Minnesota Creamy Wild Rice Soup

I am going to give two methods to prepare this wonderful goodness, well because I have done both, so it is only fair to do so. Read through it all once so you get the clue of the adventure which you are about to enter. IN the morning or the day before, clean 2 cups of dry hand-harvested organic wild rice from the White Earth Indian Nation. Combine with 6 cups of water in that large soup pot. Cook at high temp, covered, until 10% of the water is remaining. Take off the heat and set aside. Roast a 5 to 6 pound free-range chicken. If you have never had one.. I highly suggest you do! I don't do anything special to it. This take about 2 hours. (or use 3 pounds of fresh chicken breast or even flash frozen works too- - just cook to specs) Once the whole chicken cools, take off all the wonderful goodness and chop it and set aside. I take all the dripping etc etc and pour through a sieve into the large measuring cup. I put it into the freezer so I can skim off the fat and harvest even more goodness. At this point you should have the chicken and rice done, so combine them in a large bowl cause you are going to use the soup pot um for the soup. In the soup pot heat the oil then add the celery, carrots, onion, salt, pepper, thyme and nutmeg. Saute until a bit translucent and add the dripping harvest and add enough chicken broth to make 2 cups. And yeah if you didn't cook the chicken.. just add 2 cups of broth. I bring this to a boil, turn to simmer, add the water and the rice and chick and stir. I like this to simmer about an hour. Add the half and half and bring back to a simmer. Make a cold slurry by combining the milk and corn starch. Add this to the soup and simmer until it reaches the desired consistency. This is a true labor of love - ENJOY! Oh yeah, and your friends and family will want the recipe!