Smith Chicken & Rice Soup

Introduction
Originally, instead of roasting a chicken my grandparents (both McLean & Smith) would boil a chicken whole. This provided a delicious if somewhat unhealthy stock for the chicken and rice soup. Instead of boiling a chicken for dinner my parents would roast the chicken instead. This formed the basis of a New Smith Chicken soup. Each of my parents brought their own ideas to this soup and it has been a family favourite ever since.

Ingredients

• Roast chicken left-overs
• 1 cup of rice
• 2 chicken stock cubes (or to taste)
• 1 onion
• 3 pints / 1.5L water (at least enough to cover the bones)
  

Directions

1. Strip the cooked chicken carcass, getting rid of the ribcage with innards (kidney, black & brown stuff etc). You should be left with 3 separate piles: chicken, bones, stuff to get rid of.
   
2. Put the bones (optionally with some skin and clear jelly fat for flavour) in a pot and cover with boiling water (enough to cover the bones).
3. Bring to a boil and then simmer on a half heat for 1 hour -> 1.5 hours. [In a pressure cooker this can be shortened to 20 minutes after the pot has come up to pressure, cooking on half heat.]
4. If using a pressure cooker, cool down in the sink to reduce pressure, then remove the lid.
5. Remove the bones and then strain into another container to remove any small bones.
6. Return the stock to the pot and add chopped onion, stock cubes and rice.
7. Bring to the boil again then simmer gently for 20 minutes. [In a pressure cooker, turn off the heat completely as soon as it gets up to pressure to prevent the rice overflowing.]
8. The soup is now ready to eat, add some cooked chicken and heat to serve.
9. If desired, you can season it with parsley (we don't though).