Crockpot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

This creamy Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is super easy to make and perfect for cold winter nights! Filled with wild rice, tender chicken, and veggies for one comforting bite and it’s a gluten-free. It’s a great set-it-and-forget-it dinner idea with only 5 minutes of prep time.

Want more Crockpot Soup Recipes? Check out my Three Bean & Beef Chili, Broccoli & Cheese Soup or my Crockpot Potato Corn Chowder with Roasted Poblanos.

My Favorite Comforting Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

It’s “chicken soup season”! And I’ve got an easy (and incredibly delicious!) recipe for you guys today. This Chicken and Wild Rice soup is made in the slow cooker (easy, right?!) and tastes just like one of my Panera favorites.

When I say “chicken soup season”, I think a lot of you can agree it means the weather is getting chillier! With busy lives and colder weather, we need quick and easy comforting meal options. For most of us moms, it also means sniffle and cough season.

This Chicken and Wild Rice soup hold a special place in my kitchen (and heart!) because it has helped me through some times when I didn’t feel so great. I think you’ll also agree that this soup is healing, cozy, and filling. It’s loaded with chicken, vegetables, and rice which makes it healthy but also substantial enough for a quick dinner option!

What You’ll Need

This is what you need to make Chicken and Wild Rice Soup at home. The ingredients are really simple and affordable which makes this recipe even better! Don’t forget to check out the recipe card below for the exact amounts needed for each ingredient.

• Chicken: I like to use skinless boneless chicken breast in this recipe. The meat just falls apart into the soup! You could also use skinless chicken thighs.
• Vegetables: Carrots, celery, yellow onion, garlic cloves, and baby bella mushrooms. Once you get the hang of this recipe you can experiment and try other vegetables, too! Some ideas are cubed sweet potatoes, kale, and spinach.
• Fresh Herbs: Fresh rosemary and thyme add so much flavor to this soup. I highly suggest using fresh but you can use dried, too, if you’re in a pinch.
• Salt & Pepper: Add salt and pepper to taste. I personally love using fresh cracked black pepper for the best flavor.
• Wild Rice: Try to find legit wild rice, not a wild rice blend that includes a fair amount of white rice. The wild rice adds a nutty flavor to this soup that can’t be replicated with regular rice.
• Chicken Broth: You can also use vegetable broth. Also, try to find low sodium so that you can control the salt level of the soup.
• Butter: The same goes for butter as the broth. I recommend using unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of sodium in the soup more easily.
• Cornstarch: This will thicken the soup.
• Milk: Adding milk gives the soup its distinct creaminess. You could also use coconut milk (I recommend canned coconut milk, not from the carton).

What’s Special About Wild Rice?

Wild rice is my favorite for this soup recipe. Here’s why:

• It has more flavor. Wild rice is naturally nutty and earthy. It has way more flavor than white rice in my opinion.
• It has a great texture. Wild rice stays chewy and tender while cooked and it’s less likely to get mushy.
• It has a lot of health benefits. Wild rice is higher in protein than regular rice and also has more antioxidants and nutrients than you would get from white rice.

How to Make Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

One of the things I love most about Crockpot recipes is how simple they are to prepare! Here’s how to make this soup:

First, sear the chicken breasts. You don’t need to cook them through. This is just to build flavor.

Place chicken the Crockpot. After the chicken has developed a golden brown sear on each side you can put them in the Crockpot.

Add the other ingredients to the Crockpot. Add carrots, celery, onion, garlic cloves, rosemary, thyme, wild rice, and chicken broth.

“Set it and forget it!” The work is done and now you just need to cook on HIGH for about 3 hours.

Then shred the chicken after it’s cooked. Shred the chicken with two forks after you’ve removed it from the Crockpot. And then add it back in.

Make a slurry to thicken the soup. Do this by mixing the cornstarch and milk. Whisk them together until it’s smooth.

Finally, add mushrooms the cream to the soup. Pour in the mushrooms and then the slurry into the Crockpot and stir. Let the soup cook for another 30 minutes.

Check for seasoning and serve! Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste. Now your soup is ready to be served!

Tips for Success

Here are a few helpful tips when making this slow cooker soup. It’s so simple! But when you keep a few of these things in mind, the soup comes out amazing!

• Control the salt yourself. So, soups are supposed to be salty…but not over-the-top! If you use broth and butter that already have salt and then also use regular salt, the soup will be too salty. I recommend using low-sodium products and then controlling the flavor yourself.
• Use fresh herbs if possible. I always recommend using fresh herbs before dried herbs in these types of applications. The fresh herbs provide incredible flavor and also add to the healing elements of the soup.
• Cut the vegetables to be the same size. You can cut them into whatever shape you want, but it’s important that they are relatively the same size so that they cook evenly.

What Goes With Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Here are some of my favorite foods to eat with this soup. You can keep it pretty simple or make it a well-balanced meal!

• My personal favorite is serving this soup with a big piece of crusty rustic bread. Nothing beats it!
• Serve this soup alongside a hearty sandwich like my Avocado BLT or Grilled Chicken Sandwich.
• My kids love when we serve the soup with homemade muffins as a side. Our favorites are Oat Carrot Cake Muffins and Easy Zucchini Muffins.
• When you’re feeling under the weather, serve this soup with my Thieves Tea. You’ll be feeling better in no time!

How to Store & Reheat Leftovers

To store the soup, let it come to room temperature then transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the fridge. It will keep for 3-4 days. Note that the rice will absorb liquid in the fridge, so your soup will be thicker when you take it out to eat leftovers.

To reheat your soup, simply ladle the amount you want into a saucepan, add a bit of water if your soup has thickened up, then heat on the stove until the soup is hot.

Can I Freeze Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup?

I don’t recommend freezing this soup because it will get very mushy from the rice. It’s ok though, it’s so delicious that you’ll want to eat it all up right away anyways!

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More Easy Soup Recipes

• Tuscan Tomato Soup with Rosemary Garlic Croutons
• Orange Carrot Ginger Soup
• Easy Minestrone Soup
• Creamy Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Low Carb Zuppa Toscana Soup

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