stirring another, pulling something out of the oven, and realizing I forgot to prep an ingredient that is needed right then. This is made even more difficult by the toddler who is standing there asking me for a hug or a refill of his sippy cup. Sage is happy to help, but sometimes a kid just needs his mommy.

Because my time in the kitchen is supposed to be fun-time, I've found the afternoons, when he is napping, to be the best time to "play." A great way to get dinner going earlier in the day, is to make something in my crock pot. I love the ease of slow cooking, but I tend to do it when I'm home, unlike most people. When I was still working, I rarely used it when I was going to be gone all day- pretty much because I never had time for all of that chopping of vegetables or browning of meat before work.

This easy soup was a spur of the moment decision. I was planning on trying out a new vegetarian meal later, and I suddenly felt like making something special for my hubby instead. He is a lover of chicken and rice (in any form) so I wanted to create something something around those 2 ingredients and thought a soup would be nice. I gave him a choice of brown or wild rice (even though I knew which he'd pick) and he said: If you don't know the answer to that by now, I want a divorce. So wild rice it was. I had a package of mushrooms, without any plans to use them, so in they went. I didn't season the soup when it went into the slow cooker, and at the end, on a whim, I tossed in some Franks Red Hot. This was a great addition! It gave this yummy soup more depth, without adding much heat.

1 large chicken breast, halved
1 stalk of celery, diced
3/4 cup chopped carrots
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/2 onion, chopped
2 1/2 cups broth
1 (14.5 oz.) can of diced tomatoes, undrained (I used one with onion and garlic)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup wild rice blend (mine included bulgur wheat, barley, and basmati)
1 1/2 cups water
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
several dashes of ceyenne pepper sauce, or to taste

Add first eight ingredients to crock pot. Cover and cook on high for three to four hours. Remove chicken and shred or chop. Return to crock. (My chicken was done after three hours, so let it cool while my veggies finished cooking, which allowed me to shred it.)

While soup is in the last hour of cooking, bring (rinsed) rice and water to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 55 minutes. Fluff and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add to crock pot. Season with salt and pepper and pepper sauce.