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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!
How big is a serving? I’m guessing it’s 8oz but checking to make sure, since you mentioned a 7-8 qt slow cooker.
Tastes great, but a little too watery—I think next time I’ll use 4 cups broth in the base cook vs 6!
I browned the chicken before putting it in the crockpot. The flavor is really good
Unfortunately, as excited as I was about this recipe, I found it to be incredibly bland when made as the recipe describes (with 8c chicken broth, no water). I added poultry magic, a healthy amount of salt and pepper, garlic powder, and some franks hot sauce to give it some flavor. I think the low sodium chicken broth is a key issue. As much as I like any version of a healthier recipe, the lack of salt really makes this one lackluster for me. But it’s a great base that just needed a little love to perfect it for my families palate!
Delicious! I added some thyme, rosemary and sage and opted out of the pre made seasoning mix. Also better than bouillon chicken stock adds a lot of flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
Make the soup for my family every autumn and we all love it. I use a combination of the 21 season (TJs) and the no salt seasoning (Costco).
I’ve never made chicken and wild rice soup before and this recipe looked really good! I did everything as the recipe listed except I didn’t have Mrs. Dash seasoning, so I just used uncle Ben’s wild rice and put the seasoning packet in there too. It was delicious and the whole family like it! I used regular chicken broth (not low sodium) and also some salt in the soup and it was good.
I enjoyed this recipe. I added a few more seasonings to my liking, but overall I enjoyed it.
This looks really good! I’d like to make half of the recipe since it’s just my husband and I. How would that impact the cooking time?
It would be helpful if this recipe included a note on when to add in the rice if you’re worried about it getting mushy I cooked on high for 3 hours, and the chicken was sooo deliciously tender, but the rice was mushy by this point. We were gifted fresh wild rice, so I had no way of knowing if it was the correct kind; noted for next time. It would also be helpful if the recipe included what temperature to cook the roux and milk at and for how long. Mine ended up coming out too thick, which I didn’t know until I added it to the soup. I definitely had to add some additional spices at the end as well.
Very bland. Even after doubling the spice and garlic. I used regular milk for the cream. Maybe the 1/2 and 1/2 would help. Definitely needs more spices.
LOVE this soup. I’ve made it 3 times and tweaked a little by adding basil, oregano and red pepper flakes just because I love those flavors. Didn’t have wild rice and substituted finely chopped cabbage and the flavors just brought it all together. Delish!!!
I’ve been making your recipe for several years. It is delish! People ask for me to make it and bring them some. I live in wild rice country, so I use all wild rice. And add more carrots other then that, I leave it the same. Very good! Thank you.
This was easy and delicious! I used plant based whipping cream instead of dairy-based milk/cream and am so pleased with the outcome. Thank you!!
My sister shared this recipe with me. It was delicious soup so I made it myself and I bought the Costco wild rice blend and my soup had a pink hue to it. Not sure why that happened. It was delicious, but it is just a very strange color. Even the chicken breasts had a pink tone to them. I also used fresh whole organic carrots maybe that was the culprit? I don’t know. But in any case it’s delicious and I used a gluten-free flour blend and it worked perfectly creamy and delicious.
Tried this recipe today with mixed results. I caramelized the onions the night before (for a stronger oniony flavor) and added them to the crock pot at the beginning of the cook cycle. For the wild rice, I used a box of Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice along with the accompanying seasoning packet. In the end, my soups ended up with a thicker consistency, like a stew, which I really liked. The only downside was that after almost 5 hours in the crockpot on high, the carrots were NOT cooked all the way through, and were on the hard side. If I had known, I would have parboiled them beforehand to make sure I ended up with soft carrots. All in all, a positive learning experience, and I will try this recipe again some time.
do you by chance have the nutritional info on this?
Absolutely delicious, just the flavors I was looking for in a creamy chicken and rice soup. I used all chicken broth, no water, and I added a teaspoon of salt. The family loved it. Really easy making it in the crock pot, I will make this again for sure.
I made your instant pot version and am OBSESSED. But we’ll be out all day Saturday at Disney on Ice and wanted to start the crock pot. I’d like to use this with some leftover frozen turkey from thanksgiving. Would you recommend I defrost the turkey first? Thanks!
I followed the instructions to a T and it came out as pictured but as others said it was bland but I’m also one to go light on seasoning. In an effort to not waste a buttload of soup I decided to go back and add poultry seasoning, marjoram, garlic powder, parsley, thyme, and salt. Now it’s exactly how I imagined it and I can’t wait to eat it again tomorrow! Also definitely add bread as a side it is the perfect touch!