Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Serve it with our quick No Knead Bread for a tasty and satisfying lunch. Or if you want a vegetarian version that’s just as tasty and creamy, check out Creamy Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup! I know I’ve been sharing many soups lately. Forgive me but it’s cold outside and we all need extra comfort at the moment. Plus I’ve been getting requests from you for more soup recipes and I am nothing if not obliging.

Creamy Soup Recipes

I grew up on soups but I haven’t discovered the beauty of creamy soups until I moved to the US for university in the late 90s. Up to that point soups were brothy and were eaten strictly for lunch. I was much more interested in a thick and creamy stew. Soups were something you endured rather than enjoyed. This creamy soup with tender chunks of chicken breast and wild rice blew my mind and completely changed my attitude towards soups in general. Eating soup was no longer a chore but an indulgence! Wild rice soup is all of that and more. The creaminess of the soup might be what people remember most, but the chunks of vegetable and chicken with nutty wild rice are pretty fantastic in their own right. Add it together and you have a soup that eats like a satisfying meal.

Wild rice soup

Despite the name, wild rice is not, in fact, rice. It’s actually a variety of wild aquatic grass from North America that has a shape notably similar to rice. Taste them side by side, and it will be next to impossible to confuse wild rice with basmati, jasmine or any other variety that comes to mind. It’s nutty and chewy and wonderfully earthy. The texture and flavour make wild rice perfect for stuffing with meat, like I did with ground turkey and wild rice stuffed squash. It’s also a great way to add bulk and flavour to soups like this, or just served as a side dish. It is so much more than a filler, adding a lot to the taste of this soup. If you love what you find here, you’ll want to give my potato and sausage chowder or Thai chicken and wild rice soup, both of which use wild rice. Just note that it bulks up a lot when cooked, as much as tripling in size, so a little goes a long way. It also takes longer to cook than white or brown rice, so it will need an adjusted cooking time if substituted for either in a recipe.

How to Make It

Even though I lost the recipe for chicken wild rice soup from my university days, I still remembered the taste. So I decided to recreate it and share it with you. Like all soups this one is easy to make! No special skills necessary, so this is one you can try even if you have limited cooking experience. We start by gently cooking some mirepoix in butter over low heat. Mirepoix is a classic vegetable mix of carrots, onions and celery cooked slowly in butter which serves as the base for many soup recipes. This step, and giving it time to cook over low heat, is important to bring out the sweetness in the vegetables. The famous veg trio adds heaps of flavour to the soup along with a bay leaf, thyme and a clove of garlic. Once the base is ready, we add our chicken breasts or thighs, wild rice and chicken stock. After the chicken and rice are cooked, add in cream and roux to thicken the soup. Roux is another classic French technique, which is used as a thickener for sauces. Despite the French name, it’s very easy to make. Simply mix flour and butter in equal parts by weight, stir into the liquid and watch your soup thicken as it bubbles away. Although not necessary I love adding a handful of fresh spinach or kale to this soup. It adds a nice colour, not mention the nutritional value!

Serving suggestions

A creamy, hearty soup like this doesn’t need much to stand as a meal. Feel free to add a sandwich if you like, but I think the soup is satisfying enough without the help. Still, I do love a hefty chunk of bread on the side of my soup when I sit down for lunch. Almost any bread will do, but I would reach for crusty sourdough or warm and fresh flatbread.

Storage and leftovers

Unlike brothy soups like chicken mushroom soup, creamy varieties are not great for freezing. The texture just won’t be the same when it is thawed, so eat fresh or keep leftovers in a refrigerator.
If you do refrigerate leftovers, keep them in an airtight container and use within 2-3 days.