Chicken marenga soup

I made chicken marenga soup last night for supper; it is soooo cold
here right now, and soup is so good on a bitter cold night. Usually I
make chicken marenga soup out of leftover chicken marenga and leftover
New Orleans dirty rice, but I didn’t have that this time, so I made it
from scratch. It was pronounced better than the leftover kind by my
husband, so here is what I did:

Bring
2 c beef broth to a boil ; add 1 c brown rice, stir (I use my dutch
oven for the rice so I can finish the soup in it and have less pots to
wash); turn heat down to simmer and cover, cook for 30-40 minutes until
the liquid is absorbed. Take off heat (if the rice is not yet
completely tender, that is okay.)

While the rice is cooking,
saute 1 c each chopped onion, celery, green pepper, and mushrooms in a
little olive oil with 1-2 cloves minced garlic.

When the rice
is done, add the tender vegetables to the rice with 1 14 oz can crushed
or diced tomatoes, 1/8 t cayenne (or less; 1/8 t makes a very spicy
soup), 2 bay leaves, a sprinkling of tarragon, and salt and pepper.
Stir in 8 oz clam juice with 1 quart chicken broth and several cups
chunked cooked chicken.

(We buy whole chickens on sale; my husband
skins and bones them, and I cook the meat in a stock pot covered
with water until it is done. I strain the broth; chunk the chicken, and
freeze it together: one chicken chunked with 1 quart chicken broth. It
is the base for most of my chicken soups and casseroles.)

Simmer
the soup until the rice has absorbed some of the liquid and is
completely tender; add more water if necessary while cooking;
salt and pepper to taste.

Usually New Orleans dirty rice is
thickened with flour, but I left the flour out. If you want a thicker
soup, stir a few tablespoons of flour into the vegetables when they
are done cooking and before they are added to the rice. This recipe
makes almost a full dutch oven of soup.