Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
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A cozy bowl of creamy chicken and wild rice soup filled with wholesome veggies and nutty wild rice. It’s a hearty meal in itself—and a delicious way to use up leftover chicken or turkey.
This creamy chicken and wild rice soup, adapted from Food & Wine, is the perfect chilly-night dinner: cozy, hearty, and incredibly easy to pull together. It’s loaded with tender veggies, nutty wild rice, and chicken all simmered in a lightly creamy broth that tastes like it cooked all day (even though it definitely didn’t).
This soup is a complete meal in one bowl, and it’s also a great way to use up leftover chicken or Thanksgiving turkey. Serve it with a simple salad and some crusty bread, and you’ve got the kind of cozy, satisfying meal that makes everyone happy with very little effort.
What You’ll Need To Make Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
- Butter, celery, carrots, onion, and garlic: It all starts with butter, which adds richness and helps the aromatics soften and release their flavor. The mix of veggies adds flavor, texture, and wholesome goodness to every spoonful.
- All-purpose flour: Sprinkled over the veggies, it cooks into a light roux that thickens the soup just enough for body without making it heavy.
- Chicken broth: Adds depth and brings all the flavors together. Using a good-quality broth really makes a difference here.
- Thyme: Fresh or dried, thyme adds a subtle earthy note that pairs nicely with the chicken and rice.
- Wild rice blend: Nutty, chewy, and hearty—it’s what gives this soup its satisfying texture.
- Chicken: Cooked chicken (or turkey), cut into bite-sized pieces, adds protein and that classic comforting flavor.
- Heavy cream: A splash of cream at the end gives the soup its silky, rich finish.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1. Cook the aromatics. In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes.
Step 2: Thicken the soup. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for about 1 minute to cook off the raw flavor.
Step 3: Simmer the rice, then stir in the good stuff. Pour in the broth and water, then stir in the rice. Bring it to a gentle boil, reduce the heat, and let it simmer until the rice and veggies are tender, about 45 minutes. Add the chicken and cream and cook for a few more minutes, just until everything is heated through.
Step 4: Adjust seasoning and serve. Give the soup a taste and add a little more salt or pepper if it needs it, then ladle into bowls and serve warm. Leftovers keep well for up to 3 days in the fridge, so it’s great to make ahead or enjoy throughout the week.
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Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 celery ribs, diced into ½-inch (13-mm) chunks
- 2 carrots, diced into ½-inch (13-mm) chunks
- 1 medium onion, diced into ½-inch (13-mm) chunks
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme (or ¾ teaspoon dried)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth, best quality such as Swanson
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup (5 oz) wild rice blend (such as Lundberg)
- 4 cups cooked chicken or turkey, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables just start to soften, about 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring, until evenly coated and lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
- Add the broth, water, and rice to the pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables and rice are tender, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Add the chicken and cream and simmer, stirring occasionally, until warmed through, a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper, if needed. Ladle into bowls and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Comments
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Hi Jenn,
I only have Ludens black rice. Would that work? Should I do anything different? Thanks
Hi Marsha, if you’re having a hard time finding wild rice, you can find it online. That said, although I’ve never tried it with black rice, I think it should work (although you may need to adjust the cooking time of the soup depending on how long black rice needs to cook). Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Thanks. Yes I’ve had the wild rice but wanted to make it today and didn’t want to get out and go to the store 🙂
I’ll let you know how it turns out
I’ve made this soup several times and it’s perfect. As always, taste and add more seasonings as you wish.
This. Is. DELICIOUS. Don’t change a thing. It will become a staple in our house to the point that we will roast extra chicken for dinner just to make it the next day. Thank you, Jenn!
Basically a wonderfully recipe after I added chicken bouillon to flavor it up.
Tastes great but my rice sank to the bottom. I cooked it ahead of because the last time I cooked rice in the soup it didn’t cook. What did I do wrong?
Hi Rebecca, the rice adds some starch to the broth, which helps to thicken it. Without that, I guess it has a tendency to sink to the bottom. If you make this again, I’d just simmer the soup a bit longer after adding the rice, until it’s tender.
Love, love, love! Perfect for a cold winter night. Definitely going into the rotation.
We have made, and continue to make, many of the recipes found here and are routinely delighted with the results. This one… didn’t stick the landing. It seemed like it was missing something. I followed the recipe as written with the exception of using wild rice instead of a blend. The chicken was poached.
By chance did you use low sodium chicken broth? I made this on the same night as a friend and my family loved it while her family thought hers was a bit bland. I used regular Swanson chicken broth and she used low-sodium. We thought this may be the reason hers didn’t taste as good.
As a matter of fact, I think I did use low sodium broth. I added salt at the end which should have compensated, but it’s entirely possible that it really needed to be in there from the start. Thanks for pointing this out!
This was delicious & easy. I ran out of frozen grilled chicken bites so added cut up kielbasa. Also , added handful cut up frozen green beans at end with the chicken. Only because I had a little bit left.
I made this soup today as written and it’s delicious! I used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, deboned and cut up. My husband had two bowls and said it’s one of the best things I’ve ever made! (The other of his faves is the beef stew with vegetables, also from here). Try this recipe!