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Our Chicken and Rice Soup is an easy, delicious meal that’ll fill your house with a comforting aroma. Imagine coming home to tender chicken and fresh herbs that have been simmering for hours. Now that’s chicken soup for the soul!
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This Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice soup is also great for entertaining guests because you can prepare it ahead of time. It’s perfect for those busy days when you need to make something for dinner but don’t have a lot of time to spend on prep work or cooking meals from scratch. It’s truly a fix it and forget it meal that everyone in the family loves. I serve it with some crusty rolls, breadsticks, or my kids’ favorite, cornbread.
Ingredients in Chicken and Rice Soup
- Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
- Chicken broth
- Parboiled rice, long grain rice, brown rice, or make it a chicken wild rice soup by using wild rice (see recipe notes)
- Butter
- Yellow onion
- Garlic
- Medium carrots
- Celery ribs
- Bay leaf
- Parsley
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Thyme
Seasonings for Chicken and Rice Soup
Isn’t it nostalgic to use fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme all in one recipe? These seasonings complement each other so well. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a big Simon and Garfunkel fan. My parents listened to their music when I was growing up and I still listen to it today. I love the song Scarborough Fair/Canticle. It was released on their album, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme”. Scarborough is a town in England and in Medieval times, there was a Fair there that lasted for 45 days! Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme represented virtues that are important to the lyrics of the song. Parsley represented comfort, sage represented strength, rosemary represented love, and thyme represented courage. You can read more about it on songfacts.com.
Health Benefits
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken and Rice Soup are so good for the body and soul, especially when you are feeling under the weather. Studies show that Chicken Soup has properties that soothe cold symptoms like coughs, sore throats, and runny noses. The other veggies in the soup — carrots, celery, onions — also have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
After learning this, I feel even better knowing the benefits of this meal! It’s a great source of fiber, protein, and calcium. And if you use low sodium broth, you can keep the cholesterol and saturated fat down without sacrificing flavor. So many good things come from the chicken broth itself. And who doesn’t need comfort, strength, love, and courage? I hope all of this comes to you and more when you enjoy this delicious soup!
Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe Tips
- Use fresh seasonings, as mentioned above. Feel free to add more or less depending on your taste. I tend to use a little more because I love the taste of the seasonings in the soup — especially the sage and rosemary. If I have a seasoning that is losing its flavor, I grind it a little between my fingers before adding it to the soup. This will bring out more of the taste and smell.
- If you want the rice to cook at the same rate as the raw chicken breasts, be sure to use parboiled rice (also called converted rice). This is the best rice and cooks beautifully in the Crockpot. If you prefer basmati, brown, white rice, jasmine rice, wild rice, or even quinoa, prepare 1 cup of uncooked rice according to the package directions and stir into the soup just before serving.
- If you are watching fat content, you can totally skip the butter. The butter gives a little more richness to the broth, but it is not necessary. The soup will taste just as good without it.
- Keep the Crockpot lid on while soup is cooking. I know it’s tempting, but each time the lid is removed heat escapes and it add to the cooking time.
- This soup thickens when it cools. I love leftovers of this soup because the flavors really come out after it sits for a day or two, but it will be a thicker soup than when you eat it straight from the Slow Cooker. If you prefer a thinner soup, just add some water to it when reheating to give it the consistency you desire.
- Reheat the soup either on a pot on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Use rotisserie chicken, chicken thighs, chicken breasts, or any chicken you have on hand for this soup.
- Feel free to toss in any extra veggies you have: broccoli, kale, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on what kind of rice you want to use in the soup. Parboiled rice, also called converted rice, cooks beautifully along with the other ingredients in the soup in the slow cooker. If you prefer using brown, white, or wild rice, prepare the rice in a rice cooker or on the stove top and add to the slow cooker just before serving.
Yes! This is Chicken and Rice Soup can easily be made gluten free! Use a gluten free chicken broth, like Swanson’s Chicken Broth, and you are good to go!
Cook the rice separately and add it to the soup just before serving. If you use parboiled, or converted rice, it won’t get soggy.
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Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut in half
- 1 cup parboiled rice* (also called converted rice)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 teaspoons salt
- pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons parsley
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon sage
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons butter optional
- 9 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in order in a slow cooker. See recipe notes if using brown rice or wild rice.
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
- A few minutes before serving, remove the chicken from slow cooker and shred or cut into cubes.
- Return chicken to the slow cooker, and let it cook for 5-10 more minutes before serving.
- Remove bay leaf and serve soup in individual bowls.
Notes
Alternate method for brown or wild rice:
- If you prefer brown rice or wild rice, leave the parboiled rice out of the slow cooker when adding the other ingredients.
- While the soup is cooking in the slow cooker, prepare 1 cup uncooked brown or wild rice according to package directions. Once cooked, this will yield approximately 3 cups of rice.
- Stir the cooked rice into the soup just before serving.
This is the first time I have ever made a homemade soup,the wife and I really loved it so much that I have made it twice in two weeks, it so delicious thanks-Frederick
Thank you so much for your kind review! I’m so glad that you liked it!!
Does this freeze well?
We have never frozen this before so we can’t say for sure. If you try it, let us know how it turns out for you!
