A warm and cozy chicken wild rice soup made right in the slow cooker. This soup is loaded with carrots, celery, boneless chicken and of course, wild rice! It’s the perfect slow cooker meal for achilly winter night! The best part is, you’ve probably got most of these ingredients at home already!
Hello Monday. You’ve managed to sneak up on me once again.
I think I need a redo on my weekend. Don’t you hate it when it’s Friday and you’re all like hip-hip hooray and before you know it, it’s Sunday evening and you’re asking yourself ‘where did the weekend go’?
Whose with me for scraping it all and doing it over?
I seea lotof virtual hands.
Even though this weekend went by lightening fast, I did accomplish a few main goals:
The hubbyand I spent most of Saturday scrubbing our entire apartment from top to bottom. It’s not that it was super messy or anything.I get on these crazy cleaning streaks where I.must.clean. And I must not clean by myself. And because I get cranky doing it all by myself, the husband gets wrangled into cleaning with me. I love how that worked out. 🙂 This weekend just happened to be one of those crazy cleaning weekends. After what seemed like 8 hours of cleaning (but it was probably more like 2), we invited our neighbors over for a little dessert and a movie night. It’s always fun with those two. We partied hard till 3am. HA. <— If playing cards in your pajamas counts as partying!
I spent all of Sunday being sick. And I mean really sick.Like theres-so-much-congestion-between-my-brain-and eyes-that-it’s-making-my-face-hurt, sick. You know the kind of sick where you go from laying in bed to laying in front of the TV to drinking soup for every meal of the day and still not being able to tell the taste difference between soup and oatmeal. And the kind where you run through a few boxes of Kleenex per hour.
Luckily for me, I had a big slow cooker full of this creamy chicken wild rice soup to slurp up all Sunday. My poor throat thanks me times a million. But there went a whole day from my weekend, stolen right from under my nose!
Like most of my slow cooker soup recipes, this one is a breeze to whip up.
We start by tossing a pound of boneless, skinless chicken into the crockpot with some carrots, onions, and celery. I chopped up my own veggies but if you’re in a pinch you can always just substitute store bought mirepoix mix. You’re also going to need a couple of bay leaves, some garlic, and of course one must use wild rice in chicken and wild rice soup. Make sure to use regular wild rice, you don’t want to use the parboiled wild rice as they will get really mushy.
Also, my recipe calls for a seasoning blend. Make sure to use one that’s salt-free. We’re using a whole 2 tablespoons (yes, you read that right) so we want our seasoning to be free of salt. I used the 21 seasoning salute from Trader Joe’s for my chicken and wild rice soup. Any kind of herb you can think of is in this baby and it makes this soup taste fantastic!
In goes the chicken broth and a couple cups of water and this chicken wild rice soup will cook itself. I know I’ve said this before, but meals that cook themselves are always my favorite kind of meals. You can cook this soup in the crockpot on the low or the high setting. I’ve done it both ways and both work just fine.
30 minutes before the cooking time is up, pull out the chicken breast and allow it to cool before shredding with 2 forks. In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the flour and allow the flour to cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and allow it to get all nice and thick. This is the ‘creamy’ part of the creamy chicken wild rice soup. Add this along with the chicken back into the slow cooker. Give it a good stir until it thickens.
That’s it!
This cozy, creamy, stick-to-your-ribs chicken wild rice soup will keep you nice and warm on a chilly winter night. I love the fact that it makes my sore throat feel all better too. Plus the fact that I didn’t have to do much to make the soup 😉
A big bowl of soup, with lots of crusty bread to dip is all you need. Did I mention all the time you’ll savenot having to cook dinner?
Love how my slow cooker friend is there to get me through my sore throats and sniffles. What a good friend.
if you like this recipe, you might also like:
instant pot chicken wild rice soup
Yield: 8-10 servings
Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup (Slow Cooker)
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time4 hours 5 minutes
Total Time4 hours 20 minutes
A warm and cozy chicken wild rice soup made right in the slow cooker. This soup is loaded with carrots, celery, boneless chicken and of course, wild rice! It's the perfect slow cooker meal for a chilly winter night! The best part is, you've probably got most of these ingredients at home already!
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice blend (NOT parboiled)
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 3/4 cup celery, chopped
- 3/4 cup carrots, chopped
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups water (or additional chicken broth)
- 2 tablespoons salt-free seasoning blend (such as Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute OR Mrs. Dash's Original Blend)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or substitute more butter)
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the rice under running water. Place the uncooked rice, chicken breast, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, chicken broth, water, and the seasoning blend in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on the high setting for 3-4 hours or on the low setting for 7-8. In the last 1/2 hour of cooking, remove the chicken from the slow cooker. Allow to cool slightly before shredding using two forks.
- When the rice is done cooking, add the shredded chicken back into the slow cooker. Melt the butter and oil in a saucepan. Add the flour and let the mixture cook for 1 minute. Whisk the mixture slowly while adding in the milk. Continue to whisk until all lumps have dissolved. Allow the mixture to thicken and become creamy.
- Add this creamy mixture to the slow cooker. Stir to combine. Add additional water or milk to your preference if the consistency is too thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- To make the soup richer and creamier, replace some or all of the milk with half and half.
Keep in mind the soup will thicken as it sits. Leftovers should be placed in a Tupperware container and refrigerated. Additional milk or water may be added to adjust the consistency of the soup when reheating.
- Some readers have stated they find the soup to be on the bland side while others have said it was perfect. Based on personal preference, if you would like the soup to have tons of additional flavor, you can add additional garlic, chopped onions, or some more seasonings. My intention for this soup was to be a lightly flavored, creamy, warm and comforting soup.**
This site contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase through them, we receive a small commission.
