Recipe - Brazilian Chicken Rice Soup

1 3 lb. Chicken
1 Bay leaf
1 Medium onion, quartered
1 Whole clove
2 Ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 Carrot, cut into 1" pieces
One fourth cup Chopped celery leaves
20 Black peppercorns, tied in
A piece of cheesecloth
One half cup Uncooked white rice
Salt & freshly ground black
Pepper
3 Carrots, thinly cut or sliced up on
The diagonal
One fourth cup Finely chopped flatleaf
Parsley

1. Wash the chicken thoroughly. Remove the skin and any pieces of fat.
Pin the bay leaf to 1 onion quarter with the clove. Place the
chicken in a large pot with the tomatoes, onion quarters, 1 carrot,
celery leaves, and peppercorn bundle. Add 10 cups cold water and
bring to a boil. Using a ladle, skim off the fat and foam that rise
to the surface. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour, skimming often
to remove the fat. 2. Remove the chicken from the broth and let cool.
Strain the broth into
a large saucepan, pressing the vegetables to extract the juices.
(There should be about 8 cups of broth.) Pull the chicken meat off
the bones and shred or finely dice it. 3. Add the rice, salt, and
pepper to the broth and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the thinly cut or sliced up carrots and celery to the soup with the shredded
chicken and half the parsley. Simmer the soup for another 10 minutes,
or until the rice is tender. Correct the seasoning, adding salt and
pepper to taste. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve at
once. ~

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini