This Little Piggy Stayed Home

I wanted to make dinner at home tonight, since I've been spending an absurd amount of money eating out the past few weeks. (And I continue to do so, considering how many lunches and dinners with friends I have planned for the week.) I have totally blown my bi-weekly budget.

After my workout last night, I stopped at Zorba Chicken on the eastside of Pasadena to pick up a shawerma wrap for dinner. It was nearly nine and I seemed to be the final customer of the night, so the owner offered me an entire rotisserie chicken (plus three pitas and some garlic paste!) for free. Free? That's my favorite price!

I thought I'd make something at home out of the chicken, and since I've been wanting to make rotisserie chicken soup for a while (hmm, somehow that desire seems really boring when I type it out) I went ahead and made that tonight. Being too lazy to go to the market, I made do with what I had in the house:

* 2 cans of chicken broth
* 1 cup of water
* about 1/4 lb of chopped baby carrots
* about 2/3 cup of long grain rice
* dash of rubbed thyme, sprinkle of oregano, generous amount of ground black pepper, and a bay leaf
* 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken
* juice of 2 lemons

I brought the broth and water to a boil, added the rice, carrots, spices, and chicken (removed from the bone) and let it all simmer about 25 minutes. I added the lemon juice at the end and of course, took out the bay leaf.

It came out pretty good, though a little more lemony than I would have liked. I also wish I'd had some celery on hand. Next time, I'd just use one juiced lemon, along with one can of broth and two cups of water to reduce the saltiness/lemony-ness. I'd also cook about 20 minutes instead of 25; the rice seemed a little too soft. Oh, well, live and learn.

On the upside, it tasted good enough that I ate a bowl and a half. On the downside, I have two full containers of soup left and I really don't think I can eat six more bowls of it.