Chicken and Chickpea Rice Soup

Ending this week of freezer meal prep recipes with a soup. Because soup is always an awesome freezer friendly recipe and perfect to have on hand in the event you become sick. Every time you make a soup and have leftovers I call that meal prep at it’s finest…who doesn’t want soup again the next day? The flavors continue to melt together and I find it actually tastes better the next day! Additionally, if you are counting macros this chicken and chickpea rice soup is super easy to adjust to fit your macros, so what are you waiting for…add this recipe to your meal plan today!

QUESTION:

• Are you trying to get better at meal planning?
• Do you find yourself eating the same recipes every few weeks?
• Are you having trouble finding recipes for meal prep?
• Or are you counting macros?

If you are bored of eating the same recipes every week and answered yes to any of these question, then you are going to want to check out my notes below. Tips on how you can incorporate this chicken and chickpea rice soup into your meal plan and meal prep. If you are counting macros I have also included notes on how you can easily adjust the protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.

NOTES FOR MEAL PLANNING:

Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. In fact, meal planning can be fun when you are provided with easy new recipes each week. Meal Planning can also help save money, prevent food waste, and save you time.

The best things about this recipe is: it’s easy to clean up, simple to make, tastes phenomenal reheated, can be adjusted to fit just about any macro goals, and is freezer friendly.

NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:

When meal prepping recipes it is important to think about the best way to store and reheat your finished meals: 

FRIDGE STORAGE: 

Storing this chicken and chickpea rice soup in the fridge will last 5-7 days.

There are a few ways you can choose to store this recipe in your fridge:

• You can store as one large meal or as individual servings. I always prefer individual servings. This allows me to only reheat the number of servings that will be eaten.
• However, if you know you will eat the entire recipe when it is time to be reheated, go ahead and store it as one large serving.

For fridge storage you can use the pot the soup was cooked in, however, that would prevent you from being able to use the pot again until the soup was eaten. Or you can use zip lock bags, plastic containers, or glass food containers. I prefer to use glass container, as this allows me to reheat and eat the recipe right out of the same container. Which in turn saves me time, dirty dishes, and makes clean up easier. It also save on waste: either tossing out the used zip lock bags, or eventually having to replace the plastic containers.

Be sure to allow the recipe to cool completely before closing the container or placing in the fridge. If you close the container or place the recipe in the fridge before it has cooled you could have built up condensation within your container, thus watering down the recipe.  

TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING IN THE FRIDGE: 

• If reheating as an individual serving, you could microwave for 90 -120 seconds, stirring half way thru. Or you can put it into a small pot and cook at medium heat for about 5 minutes. I prefer the stove method for this recipe. I then pour it back into my fridge storage container to eat it.
• If reheating as a one large meal, I recommend reheating on the stove, in a large pot, at medium heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the recipe is warmed thru. This will ensure the best flavor, consistency, and really bring the recipe back to life. You may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1/4 tablespoon at a time, you don’t want to water down the recipe.
• I do not recommend reheating the entire recipe in the microwave as this would take a very long time.

FREEZER STORAGE: 

This is the perfect freezer friendly recipe. When frozen this chicken and chickpea rice soup will keep for 3-6 months.

There are a few ways that you can choose to freeze this recipe:

• Freeze as individual portions, one serving per each freezer safe zip lock bag. Be sure to remove all of the air from the bag. Storing individullly allows you to reheat as many servings as you wish. 
• However, you can also store the entire recipe. To do this you would simply use a larger freezer safe zip lock bag. 
• Or, my favorite way to freeze meals is in souper cubes. These cubes are reusable, freezer safe, and store the perfect serving size.

Be sure to remove all the air from the zip lock bags and allow the recipe to cool completely before placing in the freezer. Failing to allow the recipe to cool completely could result in freezer burn. 

Be sure label your frozen meal with the name of the recipe and the date you cooked it. I like to use a piece of masking tape to write on. You don’t want to forget about the delicious recipe you have on hand!

TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING FROZEN: 

Going straight from the freezer to the microwave or oven you will want to remove the recipe from the frozen container. You can not microwave zip lock bags, a glass container could crack going from such cold temps to such warm temps, and super cubes are not microwave or oven safe.

• As individual servings, I recommend reheating on the stove and not the microwave. Frozen recipes always defrost better this way. Cook in a small pot at medium heat for 7-10 minutes until the soup has defrosted and is warmed thru. You may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1/4 tablespoon at a time. You may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1/4 tablespoon at a time, you don’t want to water down the recipe.
• Or pull the number of servings you are looking to eat from the freezer. the night before, and store in the fridge to defrost overnight. Then follow the instructions above for reheating from the fridge.
• If frozen as an entire recipe, I recommend pulling from the freezer the night before to allow the meal to defrost. Then reheat on the stove in a large pot at medium low heat for about 10-12 minutes, enough to warm thru.

NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:

PROTEIN:

The majority of the protein in this recipe comes from the chicken. You can easily adjust the amount of chicken without changing the flavor of this recipe too much. 

• For every 1 ounce of chicken you can increase or decrease the protein macro by 8.8 grams. 

So go ahead, add as much or as little protein as you would like to this recipe.

CARBOHYDRATE:

You can adjusted the amount of carbohydrates based on the amount and/or type of rice you choose to use. For this recipe I used a chickpea rice which has 85 calories, 15 carbs, only 1.5 grams of fat, and 5.5 grams of protein per servings: 1/4 cup or 50 grams. For this recipe I only used 1/2 cup of chickpea rice

• If you are looking to increase the carbs, you could easily triple the amount of rice in the recipe. Which would increase the carbs in this recipe by 90 grams or 15 grams per serving. If you chose to do this you will want to add an additional 2 cups of water and another 2 teaspoons of chicken base.
• If you are looking to decrease the amount of carbs, you could remove the chickpea rice altogether. Nothing else in the recipe wold need to be adjusted.
• Additionally, you could choose to use another type of rice or pasta that has more or less carbs. There are so many new types of rice and pasta out there, choose the one you like the best and use the amount that fits your macros goals.

FAT:

This recipe is extremely low in fat. Only having 3.5 grams of fat per serving. Each week I like to include one or two low fat recipes to accommodate those looking to cut weight. 

However, if you are looking to increase the fat, this recipe allows you to make several adjustments or you can add fat into your diet in other ways. 

• Using a fattier cut of chicken, like the thigh
• You could also turn this recipe into a creamier soup by adding some cream cheese
• This recipe would also be delicious with some freshly shredded cheese on top.
• Enjoying nuts as a snack during the day
• Enjoying an avocado as a snack

Incorporate additional fat however you see fit, use your imagination!

When making adjustments to the macros in this freezer friendly chicken and chickpea rice soup, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.