White Queso Chicken and Rice Soup
Try this White Queso Chicken and Rice Soup recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this White Queso Chicken and Rice Soup recipe, or contribute your own.
- salt and pepper
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 lb chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 green bell pepper seeded then chopped
- 1 shallot or 1/2 small onion chopped
- 6 cups (48oz) chicken broth
- 2 cups milk divided (i used 2%)
- 10 oz can rotel
- 3/4 cup long grain white rice
- 1/4 cup gluten-free or all-purpose flour (see notes for br
- 8 oz shredded white cheddar cheese
- crushed tortilla chips for topping
- Carbohydrate 9.49526745325836 g
- Cholesterol 53.4670403021802 mg
- Fat 9.13685595221404 g
- Fiber 0.692500402288927 g
- Protein 16.8495075410428 g
- Saturated Fat 3.27871432467487 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (165g)
- Sodium 81.1373538612219 mg
- Sugar 8.80276705096943 g
- Trans Fat 0.785409074344148 g
- Calories 191 calories
Step-by-step
- Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken, bell pepper, and shallots, season with salt and pepper, and then saute until vegetables are tender, 5 minutes. Add garlic then saute for 1 more minute.
- Add chicken broth, 1-3/4 cups milk, Rotel and chili powder to the pot then turn heat up to high and bring to a simmer. Add rice then turn heat down to medium-low, place a lid on top, and then cook until rice is al dente, stirring occasionally.
- Stir remaining 1/4 cup milk into flour in a small dish then drizzle into the soup and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat then slowly sprinkle in cheese while continuously stirring to make sure it melts evenly. Let soup sit and thicken for 10 minutes before serving with crushed tortilla chips.
Why does cheese soup sometimes turn into a grainy, oil-slicked disaster instead of a smooth broth? The culprit is almost always direct, high heat applied after dairy enters the pot. Casein proteins in cheese coagulate and separate when overheated, leaving behind unpleasant lumps of fat and rubbery solids. Preventing this requires controlling thermal energy by removing the pot from the heat source entirely before introducing the shredded cheddar. Adding the cheese gradually while whisking continuously ensures the residual heat of the liquid gently melts the solids into a uniform suspension. Whisking cold milk into flour in a separate small dish before drizzling it into the simmering broth creates a smooth slurry that thickens the base safely without forming raw flour clumps. Long grain white rice requires precise management of the simmer phase; cooking it covered at medium-low prevents the liquid from boiling away entirely before the starches fully hydrate to an al dente bite. Letting the finished soup rest undisturbed off the heat for ten minutes allows the starches from the rice and the flour thickening agent to finish swelling, yielding a cohesive body that clings properly to the back of a spoon rather than separating in the bowl. Home cooks seeking to alter the base profile can easily swap the white cheddar for Monterey Jack at a one-to-one weight ratio without altering the final melting capability or emulsion stability.
