Puchero (chicken, chickpea and rice soup)

This is not an exciting recipe. 

I'd better start off like that, because it would be a shame if you expected something else and then saw this soup and thought "bo-ring". So let's be frank: this is a restorative, lovely soup, but it is a dull shade of beige, the texture is all soft and you would never serve it to guests. 

It is just comfort food, a pillowy, wonderful elixir, sure to warm you through if you're cold, fill you up if you're hungry, perk you up if you're tired, send you to sleep if you're exhausted, and bring you back from the brink if you're ill.

So. Even if it ain't exciting, I think we can all agree that you need this soup in your life.

Better yet, it is made from stuff you probably have lying around, and if not, from things you can buy at even a ratty supermarket. 

Of course I use a pressure cooker, but a normal pot will do (just multiply time by three). 

In goes a can of chickpeas, drained if you're not liking the taste of the liquid. Three chicken thighs (this is the standard at my supermarket, but whatever you have), bone in, skin off. A whole carrot, peeled. Half a cup of rice, long or short grain, doesn't matter.

Salt, cover with water, lock the lid and when it comes up to pressure, give it ten minutes. Let it come down naturally if you can, but if you can't, then cook it for twelve.

There. That's it. You'll have cloudy, fragrant chickeny chickpea soup, thickened by the by now very soft rice. All you need to do is shred the chicken, mash the carrot against the side of the pot with a fork, check for salt, and serve. Bring lemon and hot sauce to the table, just in case.