Get my Cookbooks! Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
This Chicken and Wild Rice soup recipe is easy to make with juicy chicken and tender vegetables in a flavorful broth with wild rice. It’s so cozy and satisfying!
Be sure to try my Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup and Sausage Gnocchi Soup next!
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Nothing beats a cozy bowl of this creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup! It’s super flavorful and pretty hard to stop eating. Those tender vegetables paired with homemade seasoned broth, juicy chicken, and savory wild rice is just perfect.
My biggest pro tip is to cook the rice separately so that it doesn’t absorb all of the broth, otherwise it soaks it up like a sponge and continues to do so during storage.
Be sure to check out ALL of my pro tips below so that you nail this recipe! I can’t wait for you to taste it!
How to Make It
Note: This is an overview. See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Cook wild rice in chicken broth according to package instructions, set aside. Season and sear the chicken to develop a light golden crust on the outside. Let rest for 10 minutes, then dice or shred. Deglaze the pot with white wine and reduce by half.
Soften onions, carrots, and celery in butter. Add garlic, soy sauce, hot sauce, and seasonings and stir to combine. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth in small splashes and stir to combine. Add the heavy cream in the same manner, followed by 1/2 chicken bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Add the chicken back and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add the spinach and let it wilt.
Add the cooked rice to the soup pot if leftovers are not anticipated. Otherwise, spoon rice into serving bowls and ladle the soup on top. Store leftover rice and soup in separate containers. Serve!
Pro Tips
- Rice: The rice is cooked separately in this recipe to ensure that it doesn’t soak up too much broth. This allows leftover soup and rice to be stored separately, as the rice continues to soak up more broth during storage.
- Fun Fact: Wild rice isn’t technically rice, it’s the seeds of aquatic grass. It’s chewy, nutty, and satisfying 🙂 (But it still absorbs liquid like rice does.)
- 3 cups of leftover rice can be used for this recipe as well.
- Chicken: Bone-in chicken breast or chicken thighs will add the most flavor to the broth, boneless also works well and is usually what I have on hand. 2 cups of leftover/rotisserie chicken can be used instead if needed, add it when the chicken is added back to the soup at the end.
- Wine: Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, or Sauvignon Blanc are great in this recipe. Chicken broth can be used if you don’t cook with wine.
- Mushrooms make a great addition to the soup. I sauté them in butter and sprinkle with salt on the side and then add them to the soup at the end.
- You can’t taste the hot sauce, soy sauce, or mustard powder in this recipe, they are used as flavor enhancers. I usually use Frank’s Hot Sauce.
- Pairing options: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup pairs really well with Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Buttermilk Biscuits, No Knead Bread, and Ranch Oyster Crackers!
- For a non-creamy version: Try my other Chicken and Rice Soup recipe!
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- This soup freezes fairly well, be sure to freeze the rice and soup in separate containers.
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links*)- Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- Rice Cooker: Makes cooking rice a snap! I cook mine in a Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid.
- 4.5 quart Dutch oven– This is a great size for this recipe.
- Food Storage Containers– These are what I use to freeze soup, they are leak proof, microwave safe, stackable, and BPA free.
- Silicone Spatulas– I have these, they’re so gentle on your cookware and are the perfect tool for making the roux and stirring the stew throughout this recipe.
- Spice Rack–This is the one I have, it’s a snap to measure out your seasonings quickly and easily. (Big time saver.)
- Pinch Bowls– For measuring out seasonings ahead of time.
- Measuring Spoons– I have these magnetic ones which stay nice and organized in my utensil drawer.
- Better Than Bouillon– This is what I always use for broth and bouillon.
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Try These Next
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- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
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- Tomato Basil Pasta
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- Clam Chowder
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- Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
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- Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuits
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- Chicken Enchiladas
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Tried This Recipe?
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Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
Rice
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 1 ¾ cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons butter
Soup
- 1 ¼ lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, see notes
- Salt/Pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup dry white wine, see notes
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- ¾ cup carrots, sliced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1/3 cup flour
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ chicken bouillon cube
- 1 cup packed baby spinach
Seasonings
- ¾ teaspoon EACH: dried basil, oregano, parsley, mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon EACH: dried thyme, pepper
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to package instructions. (My rice indicates to cook 1 cup uncooked rice with 1 ¾ cups liquid -I use chicken broth-, verify these amounts on your package.) Once rice is cooked through, add butter, fluff with a fork, and set aside. Proceed with the following steps while the rice cooks.
- Pat the chicken dry and season each side with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear for 3-4 minutes per side, until a light golden crust has developed. (Note: It’s okay if it’s not cooked all the way through yet, it will finish cooking in the soup which will add more flavor to the broth.) Remove and let rest for 10 minutes, then use 2 forks to dice or shred.
