52 Healthy Soup Recipes: Chicken Wild Rice Soup
One of my most popular healthy soup recipes. Chicken Wild Rice Soup is easy to make in the Instant Pot, slow cooker or stovetop. Made without heavy cream, butter or flour it is healthy comfort food in a bowl.
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 296kcal
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs any chicken pieces*
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 2 large carrots coarsely chopped
- 3 large celery stalks diced
- 2 large potatoes diced
- 1/2 cup dried mushrooms or 2 cups fresh brown mushrooms sliced
- 1 1/2 cups wild rice
- 9 cups water or chicken broth**
- 1/2 tsp thyme dried
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups whole milk***
- Small bunch parsley finely chopped
- Avocado oil for stovetop only
Instructions
- Slow Cooker: Add chicken, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, wild rice, water, thyme, salt, and pepper into a large slow cooker. Then just cover and cook on High for 5-6 hours or Low for 8-10 hours.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred using 2 forks. To the slow cooker, add milk, mustard and garlic powder. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to desired thickness. Add the shredded chicken and parsley. Stir and serve hot.
- Stovetop: Add avocado oil to a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, carrots, celery and fresh mushrooms (if using), and saute for 5 minutes. Add chicken, potatoes, wild mushrooms (if not using fresh), wild rice, water, thyme, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and then for 45 minutes on low heat.
- Once cooked, remove the chicken and shred using 2 forks. Add milk, mustard and garlic powder; to the pot. With an immersion blender, blend the soup to desired texture. Return shredded chicken to the pot and stir.
- Garnish with parsley and serve hot.
- Instant Pot (6 or 8 quart)****: Add chicken, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, wild rice, water, thyme, mustard, garlic powder salt, and pepper to Instant Pot. Cover, set pressure valve to Sealing and press Pressure Cooking on High for 25 minutes. Wait 10 minutes and do a Quick Release to release the pressure by turning the valve to Venting.
- Remove chicken from soup and shred with 2 forks. Add milk to instant pot. With an immersion blender, give a few pulses until soup is desired thickness. Add shredded chicken, parsley, stir and serve hot.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: Up to 3 months.
- Freezer Meal: In a large Ziploc bag, add all ingredients (except water, milk and parsley), release out as much air as possible, seal and freeze for up to 3 months. If cooking in slow cooker, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours, add to slow cooker along with water and cook as per above instructions + 1 hour. If cooking in Instant Pot, cook from frozen for 25 minutes with Quick Release. Then follow last step in the recipe.
- For the slow cooker version, I used frozen drumsticks. But ANY type of chicken works - raw, bone in/skin on or boneless/skinless, cut up whole chicken, and cooked cubed/shredded. If using cooked chicken, add towards the end of the cooking time. You should also use chicken broth instead of water since the chicken won’t be cooking in water creating a broth.
- Water or broth? Use water with raw chicken and broth with cooked chicken.
- Dairy free: You can use any unsweetened plant-based milk, but soup will just be less rich but still creamy.
- For 3 quart Instant Pot, cut recipe ingredients in half, but keep the same cooking time.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cups | Calories: 296kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 686mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g