Lemon Chicken & Rice Soup and Russian Black Bread

Our dinner tonight consisted of two new recipes, Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup and Russian Black Bread. These were recipes sixteen and seventeen.

For the bread, I didn't use instant coffee because we don't have any and I followed the editor's note at the bottom since we don't have a bread machine. I also substituted molasses for dark corn syrup.

The soup was a recipe I found in my recent edition of Taste of Home (it had lots of delicious looking recipes, expect to see more soon). This one caught my eye because I wanted to make soup tonight and it calls for a lot of Swiss chard, which I happen to have growing abundantly on our porch. It was made in a slow cooker, which we also don't have but would like to have someday when we have a place to store it, unlike a bread machine which I hope never to own. So I actually just used the ingredient list and then did my own thing, which is what I will include in this post. If anyone is interested in the original slow cooker directions, let me know.

Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup

2 T olive oil

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 in pieces

5 cans (14.5 oz each) reduced sodium chicken broth

8 cups coarsely chopped Swiss chard, kale, or spinach

2 large carrots, finely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 medium lemon, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 t grated lemon peel

1/2 t pepper

4 cups cooked brown rice

I started by heating the oil over medium-high heat and sauteing the carrots and onions until tender. Then I added the chicken and continued cooking until it was no longer pink. Next, I added everything else. I didn't feel like cooking the rice separately and adding it at the end, so I put in an additional 2 1/2 cups of water and one cup uncooked brown rice which worked out well. I let everything simmer for about an hour and then we served it up. 

This was quite the soup. It was strongly lemon flavored, a bit too strongly in my opinion, but Joshua really liked it. Otherwise, I thought it was good. I liked the lemon and chicken combination with the rice and vegetables. The bread turned out great. It had a lot of strong flavors going on, but they worked well together. And it had a beautiful crunchy crust with a soft chewy center. I was concerned when I was making it because the dough was extremely sticky, it was impossible to do anything with it. But it baked just fine and turned out well. Just don't plan on trying to knead this by hand.