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This Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is packed with savory veggies, tender bites of chicken, and hearty wild rice – a comfort food classic!
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is a comforting presence I love in my soup bowl. I love the way the herbs lend to so much flavor in the broth and how tender the chicken and vegetables are. A wild rice blend completes the recipe with a grassy flavor that I can’t get enough of! This recipe is perfect for a sick day, or just a day when you want all your veggies in!
What is Wild Rice?
Wild rice is a grain grown in grass, though not related to the domesticated rice that we are all familiar with. It has a distinct vegetal and plant-y taste to it, kind of like a grassy flavor, and the rice itself has a little more bite, it’s a little chewier.
Wild rice is called wild because it can be found growing along rivers and lakes, and it once grew as plentiful and as much as the grass. The rice grows on long, delicate stalks. You can harvest the rice and then eat the plant it grew from.
Variations
For a creamier chicken soup, you can add heavy cream and butter, we used half and half, but heavy cream would add much more richness. This will turn the recipe into a creamy chicken wild rice soup. For a different type of chicken and a heavier feel, you could add skinless chicken thighs instead of using chicken breasts. You could also add any different types of vegetables you want, including peas, corn, zucchini, broccoli, edamame, and more.
What to Serve with Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Thinking about serving food with this soup, my mind first goes to crackers. Next, a delicious grilled cheese, you could mix up the type of cheese inside, anything you want. To add freshness, something like a cucumber salad would taste great. Finally, fresh baked bread sliced up and dipped in this soup would be wonderful.
How to Make Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- First, heat olive oil over medium heat and add onions, carrots, and celery to a large pot. Cook until tender. Add garlic and cook for another minute until the garlic is fragrant.
- Next, add flour and stir to coat the veggies.
- Slowly add chicken broth while stirring the veggies. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low simmer. Add mushrooms, rosemary, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and wild rice. Stir, cover and let simmer for 45 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked. Stir occasionally to keep things from sticking to the bottom.
- Next, add the chicken and stir. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add spinach and half and half. Cook until the spinach wilts slightly. If the soup is on the thicker side, add a little more half and half. If the soup is too thin, simmer uncovered until it reaches the desired consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, you add the wild rice in uncooked. It will cook with the soup.
When you cook rice in soup, it releases starch into the water/broth and naturally thickens it. If you need to thicken it even more, you can keep boiling the soup and release water from it as it boils.
Because the rice continues to take on liquid after it has cooked, it will swell. If you serve your soup immediately after cooking, that will minimize this issue. Otherwise, you have a deliciously soft rice with tender chicken and vegetables in flavorful broth, not too bad!
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More Soup Recipes
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 3 carrots peeled and diced
- 2 celery ribs diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup mushrooms diced
- 1 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper plus more to taste
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 cup half and half plus more to taste
- 2 cups chopped spinach
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat and add onions, carrots, and celery. Cook until tender. Add garlic and cook for another minute until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add flour and stir to coat the veggies.
- Slowly add chicken broth while stirring the veggies. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low simmer. Add mushrooms, rosemary, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and wild rice. Stir, cover and let simmer for 45 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked. Stir occasionally to keep things from sticking to the bottom. Add the chicken and stir. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add spinach and half and half. Cook until the spinach wilts slightly. If the soup is on the thicker side, add a little more half and half. If the soup is too thin, simmer uncovered until it reaches the desired consistency.
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
- When reheating leftovers, you may need to add a little milk or half and half to get the right consistency.
- Serve with salad and breadsticks for a delicious meal!
Can this be frozen?
I would freeze it before adding the half and half and spinach. Then once you reheat it, add those back in!
Re: your chicken & wild rice soup recipe…….are the chicken breasts to be raw or precooked? It doesn’t say in your recipe.
Thank you…..I can’t wait to try.
You add the chicken uncooked. Make sure to cut it into bite size pieces so it cooks quickly.
I have made a similar chicken and wild rice soup, but the addition of 2 cups of spinach in this recipe really adds a nice layer of additional flavor. I coarsely shredded a Costco broiler for the chicken. This is an easy and really delicious recipe. We live at 7,000 feet altitude, so it took about 15 extra minutes to cook through and be piping hot.