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.
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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!
Print
Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 5 mins
- Yield: 8–10 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Crockpot
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy Crockpot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup goes perfectly with a slice of crunchy bread. It’s a great weeknight dinner idea with only 5 min of prep time.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 lb. skinless boneless chicken breast
- salt & pepper to season
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 1/2 cups celery, diced
- 1 1/2 cups sweet onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
- 1 cup wild rice
- 6 cups of chicken broth
- 1/4 cup of cornstarch
- 1 cup whole or 2% milk
- 1 cup thinly sliced baby bella mushrooms (optional)
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Pat chicken breast dry with a paper towel. Season both side of chicken breast with salt and pepper.
- Heat a large skillet to medium high heat. Add in avocado oil and seasoned chicken breast. Sear each side for 2-3 minutes, or until slightly browned. (not cooked through – you’re just looking to add flavor to your soup)
- To a crock pot, first add boneless skinless chicken breasts on the bottom.
- Then add carrots, celery, onion, garlic cloves, rosemary, thyme, wild rice and chicken broth.
- Cook on HIGH for 3 – 3.5 hours.
- Remove chicken from the crock pot and shred with two forks. Add chicken back to the crock pot.
- To a small bowl add cornstarch and milk. Whisk together so there are no lumps.
- Next add mushrooms to the crockpot and pour milk mixture over the top and stir. Cover the crockpot and let cook an additional 30 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
- Calories: 214
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 154 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 17 g
- Cholesterol: 39 mg
Filed Under:
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32 comments on “Crockpot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup”
I found it pretty bland, so I dumped in a bunch of yellow curry powder. And I used coconut milk. That was the boost it needed – delicious!
To each there own, that’s the joy of soup, you can add whatever you want to suit your tastes.
This was really good! I made some adjustments to the recipe as well. First, I ended up needing to dump everything into a 6qt dutch oven, since my 4qt crockpot turned out to be not big enough. And I’d make sure to double check how many chicken breasts you actually need. I ended up using 3 free-range chicken breasts, which was probably more than I needed, but it still turned out great.
I also probably would have done more carrots, since mine seemed to kind of dissolve more than I wanted them to. 1 1/2 cups of celery is equivalent to about 4 to 5 sticks of celery, and 1 1/2 cups of onion is equivalent to about 1 whole, medium onion. Trying to figure that out probably could have been made easier by stating quantities in the recipe. And for the rice, I did a 1/2 cup Spanish rice and a 1/2 cup Wild rice. And I added a cheese rind as well.
Then, since I did mine in my dutch oven, that cut my cook time to about 2-2 1/2 hours of steady simmering at about 200F or just below. And that soaked up most of the broth, so I ended up not even using a cornstarch slurry. Instead, I did about 1 1/4 cups water, a 1/2 cup coconut milk, and 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk. I also cut the mushrooms out, since things were still pretty “stew”-like, even with all that liquid.
Final note: Definitely pair this with some delicious Italian bread, warmed up in the oven, and grab some butter! SO good.
Glad you enjoyed this recipe and made it your own! Yes, Italian bread is always a great idea!
Made this soup today for the first time & it is delicious!!! I used skinless boneless chicken breast tenderloins & they were very easy to shred! I left the rosemary out & included the optional mushrooms! I didn’t have unsalted butter, so used regular real butter. I also didn’t have whole milk, so used 2% milk. I will definitely be making this again!
Cooking is all about making it your own! So glad you enjoyed this soup!!
Delicious, healthy and so easy! Perfect portion for 10 people (5 adults, 5 teens).
If you scale the ingredients it to 2x, how long do you cook it for? I’m assuming it would need to cook longer before shredding the chicken and adding the milk/butter/cornstarch?
Yes, but not that much longer, maybe 30-45 minutes.
To make this dairy free, could I swap out the whole milk for coconut milk? Would I need to up the amount?
yup, I’ve done it before as well and just used a 14 oz can of full fat coconut milk
This recipe is marked as gluten free, what floor do you recommend to make it gluten free?
That was my fault, it should not have been marked as gluten free. However, you could use arrowroot in place of the flour in the recipe and it will help thicken the soup. Arrowroot is gluten free. 🙂
This looks good, but it isn’t gluten-free… it has flour in the recipe. I hope it works with corn starch and plan to try it.
yup, that was my fault. clicked the gluten free button too fast, I just updated it. yes it should work with cornstarch or arrowroot.
Love the recipe, however, for those of us who truly have to omit gluten from our diet, wheat flour is not gluten free as the recipe notes state. Just wanted to let you know. 🙂
You are so right, I can’t believe I made that silly mistake. I overlooked that small ingredients. (hand to forehead) I have since changed it to cornstarch! Thank you!
2 questions…do you keep cooking the soup on high once you add the milk mixture to the crockpot or reduce to low? and, can you freeze this soup? Thanks! Looks super yum! 🙂
yes, I keep it on high for the 30 minutes and then turn it off. It should freeze fine. I’d recommend letting it completely cool, then store in freezer safe bag. Let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then you can warm it up again.
Can I make this in the insta pot? Looks delish!! This is my fav at Panera too 🙂
I’m sure you could. You’d obviously reduce the time, maybe to 25 minutes
We always make chicken noodle soup, I have yet to make chicken and rice but man this looks so good!
This is one of my favorite soups to make for the fall! So delicious!
This is warming me up just looking at it!
HI! Just so you know, the fact that this recipe includes flour makes it decidedly NOT GLUTEN-FREE. I’m sure it’s delicious and I plan on making it without the flour, but it’s definitely false advertising to say it does not include any gluten ingredients.
Hey Hally, sorry it was a mistake when I was clicking through the categories. I have since changed it.
Looks delicious. How many carbs per serving ?
hey jim, it’s 22 grams per serving
Do you know what the carbs are? They seem to be missing from the nutrition information.
Chicken soup is so good! Loving this version!
There’s nothing better than a soup of soup with crunchy bread! This looks wonderful!
Wow this looks so comforting and perfect for cooler weather! YUM!