Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
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Pure creamy comfort food made right in your crockpot! So quick, easy, and hearty with veggies, rice and chicken!
So first things first. Has anyone else finished Gilmore Girls on Netflix?
Because I just did. And I’m speechless.
Are there more episodes? Or are we supposed to use our imagination for the ending?
I’m just so confused but I digress.
Let’s talk about this soup instead. This crockpot chicken mushroom wild rice soup. Which is basically like chicken noodle soup.
Except way creamier with extra mushrooms. Just because. And because it’s super cold.
And also because I’m still confused about Gilmore Girls.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup wild rice
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 pound cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup half and half*
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Equipment
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Place chicken into a 6-qt slow cooker.
- Stir in chicken stock, wild rice, garlic, onion, carrots, celery, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Add mushrooms during the last 30 minutes of cooking time.
- Remove chicken from the slow cooker and shred, using two forks.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Whisk in milk and half and half, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 4-5 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir chicken and milk mixture into the slow cooker. If the soup is too thick, add more half and half as needed until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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This recipe was disappointing, barely any flavor and the texture of the wild tice was lost (mushy). I am not sure what was lacking, I used premium ingredients. I had to add 3+ cups of broth in the end, it was all absorbed by the rice. Not a repeat recipe. I typically cannot get enough of your recipes 🙂
Any chance you used a “long grain and wild rice” mix instead of all wild rice ? I’m just asking because regular rice absorbs a lot more liquid than wild rice and probably would get mushy with the long cook time.
If I remember correctly, I believe I used wild rice. Hope that helps!
Chungah, I just love your recipes–I’m a longtime lover of your site, and typically make at least one Damn Delicious recipe a week. Thank you for sharing them!
I’m planning to make this for dinner tonight and have never cooked with wild rice; I just want to clarify…should I use wild rice only, as the recipe seems to indicate? Would a blend possibly change the doneness/cook time?
Hi Katie – thanks for being such an avid follower!
I recommend using wild rice only as any other type of rice can effect cooking time.
This was and will be delicious. It does freeze quite well.
I have just completed making this recipe and overall I followed the steps and I think it came out delicious. It makes a full crockpot. I did shred the chicken at 4 hours of low cooking, added the button mushrooms (didn’t have crimini) and after 30 minutes added the cream/milk. Spicewise, it’s a great start just as is. I might add a little more salt in my bowl, but we’ll play it by ear. By cutting off the cooking at 4.5 hours, the rice is fine.
This looks just crazy delicious !!!
I’m sad to say I made this last night and it was tasteless. I had to add way too much salt and pepper and some grated Parmesan for flavor. It defines needed more carrots too and as much as I love mushrooms I used under half of what the recipe said cuz there were a ton!
I have made this a couple of times now and as far as I can see the mushrooms are part of where the “yummy” comes from. The first time it seemed like I had far too many mushrooms (they were piled up high over the top of the pot) but I pushed them down into the hot liquid until they started to shrink down. Next time I used fewer mushrooms and it wasn’t as good. Third time I went back to the full amount of mushrooms and the taste came back.
I added 2tsp. Turmeric, 1/2 tsp. Curry and 1/2 tsp. Rosemary to add a little extra flavor. The results were great!
This looks delicious! Can I use the stovetop instead?
Yes, of course.
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
If I wanted to make the soup on the stove top how would I do that ?
This is basically making chicken soup with roux. You fry your chicken until browned and then shred it. With the chicken juices leftover in pot (I use a Dutch oven) fry your onions, garlic, add carrots then celery (fry each about 2 minutes). You can add a little chicken broth if it becomes a little dry as you’re frying. Once everything is a little soft, add the rest of the broth, seasoning, mushrooms and chicken and let it simmer for about an hour (I like to add a little bit of dried dill instead of using parsley, brings flavors together nicely and good for colds). For the wild rice… find out how long it takes for it to fully cook, mine was 30 minutes so i waited until the last 30 minutes in my hour simmer to add the wild rice. During the last 10 minutes or so, you make your roux- milk, heavy cream, butter and flour (pour milk/heavy cream in a bit slowly and continuously stir- if you pour too fast you will get clumps which isn’t so bad but a bit annoying).. add to your soup and you’re all done! What a delicious recipe and a great twist on chicken noodle soup! 🙂
I made this recipe today. It came out mushy. I think i will either add the rice towards the end or cook it separately then add it to the crockpot. But other than that this recipe is awesome! Great flavor!
I don’t have wild rice but have brown rice. Do you think that would be okay !
This was good albeit a bit bland. I used 3 bone in chicken thighs because that’s what I had on hand. I followed exactly but I added garlic salt toward the end, for more flavor. The rice was basically mush at the end of 6 hrs of cooking, as well as my chicken. Next time I’ll add the rice about an hour before it done, or cook it separately and add at the end. It was very comforting and my husband seemed to like it, but it just needs ‘something’ as far as more seasoning.
This was delicious…and sooo easy! I love the fact that your recipes have real ingredients instead of processed ones. I have a growing list of other recipes I must try!
This was SO delicious, everyone in the family loved it including my 18 month old and my 5 year old. We made it dairy free using unsweetened cashew milk and vegetable oil instead of butter. Will absolutely be making this again. Two thumbs up!!!
Hello
I’m just making this and I will have left overs wondered if it will freeze?
Thank you
Have you ever tried the recipients with brown or white rice? Also if I was planning on saving the soup for another day, would it be best to cook rice separately and add later
I actually haven’t – sorry! And yes, I recommend keeping the rice separate if you plan to serve later.
I made this over the weekend – good flavor, creamy and comforting. The only thing I would change – after cooking low and slow in the crockpot my wild rice pretty much disintegrated. It tasted good and I love the convenience of the crockpot (and it makes the chicken great), but in the future I would follow this exact recipe just on the stove instead so that the rice maintains it’s texture. It was also incredibly thick (probably just due to the dissolved rice) but that was easily fixed with a little more broth.
This looks delicious but for gluten/lactose free could I omit the flour and milks and use a can of coconut milk? Any one try this? I was thinking almond milk but i prefer the milkier consistency of he canned coconut (for full fat)
I’ve made this a few times and use almond milk without issue. I cook the mushrooms on the stove and add the mushrooms, milk and fresh parsley at the end to just heat through. I also find this is a soup that is better the next day. I’ve never had the discoloring issue with the rice though. I normally cook it on low for 6-8 hours, depending on time.
I made this last night and cooked it on low for 8 hours. All of my chicken broth was gone at the end so it wasn’t really a soup. How do I fix this
You can add additional chicken broth, as needed.
How long do you recommend cooking if the slow cooker is set to high? Can’t wait to try!
About 3-4 hours.