If using the rice that the recipe calls for when do you add it to the crockpot? The directions say place everything in crockpot except rice then never specifies when to add the rice? If using the parboiled rice do you cook it separately before or cook in the crockpot?
If you use the parboiled rice, you can add it at the beginning with all of the other ingredients. If you are using brown or white rice, Cook it separately and add it just before serving. I’ll try to make it more clear on the recipe. Thank you for asking!
Thank you!!
Perhaps I’m techie challenged, but how do I go about printing only this recipe; not the intro or comments?
On the recipe card itself there is a grey “print” button. That should print it without printing the whole blog post. Email us if you can’t find it and I will try to help you through it better if I can! – Erica
I’ve been making this recipe for at least 2 years now and love it. I put uncooked basmati rice in from the beginning because I like mushy rice in my soup but it doesn’t even get that mushy. The next days for leftovers yes it does but I like it that way. I also sauté the onion and garlic on the stovetop because I find it doesn’t cook enough in the slow cooker without doing that first. I add in the 3 chicken breasts whole and don’t trim the fat. I cook it anywhere from 4-5 hours on low depending on my day. It’s a hit all the time. I’ve even added zucchini to it once and it was good.
Trying out this recipe today:) didn’t have time for the crockpot so everything is being done stovetop. Boiling the rice separately while chopping the veggies to get it started! Wish me luck! 🤞🙃
Made this recipe over the weekend and just had tonight for dinner – very good! Based in some of the comments of it being too salty I only put in 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt and thought that was enough. I used the parboiled rice and put it in from start and didn’t find it to be mushy at all. After 4 hours the chicken was done but the veggies were still a little hard so I just let it cook a little longer. Will definitely make again!
If I have to only make half the servings do i cut all the ingredient amounts in half and cooking time in half? Will this freeze well?
You can cut the recipe in half but the cooking time should be close to the same, maybe only slightly less. We haven’t tried freezing this recipe before but you should be able to without any issues. Hope this helps!
I don’t know if it is the difference in slow cookers or the type of rice used. I would recommend making the rice separately and adding it to the slow cooker before serving. I’ve never had a problem with the chicken becoming dry when cooking it in the slow cooker. If your slow cooker cooks on the hotter side, reduce cooking time to 3 hours.
ty will try again tomorrow
just made this today. based on the reviews I added my cooked rice at the end. it is a family hit. i think i will try the cauliflower rice next time. and i will use low sodium chicken broth next time too.
Very disapointed. This was my first time making chicken soup and embarrassed to serve it to my husband. When you see the pic, the broth looks yellow. I followed the exact directions and mine is clear.
We are so sorry this didn’t work out for you. What kind of rice did you use?
I followed the recipe, i used long grain rice added in the beginning….. rice never absorbed any liquid…..broth is clear, the chicken was dry but it had flavor….. what can i do, i have had chicken and rice soup before and i love it and would love to be able to make it…..
Can u freeze the soup with the rice in it?
We haven’t tried freezing it before. My only concern is that the rice will get mushy. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
I freeze chicken/rice soup all the time. Never mushy
Cooked the rice separate to avoid the mushy issue people apparently had and added cayenne, all spice, cumin and seasoned salt along with regular salt to the broth mixture. Came out super good!
I don’t have thyme or sage. Should I still just use the rosemary and parsley?
Yes, you may want to add extra of the rosemary and parsley to give it more flavor. The soup will still taste great!
I tried this receipe last night for lunch throughout the week. It’s delicious! I got really nervous adding the rice while it was cooking. So I cooked the rice separately and just stirred it in after the the soup was done cooking. Awesome recipe! Thanks!
This soup is absolutely fantastic!! My whole family loved it!! The only change I made was omitting the rosemary and celery (personal preference) I followed the directions and had no issues at all!!!
This looks fabulous .. I am going to use cauliflower rice in place of the regular rice… Can’t wait to make it…
Great idea! I think the cauliflower rice will work really well in this recipe. Enjoy!
Can I use frozen chicken and let it cook more like 8 hours while I’m at work?
Yes! Frozen chicken will work just fine in this recipe.
I think the age of the crockpot might have something to do with how well the soup turns out. I just got a new crockpot and it seems to not be as hot as my old ones. After four hours, the carrots were still hard and the brown rice (which I had added at two hours) was uncooked. We still ate it and despite crunchy carrots and hard rice my not-overly-picky family loved the soup! Next time I will probably cook it on high for the first 2 hours and add cooked rice at the end as others have noted. I do think that some of the problems others have experienced probably have more to do with the crockpot than the recipe. I thought the seasoning was perfect!
This was my first time making chicken soup and it was delicious!!! I made the wild rice separately and stored my leftover soup and rice in separate containers. I will definetly make this again! So so yummy!!!
So glad you liked it! 😀
The link for the vegetable beef soup takes me to the chicken recipe. Could share a link for the beef soup? Thank you! ????
Whoops! Good catch! Got it fixed. It will now send you to the correct recipe 🙂 Sorry about that!
What about using dried herbs. Use the amount you say in the recipe? Want to make this today. Thank you for sharing..
All of the measurements are actually for dried herbs. So exact measurements would be perfect. Hope this helps!