Jen's Chicken Confetti Soup Surprise

As I mentioned in my previous corn ravioli post, I had a ton of ravioli filling leftover from a couple days ago. Always the cheapskate and never one to throw things away, I decided to improvise a soup out of the filling. I was not sure if I was going to be able to pull it off, as I did not have any type of game plan until about an hour before it was time to start cooking. I quickly thawed and cooked some chicken breasts, but that was the only prep ahead step that I had thought to do. I knew that we needed some sort of protein in the soup in order for it to be substantial enough to serve for dinner, and I figured that chicken was versatile enough to fill that requirement. I cut the chicken into bite sized cubes, and made the rest up as I went along.

Jen’s Chicken Confetti Soup Surprise

Ingredients:
1 cup of corn ravioli filling (from ‘Corn Star Raviolis with Basil Cream Sauce’ recipe)
2 cooked chicken breasts, diced (broiled & seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder)
1-2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 cup instant white rice
1 Tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon of ground mustard
½ teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 teaspoons of corn starch (for thickening)

Directions:
Combine water, chicken stock, and corn ravioli filling into a dutch oven or soup pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to low simmer. Add cooked chicken and rice. Stir to combine, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove 1 cup of liquid to separate bowl and combine with corn starch until thoroughly mixed. Add thickened liquid back to dutch oven and stir to combine. Turn up heat to simmer and let soup thicken; approximately 5 minutes.

Once soup has reached desired consistency, add white wine vinegar, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, paprika, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine, and adjust flavor with any extra seasoning. Serve and enjoy!

Jen's Notes:
Okay, here is the filling part I used as a base (from the other recipe). I thought maybe I should include it here, just in case anyone wants to try this soup without the process of making the ravioli first. I adjusted the quantities to be more accurate for this application.

For Corn Ravioli Filling Base:

Ingredients:
2 ears Fresh sweet corn, shucked and removed from the cob (or use frozen corn)
3 tablespoons Red bell pepper, minced (2 whole peppers)
3 tablespoons sweet onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
5 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cups heavy cream
6 ounces ricotta cheese, room temp
6 ounces cream cheese, room temp
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Melt butter in saute pan, add in corn, red bell pepper, shallot, garlic, and onion. Let saute until onion is translucent and corn has released some of it's sugars. Add the basil leaves and a couple of twists of black pepper and salt to taste. Add the heavy cream and let it reduce by half. Set aside to cool. When cool, smash up a bit with a fork, stir in ricotta and cream cheese.



The Result:
Since we have already had dinner, I will spare you the suspense. This soup was fan-freakin'-tastic! My husband actually told me he was impressed! Before dinner, I had purposely set low expectations...just in case my soup went south. My husband was quite happy that it did not suck, and he thought the soup was better than the actual ravioli. Whew! What a total relief. I will definitely make this soup again, especially if I have leftover corn ravioli filling.