Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup w/ Sweet Potato Biscuits

Yesterday was a "soup day". Miss A is the sick one now, and has missed a few days of school this week. She even cried this morning about missing library day today. Poor girl! I'm really hoping she'll make it to school tomorrow. They're having a Halloween party and get to wear their costumes. She's been excited about it since the notice was sent home last week. I'd really hate her to miss out.

Last night I thought a little homemade goodness was in order and would do us all some good. I whipped up a batch of creamy chicken and rice soup and tried out a new recipe for sweet potato biscuits I'd seen on my blogging buddy Jo-Anna's blog, A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. If you haven't visited before, you should! She has tons of amazing recipes, lots of great diy's and decorating posts too. Not to mention professional quality photos. All in all a fabulous blog!

I should share that I've never actually made creamy chicken and rice soup. It just kind of came to me and I know what I like, so I just winged-it and it turned out soooo yummy!! And guess what? I actually measured the ingredients. Amazing, I know.  : )

Once again the photo quality is lacking, sorry. It's hard to get a
decent shot around dinner time, the lighting is no good.

Catie's Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup
serves 4 (2 scoops each)

2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size pieces
1 large carrots, chopped into pea sized pieces
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp or one clove garlic
2 tsp Mrs. Dash (original)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 tsp chicken stock bullion
2 cups water
(Or you could use 2 cups of liquid chicken stock instead of bullion and water.)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (You could use 2 cups, but I had 1 1/2 of cooked rice already in the fridge.)
3/4 cup peas (I used frozen.)
1 - 2 tbs oil, for cooking chicken and veggies

• Put oil in a large pot on medium heat. Once pot is warm, add chicken and cook for about 5 - 7 minutes. 
• Add the carrots, onion, garlic and Mrs. Dash. Cook until the onion is soft. 
• Next add the soup, bullion, water, rice and peas. Bring to a simmer. 
• Cook at least 15 - 20 minutes to ensure chicken is fully cooked. 

That's it! I let mine cook for about 45 minutes so it thickened up more. But if you're in a hurry you could have this soup made in 1/2 an hour.

While the soup was cooking I made up the biscuits. OMG were they delicious!! I had one with my breakfast this morning with a little butter and honey. Wow! It was like a scone. And really, isn't a scone just a fancied up word for biscuit??  =)

Look at that flaky deliciousness!! I may have to eat one right now. Am I joking? Maybe, maybe not.  

Here's the recipe from Jo-Anna's blog A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. You really should check it out!

Sweet Potato Biscuits
Makes 8 biscuits  (I got 12 out of the dough. Maybe mine were smaller?) 
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp chilled butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/3 cup buttermilk

• Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
• Using a pastry cutter, cut in the chilled butter, until it looks like coarse meal, with some pea sized butter pieces remaining.
• In a separate bowl, combine the sweet potato puree and buttermilk.
• Then add the sweet potato/buttermilk mixture to the flour.
• Stir with a fork, but don't over mix.  
• Then turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead into a ball.  It is supposed to be lumpy - that's what makes them so buttery and crumbly!
• Then flatten the ball into a disc shape, about 1 inch thick.  The disc should be big enough to get 8 biscuits cut out of it.
• Using a biscuit cutter or some other circle shape (like a cup), cut out 8 biscuits.  Make sure to use all the dough.
• In a preheated 425 degree oven, bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan half way through baking.

Tips!

• I bet you could use pumpkin or butternut squash puree with this recipe!  The perfect fall treat!

Catie's Tidbits 

• In the afternoon I cooked one sweet potato in the microwave for 6 minutes. Then mashed it up and added about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of water to thin it out a bit. It was exactly 3/4 of a cup and worked perfectly. I let it sit in the fridge until I was ready to make the biscuits. 
• I also added about 1 tbs of cold water to the dough. I found it a bit too dry. It helped bind it all together better.
• Lastly, do not be afraid to knead the dough. I probably did about 10 times or so and they turned out incredibly flakey. You could peel the layers apart. 

Thanks soo much for stopping by today. Hope the rest of your week goes well! Cheerio peeps!!  : )  

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