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A warm and cozy chicken wild rice soup made right in the slow cooker. This soup is loaded with carrots, celery, boneless chicken and of course, wild rice! It’s the perfect slow cooker meal for a chilly winter night! The best part is, you’ve probably got most of these ingredients at home already!
Hello Monday. You’ve managed to sneak up on me once again.
I think I need a redo on my weekend. Don’t you hate it when it’s Friday and you’re all like hip-hip hooray and before you know it, it’s Sunday evening and you’re asking yourself ‘where did the weekend go’?
Whose with me for scraping it all and doing it over?
I see a lot of virtual hands.Even though this weekend went by lightening fast, I did accomplish a few main goals:
The hubby and I spent most of Saturday scrubbing our entire apartment from top to bottom. It’s not that it was super messy or anything. I get on these crazy cleaning streaks where I.must.clean. And I must not clean by myself. And because I get cranky doing it all by myself, the husband gets wrangled into cleaning with me. I love how that worked out. 🙂 This weekend just happened to be one of those crazy cleaning weekends. After what seemed like 8 hours of cleaning (but it was probably more like 2), we invited our neighbors over for a little dessert and a movie night. It’s always fun with those two. We partied hard till 3am. HA. <— If playing cards in your pajamas counts as partying!
I spent all of Sunday being sick. And I mean really sick. Like theres-so-much-congestion-between-my-brain-and eyes-that-it’s-making-my-face-hurt, sick. You know the kind of sick where you go from laying in bed to laying in front of the TV to drinking soup for every meal of the day and still not being able to tell the taste difference between soup and oatmeal. And the kind where you run through a few boxes of Kleenex per hour.
Luckily for me, I had a big slow cooker full of this creamy chicken wild rice soup to slurp up all Sunday. My poor throat thanks me times a million. But there went a whole day from my weekend, stolen right from under my nose!
This. Is. Magnificent. I’m eating leftovers right now. Next day soup is my favorite. So good!
How to make Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Like most of my slow cooker soup recipes, this one is a breeze to whip up.
We start by tossing a pound of boneless, skinless chicken into the crockpot with some carrots, onions, and celery. I chopped up my own veggies but if you’re in a pinch you can always just substitute store bought mirepoix mix. You’re also going to need a couple of bay leaves, some garlic, and of course one must use wild rice in chicken and wild rice soup. Make sure to use regular wild rice, you don’t want to use the parboiled wild rice as they will get really mushy.
Also, my recipe calls for a seasoning blend. Make sure to use one that’s salt-free. We’re using a whole 2 tablespoons (yes, you read that right) so we want our seasoning to be free of salt. I used the 21 seasoning salute from Trader Joe’s for my chicken and wild rice soup. Any kind of herb you can think of is in this baby and it makes this soup taste fantastic!
In goes the chicken broth and a couple cups of water and this chicken wild rice soup will cook itself. I know I’ve said this before, but meals that cook themselves are always my favorite kind of meals. You can cook this soup in the crockpot on the low or the high setting. I’ve done it both ways and both work just fine.
30 minutes before the cooking time is up, pull out the chicken breast and allow it to cool before shredding with 2 forks. In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the flour and allow the flour to cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and allow it to get all nice and thick. This is the ‘creamy’ part of the creamy chicken wild rice soup. Add this along with the chicken back into the slow cooker. Give it a good stir until it thickens.
That’s it!
This cozy, creamy, stick-to-your-ribs chicken wild rice soup will keep you nice and warm on a chilly winter night. I love the fact that it makes my sore throat feel all better too. Plus the fact that I didn’t have to do much to make the soup 😉
A big bowl of soup, with lots of crusty bread to dip is all you need. Did I mention all the time you’ll save not having to cook dinner?
Love how my slow cooker friend is there to get me through my sore throats and sniffles. What a good friend.
Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup (Slow Cooker)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup wild rice blend rinsed
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 cup onions chopped
- 3/4 cup celery chopped
- 3/4 cup carrots chopped
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups chicken stock low sodium
- 2 cups water or additional chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons salt-free seasoning blend such as Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute OR Mrs. Dash's Original Blend
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or substitute more butter
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the rice under running water. Place the uncooked rice, chicken breast, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, chicken broth, water, and the seasoning blend in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on the high setting for 3-4 hours or on the low setting for 7-8. In the last 1/2 hour of cooking, remove the chicken from the slow cooker. Allow to cool slightly before shredding using two forks.
- When the rice is done cooking, add the shredded chicken back into the slow cooker. Melt the butter and oil in a saucepan. Add the flour and let the mixture cook for 1 minute. Whisk the mixture slowly while adding in the milk. Continue to whisk until all lumps have dissolved. Allow the mixture to thicken and become creamy.
- Add this creamy mixture to the slow cooker. Stir to combine. Add additional water or milk to your preference if the consistency is too thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- To make the soup richer and creamier, replace some or all of the milk with half and half.
- Keep in mind the soup will thicken as it sits. Leftovers should be placed in a Tupperware container and refrigerated. Additional milk or water may be added to adjust the consistency of the soup when reheating.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Any idea how many calories this meal is?
Hey Max! It’s 305 calories per serving.
