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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.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
I’m working from home today and first thing in the morning, I prepped this for lunch so that I’d have something delicious and ready to go. I could smell it cooking throughout the house and it smelled so good! When I came down to shred the chicken and make the roux, I tasted a bite without and it was still really good. But the creaminess of the roux put it over the top! I love this recipe and will definitely be making it again – thank you!
Mixing in a splash of red wine vinegar to my bowl of soup really bumped up the flavor!
I absolutely love this soup recipe! I’ve made it a few times and have used a whole meijer rotisserie chicken ? and uncle Bens long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet regular cook one. I add seasoning packet and another tablespoon on Mts dash. Comes out fantastic. Thanks for this great recipe. Brenda
Can you replace the half and half with heavy cream.
absolutely!
Made it dairy free this time and loved it! I made this soup about a year ago with the recipe as-is and it was fantastic. I am now dairy free and substituted a can of unsweetened coconut milk for regular milk (Thai Kitchen Organic) and it turned out beautifully. I don’t think anyone would know it’s coconut- can’t taste it at ALL! I also added chopped fresh mushrooms at the beginning of the recipe and that added a really nice flavor (If you like mushrooms!).
Hi there! I recently came across your blog while searching for a crock pit chicken and rice recipe. Love the blog. I came across this recipe, CREAMY CHICKEN WILD RICE SOUP {SLOW COOKER}. I’m wondering if you know the nutrition on it at all?
Thanks!
Heather
I’ve added them in Heather 🙂
Followed the recipe pretty much to a T, and my finished soup was extremely tasty and wonderful. That on top of being very simple and straight forward. I don’t have a clue how anyone could mess this up. It was neither tasteless or watery as someone earlier claimed. In fact it ended up looking exactly like the photos. I did not have boneless skinless chicken breasts on hand, but I did have a fresh rotisserie chicken, which is what I used instead. I simply pulled the meat off, diced it and added it closer to the end of the cooking time. Turned out fabulous, and I will be making it again.
I am so happy I found this! 🙂 Thank you so much! xox
Sincerely,
Krissy
Came out really badass! I tweaked a few things (added more vegetable quantities and a potato). My question, could I replace the two cups of water with two cans of beer? I think that hint of beer flavor would add another layer to a pretty kick ass recipe!
I couldn’t find non-parboiled rice. All my local grocery store carried was minute multi-grain medley rice. It is fully cooked in 10 minutes. Is there a way I can add this shortly before serving or will it completely ruin the soup? I’m hoping someone has a good suggestion because I really want to try this soup!
I made this soup for a family New Year’s get together this weekend. Based on some previous comments, I switched it up just a little bit. I added fresh sage and used a rotisserie chicken to add a bit more flavor. I also couldn’t find wild rice at my store, so I used two boxes of the “New East” blend and one of the flavor packets. I cooked it on high for four hours and used heavy cream instead of milk because hey it was New Year’s. It turned out amazing. I loved it, my family loved it. I made 14 servings for six people and only had two left…it was that good. Super easy and I would make it again and again. Thank you for such an awesome recipe!
Though I usually like the recipes here, this was truly awful. It tasted like straight-up water I followed the recipe, but since no one else seems to have had such terrible luck, so I’m not sure what I did wrong. I ended up adding a TON (tablespoons and tablespoons) of salt & pepper, then some thyme, rosemary, garlic salt, chicken bouillon — anything I could find to give it some flavor — that barely made it edible/flavorful. Now it tastes like lightly-seasoned water. If I ever attempted this again, I would start by cutting out the 2 cups of water.
Hi Marisa, i’m not sure what happened here. Tablespoons of salt and pepper are a lot to add especially when using chicken broth. The 2 tablespoons of seasoning blend (which contains onions, celery seeds, basil, oregano, thyme, cayenne, orange peel, lemon zest, cumin, etc.) should be sufficient to flavor the ingredients. Actually, i’ve had a few people message to make sure I meant 2 whole tablespoons! As it does seem like a lot. The soup definitely shouldn’t have a watery consistency as the milk/flour mixture adds thickness/richness. With your feedback, i’ve added notes to the recipe for additional garlic, onions, and seasonings to give the soup more flavor. Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed some of the other recipes on the blog! 🙂
It didn’t turn out as creamy as I was hoping. Is there anything I can do to make it creamier?
Sara for next time, you can replace all or some of the milk with half and half or heavy cream. Either option will make it creamier!
Just made this tonight and the soup had a little purplish tint to it…why would that be? Should I rinse the rice first? Thanks
Hi Kristi,
Yup! The recipe states the rice needs to be rinsed prior to placing in the slow cooker. 🙂
Love this! I tweaked it a bit- subtracted celery which I dislike, and added mushrooms and a bit of red bell pepper! So delish! I also used brown rice cause thats what I had on hand but next time I’m definitely trying the wild rice. Thank you for this incredibly easy recipe.
I love your recipe for chicken wild rice soup and the other ones you listed look amazing! I hope to hear from you again…..thank you!
For anyone wanting to simplify this recipe (which was easy enough on its own!) – I used Rice A Roni wild rice blend, and I poured both the rice and the seasoning packet in. Therefore, I didn’t use much else for seasoning, maybe a tsp of poultry seasoning, some celery salt, and some herbs d’province.
I also skipped the last step with the milk/olive oil. My family tasted it and they said, leave it out! And it was hearty and delicious just like that! 🙂
I generally try to make a recipe the way it’s supposed to be made the first time and then tweak it to fit my liking. However, this soup was so perfect, I’ll be making it exactly to the recipe every time. I hate super brothy soups and it really is creamy and smooth and has the best flavor!! So easy to make and seriously delish! I don’t ever review anything either, but this was so good I just had to comment! I will be trying your other recipes, because this was phenomenal!
If I didn’t want the “creamy” part, do I just leave out the flour and milk ? ?
You could do that Sandra, but I can’t speak for how different the soup will actually come out.
I really wanted to like this soup but the 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning was just too much for me. It looked good though and was easy to throw together. Next time, I think i’ll try the 21 Seasoning Blend a lot reviewers suggested.
Its a cold rainy day here so I decided to try this recipe. I followed it exactly except I used 1 tsp of poultry seasoning and 1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash. After adding some salt and pepper the flavors were perfect! Great recipe. I also added 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms. I will definitely make it again. Thanks
I thought it was great. If it people think it is bland they probably just need to put salt and pepper in it at the end. This is very important. I followed your recipe except I used chicken thigh meat. I am definitely going to try some of your other recipes! I liked that it didn’t taste overly rich. The milk and butter/ flour combo was perfect!