Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is rich and creamy. It has an amazing texture and is filled with SO much flavor from the chicken, vegetables and wild rice. This soup is quick and easy to make, plus you can use rotisserie chicken to make it even easier.
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Hi there! This is Natalya from Momsdish. I like simple recipes that use a limited amount of ingredients. No-fuss meals mean eating homemade is accessible to everyone and every schedule.
If you follow my blog, you know that I am a self-proclaimed soup lover! And, if you love creamy, steamy goodness as much as I do, you are in for a treat. Simply put, I am thrilled for you to try this soup. All you need is a batch of soft dinner rolls and dinner is made!
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup:
Chicken and wild rice soup is literally a comfy sweater in a bowl. We love warming up to a bowl of steamy soup on a cold day.
This is also a great soup to make when you are meal-prepping for the week. Make a big batch and have it on hand when your days get a bit hectic. Bonus: This soup gets better as the flavors mellow so your leftovers will just get tastier as the week goes on!
Packed with chicken, veggies, a wild rice blend (I love the Trader Joe’s bag or get a similar one here) and a dash of cream, this soup hits all the spots. What I love most about this dish is that I can whip it up all in one pot in under an hour. Hello, weeknight dinner rotation!
Hot tip: Have a rotisserie chicken hanging out in the fridge? Use it! Skip adding the raw chicken and shred up your store-bought bird. Once your rice is cooked and your broth is properly seasoned, simply add the shredded chicken into your pot until it is warmed up.
How to Make Chicken Wild Rice Soup:
- In a soup pot or Dutch Oven, saute veggies in butter until golden brown.
- Add a little flour and cook until fully incorporated.
- Add cubed chicken, rice, and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth and simmer until rice is tender.
- Pour in heavy cream, continuously stirring to get a nice, smooth broth.
- Season to taste if needed and serve piping hot!
How to Store Chicken and Rice Soup:
Refrigerating is your best bet. The soup will stay fresh for up to a week when stored in an airtight container. Know that the soup will thicken as it cools. This is perfectly normal! Once you reheat it, it will loosen up again.
Can I Freeze Chicken Wild Rice Soup?
I wouldn’t recommend freezing this soup. The cream will break up and separate as the soup freezes, making the reheating not so pretty.
How to Reheat Creamy Soups:
We recommend reheating only the portion you will use. Reheat on the Stove over low heat, stirring occasionally until hot and steaming and a safe 165˚F. Do not boil a creamy soup or it can separate. If you want the soup a little thinner, add a splash of water or chicken broth.
To microwave, place in a microwave-safe container, partially cover and heat on high heat, stirring every 20-30 seconds until soup reaches your desired temperature (at least 165˚F on an instant-read thermometer).
More Delicious Soup Recipes:
- Chicken Noodle Soup: A classic bowl of soup for a winter day or a pesky cold.
- Potato Soup: This is literally a loaded baked potato in soup form. So decadent and tasty.
- Taco Soup: Love tacos, but you’re living low-carb? This is the soup for you.
- Zuppa Toscana: Recreate this restaurant classic at home
- Cabbage Soup: I wouldn’t be Ukrainian if I didn’t suggest a cabbage soup. Healthy and hearty, this soup never disappoints.
- Minestrone Soup: A copycat recipe of Olive Garden’s famous soup.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup carrots, diced into small cubes
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced into small cubes
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 3/4 cup wild rice
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 lb boneless chicken breast, cut into small cubes
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat a soup pot or Dutch Oven to medium heat. Saute carrots, onions, and celery in butter until golden brown.
- Add flour and stir until the flour is fully incorporated and the raw flavor is cooked out (about 2 minutes).
- Add wild rice, chicken and season with salt and pepper. Pour 8 cups chicken broth over the ingredients and let everything simmer for 30 minutes, or until rice is cooked to your desired doneness.
- Slowly pour in heavy cream, continuously stirring to create an even texture.
- Cook the soup for about 5 more minutes on medium-low. Season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the soup while it’s hot! When it cools down, it will thicken up. Reheat it to loosen up the broth.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Can I substitute something else for the heavy cream to cut calories but not lose flavor
Hi Karen, I haven’t tried a substitution for the heavy cream; one of our readers used light cream. If you experiment with a change, I would love to know how you like it.
I have tried the original recipe of the soup and it was delicious! I have also made a dairy free version using ghee instead of butter and unsweetned coconut milk in a can (thicker than from a container). It turned out really good. There was no obvious coconut flavor, it was barely barely detectable. The consistency was the same as well.
Thank you, Katie, for sharing that with us! 🙂
The flour burned quite quickly and the soup was ruined. If I make it again medium heat is way too high. The rice and veggies will need at least an hour to simmer it appears as well.
Hi John, make sure you use a heavy-bottomed pot which will help for even heat distribution and also adjust the heat as needed. Rice and veggies don’t normally take that long. I’d suggest cooking to your desired doneness but at an hour, it would be pretty mushy.
Love all your recipes. My favorite soup is the chicken wild rice soup.
Just made it for my husband without the cream as he had tummy issues. Wil
This freeze well without the cream as we’re going out of town.