- Turn the heat off and add the wine, then set the heat to medium. Use a silicone spatula to “clean” the bottom and sides of the pot, this will give the soup more flavor. Reduce by half, about 4 minutes.
- Add the onions, carrots, celery, and butter. Soften for 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic, soy sauce, hot sauce, and seasonings and stir to combine. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth in small splashes, stirring continuously. Add the heavy cream in the same manner. Add the ½ bouillon cube and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Add the chicken back along with any juices from the plate. Cover partially and simmer gently for 15 minutes, do not let it reach a boil or the chicken will become tough.
- Add the spinach and let it wilt, about 2-3 minutes.
- Spoon the rice into serving bowls and ladle the soup on top. If you don’t anticipate any leftovers, add the rice right to the soup pot and stir to combine, then serve!
Notes
- Rice: The rice is cooked separately in this recipe to ensure that it doesn’t soak up too much broth. This allows leftover soup and rice to be stored separately, as the rice continues to soak up more broth during storage.
- 3 cups of leftover rice can be used for this recipe as well.
- Chicken: Bone-in chicken breast or chicken thighs will add the most flavor to the broth, boneless also works well and is usually what I have on hand. 2 cups of leftover/rotisserie chicken can be used instead if needed, add it when the chicken is added back to the soup at the end.
- Wine: Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, or Sauvignon Blanc are great in this recipe. Chicken broth can be used if you don’t cook with wine.
- Mushrooms make a great addition to the soup. I sauté them in butter and sprinkle with salt on the side and then add them to the soup at the end.
- You can’t taste the hot sauce, soy sauce, or mustard powder in this recipe, they are used as flavor enhancers. I usually use Frank's Hot Sauce.
- Pairing options: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup pairs really well with Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Buttermilk Biscuits, No Knead Bread, and Ranch Oyster Crackers!
- For a non-creamy version: Try my other Chicken and Rice Soup recipe!
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- This soup freezes fairly well, be sure to freeze the rice and soup in separate containers.
Nutritional information is an estimate and is per serving. There are 6 servings in this recipe.
Your site was recommended by a friend who has your cookbook. Your recipes are great!
For this soup, th overall flavor profile is very nice. Based on my years of cooking experience, however, I made some changes to the preparation that I’ll pass along, if that’s ok.
1. Cubed the chicken and then sauteed the cubes. More cut surfaces to brown, resulting in a deeper flavor profile.
2. Sauteed the onions, carrots and celery in butter, and *then* deglazed the pan with the wine. Otherwise the veggies will poach rather than saute.
3. 1/3rd of a cup of flour seemed like a lot, so I reduced it to a tablespoon or two. Still came out plenty thick.
4. Simmering the soup with the cream in it for 15 minutes seemed like it would invite curdling, especially if your pot accidentally came up to a boil, even briefly. I added the cream at the end, after the soup has simmered and brought heated it up a bit before serving.
Anyway, thanks again for some great recipes. Looking forward to trying some of the others!
Hi Mary,
When I develop my recipes, a great deal of thought goes into every ingredient, quantity and step. For example, I think of every possible way that the chicken itself can be seasoned, cooked, sliced, diced, you name it. And that continues down through for every ingredient that’s used and every step involved. Once my recipes are published, they’ve been extensively vetted and tested.
1. I prefer not to cube the chicken and sear it as it’s much more likely to dry out this way. Cubes are also a bit too large for soup. Keeping the chicken whole and allowing it to finish cooking in the broth adds a lot of homemade flavor to the broth while keeping the chicken juicy.
2. Deglazing the skillet right after the meat is cooked ensures that the fond doesn’t go from “brown” to “burnt.” There are only 4 tablespoons of wine left after it’s reduced by half, which don’t cause the vegetables to poach as it’s such a small amount when spread out on the bottom of the soup pot.
3. You’re free to use any quantity of flour you want, I designed this to be a thicker broth and chose a broth-to-flour ratio that would give it the thickness that I personally intended it to have.
4. Cream will only curdle if it’s cool or cold and added to a hot base quickly instead of gradually. Dairy can absolutely boil without curdling, it’s all about how it’s introduced to the liquid. Once it’s tempered and incorporated, curdling is then a non-issue. (Think of how some recipes indicate to scald milk- and milk has an even lower fat content.)
Thanks for your comprehensive response, and best wishes for continued success with The Cozy Cook.
Thank you Mary! 🙂
This was very good. I’m always amazed at the flavors in your recipes! I followed the recipe almost exactly, only added mushrooms at the end. It was quite good, and even better as leftovers!
Thanks so much Katherine! I’m so happy you’ve been enjoying the recipes!🩷