Input the ingredients you used in your recipe into the Recipe function in MyFitnessPal.com and you will get a complete custom nutritional breakdown per serving including calories.
YUMMY!! I am making it again today. The first time I accidentally used regular wild rice. Still good but I think the blend will make it creamier. I didn’t have a problem with this being bland. I buy really strong garlic from the farmers market and I used 21 seasoning salute from Trader Joes.
Instead of using plain wild rice, use the rice a roni wild rice and dump in the seasoning packs. Also use rotisserie chicken. This helps the bland problem. Doing it again tonight and adding chunky mushrooms for texture.
This soup is so wonderful! Thank you so much.
THANK YOU for this recipe! I made it today, and it is seriously the best soup I have ever made. A forgiving recipe too, as I had no poultry seasoning or garlic on hand, so I substituted some thyme and pepper and garlic powder. Also, we are dairy free, so I substituted rice milk (which I was a little worried about, but it was great.)
This looks so yummy!! I am making this for a Halloween Potluck party. Would you please tell me if the bay leaf should be dry or fresh? If it is fresh should it be cut up? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I am not much of a cook. Thank you.
I used dry bay leaves, but either would do! Just toss them in whole, no need to cut them up 🙂
Hello, I do not have wild rice and neither did Walmart. Can I use regular brown rice?
Yes, regular brown rice will work.
I felt that the poultry seasoning was really overpowering, quite disappointed with that, I think it’d be a good soup had it had less of that ingredient. Bummed because I wasted a day making this????????.
Jenny, I didn’t have any poultry seasoning on hand, so I just added a bit of thyme and pepper, and it was delicious. Thought I’d let you know, in case you’d like to try it again! My family loved it.
Just have to say this soup is absolutely amazing! I used some fresh herbs to season it-a poultry herb blend, consisting of rosemary, sage, and thyme. It turned out fabulously. I served it to guest and everyone loved it! Then I had to make it for us again over the weekend because it was so good! Even the kiddos love it. So now I’ve made it a total of 3 times, and am going to try out the butternut soup with grany smith slow cooker recipe this week so as not to make this delicious soup out wear it’s welcome!
I used the Royal Blend rice you suggested. It’s only been cooking on low for 4 hours and the rice is mush. Did I do something wrong?
The rice is suppose to breakdown quite a bit and be slightly mushy (see pictures for accuracy of mushy). As long as you didn’t use parboiled rice, I think you did it just fine! 🙂
It was so easy and delicious! Buying mirepoix at Trader Joe’s makes it super fast to put together. Thanks!
I plan to freeze the leftovers. I heard somewhere that one shouldn’t freeze a cream soup- the milk or cream part doesn’t do well when thawed. So it’s better to freeze it before the add milk or cream step. Does anyone know if this is true? I thought I’d freeze the soup without the butter, oil, milk and flour addition, then just whip that up when I thaw and heat up a batch. Any thoughts?
I thought it needed a little something too so I added curry powder. It was perfect.
Do you have to rinse the wild rice even if it is in a blend like Lundberg?
Just give it all a good rinse before adding into the crockpot.
Has anyone tried using basmati rice instead of wild? I don’t have any ???? and a trip to the store won’t work right now
Can you use jasmine rice in place of the wild rice?
Unfortunately, I haven’t.
I made your wild rice soup tonight. I did not have any trader joe’s seasoning or poultry seasoning so I substituted some thyme, parsley, salt and pepper. I used 1% milk which is what I had in the fridge. It turned out a little bland. I think next time I’ll try to find that seasoning and also maybe try some half n half to make it a bit creamier. Otherwise I really like this recipe and it’s pretty easy to make. Thanks so much!
Mrs. Dash makes a blend (salt free) that’s much easier to find in stores, perhaps thats another option if you can’t make it to TJ’s!
Mad this tonight, it was phenomenal!! Family loved it! I used Mrs. Dash extra spicy blend, it actually had quite a kick, which we like but may not be for everyone. Also, I added 1 can of mushroom slices, adds texture and bulk to make it healthy and more filling. Love that I’m stuffing my 12 yr old with veggies and he doesn’t even realize it!!! Could probably use more chicken. I’ll probably cut up some rotisserie chicken and throw it into the leftovers for dinner tomorrow! Thanks for this great recipe!!
Marzia – Plan on trying your soup this weekend. Does it freeze well?
I haven’t tried freezing it before, but I do believe it should freeze just fine. You may need additional water/broth/milk to help thin it out once defrosted.
Yes, freezes well. But, I know it’s in there and ate the leftovers fast!
I don’t have a crockpot. How can I go about making this on the stove top, or even in the oven?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I can’t say if the same quantities for broth, etc will be used when making it on the stove or the oven. Please use your best judgement 🙂
Come now, how was soup slow cooked before there were crock pots.
Simmer very slowly on top of the stove in a covered large pot with lid. . Same proportions. Guess what……if it gets too thick, just add a bit of water……..
Has anyone made it with dairy-free milk? Wondering if it would work. I can’t eat dairy. Thanks
I think one of the commenters said they replaced the regular milk with almond milk. Olive oil can be used in place of butter, but keep in mind these changes will make the final produce a little less creamy.
We used canned coconut milk and it turned out PERFECT! Really happy with the results! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
I have used almond milk twice with good results