Yours is always the the first and final recipe I go to and love! I just love you Natasha!! Thanks
Elisabeth Graf Kettler
Hi Elisabeth, thank you so much for trusting my recipes. Yes, it’s a good idea to omit the cream so you can freeze it and serve it later. Thanks for the review, we appreciate it!
I can safely say that this is my husbands #1 favorite soup, ever since we tried it the first time I made it. I love adding 1 tsp of cumin and one can of corn.
Hi Raya! I’m so glad that you and your husband enjoy this recipe! And thank you for the suggestion, that sounds like it would be delicious with cumin. Thanks for sharing that with us.
I did it yesterday for a family dinner and it turned out amazing.
Definitely a repeat
Thanks for the awesome feedback, May! Glad it was a huge hit.
Oh my gosh! Soooooo good! I couldn’t find any bagged wild rice so I used a wild/white rice boxed mix that has a seasoning packet in it and added that. It turned out perfectly – but your recipes always do! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review, Gayl!
Omg! Best chicken and wild rice soup! I made this for my family over the weekend and wow-so yummy!!!!! I should’ve made a double batch!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for the excellent review.
I am originally from Minnesota! This is exactly how it is made. Mmmmm! I plan to make this for dinner this evening.
Good to know and sounds like a great plan, Holly. Please update us on how it goes.
I made it for dinner this evening! My husband who is also originally from Minnesota really enjoyed it! So did my kiddos!
That’s a win! I am happy you all enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for the review.
It seems like a wild rice and regular rice blend, that’s not wild rice.
This is a great recipe! So simple and pretty easy to prep and cook. I will be making this more!
Thank you for your good comments and feedback, Arline!
This was delicious. My 9 year old son who is so picky loved it as well. Husband and daughter loved. I didn’t have wild rice on hand since we were snowed in. No heavy cream but had half and half on hand. I used basmati rice and it still was unreal. Would hands down make again. All your recipes never disappoint!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Renee!
I am wondering, do you want to cook the chicken, first? Or can it go in with everything? Thanks!
Hi Rachel, we don’t pre-cook the chicken, it will cook in the pot after it’s added in step 3.
Hi, I love your recipes. But I am confused by the picture on this chicken rice soup. What is in that small bowl in the picture. It appears to be a dark liquid or paste? No mention of it in the recipe.
Hi Jan, sorry for the confusion; that is a bouillon or chicken broth paste, so you could use water and that paste instead of chicken broth if that is what you have on hand.
This was such a satisfying soup! Perfect for a cold winter evening. We are a dairy free house but even without the cream it was still excellent. I added a little sweetened condensed coconut milk (1/4 cup) to give it that extra richness. Served it with homemade honey wheat dinner rolls and it was so good I went back for more. I think it would make a really delicious repurposed leftover meal if it was baked like a casserole with biscuits on top. Another simple but delicious meal from Natasha!
Hello Maran, that’s fantastic! Good to know that the substitutes that you used turned out great. Thanks a lot for sharing that with us!
I’m wondering if I use the rotisserie chicken as suggested here, what would be the ideal amount of chicken?
Hi Lori, I bet that could work! I would use about 1 lb of chicken. I hope you love it!
First time made exactly as recipe says. 2nd time I doubled on chicken thighs and wild rice (Lumberg Wild Blend). As well I mixed 1/2 cup of sweet cream with whole milk instead of 1 cup of sweet cream. 1 cup makes a bit too sweet for my taste.
3rd time I did add Shitaki mushrooms and even though it was nice to have a chewy texture it made soup color earthy and did not add flavor. Mushrooms are not needed here. But potato if you like are more texture in your soup is just fine. This is a great soup and healthy and equally good to Toscana but without being heavy. I will try to add Kale next time to see if it is good with Kale. Thank you for the recipe .
This recipe is so versatile! Thank you for sharing your tips with us!
My parents were born in Lvov,in 1939, before the war, left for Colombia. Peru and Colombia have a soup called Ajiaco. I think you should one day try it. It’s simple wonderfull.
That sounds interesting! I’ll have to do some research looking it up! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
I’ve made this soup twice now. I normally make a new recipe exactly the way it is written the first time. The next time I change it up a bit to suit our tastes. So this time I added 1 cup of sliced Cremini mushrooms and another tbsp. of butter to the stock pot just after the vegetables had cooked. Cooked for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently to combine before continuing with the recipe as written. Came out delicious. It was a big hit with our family.
That’s a great idea! We love mushrooms, so I bet that was a great addition here! Thank you so much for sharing that with us!
This was delicious and so easy! Made exactly according to directions, except used table cream and a constancy slurry, instead of heavy cream ( none on hand) served with homemade herbed foccacia. Enough leftover for lunch.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
This recipe is simple and easy and the soup was delicious! I used my own whole chicken homemade chicken broth and used the chicken from making the broth. Since it was already cooked chicken, I waited until the wild rice was almost done and then added chicken a few minutes before adding heavy whipping cream! One of my favorite soups!
So great to hear that, Kimberly. Thank you for sharing your wonderful review with us!
This looks delicious! What is the bbq sauce looking ingredient in the photos? I don’t see that in the recipe so just curious if that is an add in. Thank you!
Hi Colleen, sorry for the confusion; that is a bouillon or chicken broth paste, so you could use water and that paste instead of chicken broth if that is what you have on hand.