Creamy chicken and wild rice soup
80 min · 28 g protein · 316 cals / serving
The Midwestern winter classic: nutty wild rice, shredded chicken, carrots, celery and a little potato in a creamy, sage-scented soup. The creaminess comes from milk thickened with a small butter roux, not cream or a can, so it tastes of chicken and rice rather than of richness alone.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 3 medium carrots, diced small
- 3 stalks celery, diced small
- 1 small russet potato, peeled, diced small
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup wild rice (uncooked) wild rice, rinsed
- 5 1/2 cups chicken broth, low-sodium
- 1 1/2 lb chicken breast, whole breasts
Creamy base
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 3/4 cups 1% milk
To serve
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Steps
- Warm the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, potato and onion and cook 8–10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft. Stir in the poultry seasoning, salt and pepper for 30 seconds.
- Add the wild rice and broth, bring to a boil, then lay the chicken breasts in the pot. Cover, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook 18–20 minutes, until the chicken reads 165°F in the thickest part. Lift it out onto a board.
- Keep the soup covered at a simmer for another 25–35 minutes, until the wild rice is tender and some of the grains have split open. Shred the chicken meanwhile.
- Make the creamy base: melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the milk gradually, whisking all the time, and simmer 3–4 minutes until it thickens like a loose gravy.
- Stir the creamy base and the chicken into the soup and heat through for a few minutes without boiling hard. Taste for salt and pepper, loosen with a splash of broth if you like it thinner, and serve with parsley.
Good to know
Can I use a wild rice blend?
Yes, and it cooks faster: most blends of wild and brown rice are tender in about 25–30 minutes instead of 45–55. Check the packet and start tasting early.
Slow cooker version?
Do step 1 in a pan, then put the vegetables, rinsed rice, chicken and 4 cups of the broth in the slow cooker on LOW for 6–7 hours. Shred the chicken, stir in the creamy base from step 4 and loosen with the rest of the broth.
Richer, with 2% milk?
2% milk, as in many versions, makes it a little rounder at about the same score. Whole milk or a splash of cream goes further, at the cost of a few points.
Per
- Calories
- 79
- Protein
- (37%)
- 7 g
- Fat
- (23%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (40%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 235 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 2524 kcal goes into the pot and 3515 g of ingredients comes out as about 3200 g of food: 79 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.