Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium carrots cut small how ever you like
2 celery ribs cut into 1/2 inch slices
(personally I like to use the celery leaves instead because where else will you use them that the kids won't know what they are eating?)
4 fresh thyme springs (had no clue how much a spring was so I just put in some)
1 bay leaf
2 quars chicken stock or broth (low sodium or other)
1 cup water
1 cup long grain white rice ( I used about 1 1/3 cup brown rice. Yummy)
1 of the large cans of chicken we can at the cannery or 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
Kosher salt and black pepper (yep, we bought Kosher salt)

I put some olive oil in a soup pot and heated it up. I added the rice right away so it could brown also. Makes a great flavor. I also added the onion, cloves, carrots, celery, thyme and bayleaf. I stirred them around a while until the vegies were getting a little soft. Then add the chicken broth and water. I used the broth in the can, too. I did take any fat off the top. I cooked the chicken in with everything for a while. It all needs to come to a boil to start the rice cooking. Brown rice does take a bit longer to cook. After about 20 minutes I took the chicken out and let it cool so I could cut it up. Then I put it back into the pot and cooked the soup until I thought the rice was done. It took about an hour all together I think. Tate says it is the best soup he ever ate.