Sizzling Rice Soup

We had home-made Chinese take-out tonight. Yes, again. This time, Joe was home to enjoy everything fresh. So there. Anyway, our favorite take-out soup is sizzling rice soup. Its a chicken soup with lots of veggies and then they add some rice-crispy looking rice to the soup and it sizzles at the table. Yes, we are easily amused. Actually, the crispy rice is a bit nutty (read that with an Austin Powers accent) and adds a nice flavor to the soup.

Need:
cooked white rice
broth (I used chicken, vegetarian I recommend mushroom broth)
peas
chopped carrots
shredded chicken
sliced water chestnuts
soy sauce
rice wine
oil for frying

 

Take your cooked rice and lay it out on a baking sheet to dry out for a few hours.

 

Then pop it in the oven for about an hour at 200° to toast it slowly. Take it out and let it cool.

 

Add your veggies to your broth and add some soy sauce and rice wine. It makes the broth a little richer. Trust.

 

I couldn't take a picture of this happening because it does it fast, but heat oil for deep frying, add the toasted, dried out rice and it puffs up like this really fast. Let it get a little brown and then take it out.

 

Get your soup piping hot and bring a big bowl to the table to show off. Add the puffed rice to the soup and listen to that sizzle. Do it immediately after frying or else the sizzle is super lame. Ancient Chinese secret revealed!