Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is a quick and healthy crock pot recipe that's perfect for busy nights. Add all the ingredients in the crock pot then push on!
“This is one of our very favorite recipes! Tried this three years ago and I get asked by anyone who tries it to make again and again.”
In a world full of gloopy, heavy crock pot recipes, Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup stands out because it’s light, healthy, and tastes like something you’d order at a local cafe.
Lucky for us, it’s a cinch to whip up at home in minutes!
This nourishing, brothy, healthy crock pot recipe is filled with colorful veggies, flavorful dried herbs and seasonings, tender chicken, and plump wild rice. It’s as easy as it is 3-bowl worthy.
Watch How to Make It
Main Ingredients Needed
I love that I always have the ingredients for Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup on hand in the fridge, pantry, and freezer. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Chicken breasts: chicken breasts only need to slow cook for 4 hours on low to become tender and juicy. Any longer and you’ll end up with tough, dry, chicken.
- Mirepoix: onion or shallot, carrots, and celery provide nutrition and flavor.
- Dried herbs and seasonings: salt, pepper, dried thyme, dried ground sage, dried rosemary, and bay leaves give the slow cooker soup lots of cozy flavor.
- Chicken stock or broth: you can use chicken stock or chicken broth interchangeably in this recipe. Homemade Instant Pot Chicken Stock is great if you can swing it.
- Wild rice-brown rice blend: this recipe uses a wild rice brown rice blend vs straight brown rice or straight wild rice. I’ll share my favorite brand below.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItMy Favorite Rice for this Recipe
The brown rice-wild rice blend I recommend for the perfect bowl of Crock Pot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is Lundberg Wild Blend rice. It slow cooks in the same amount of time as the chicken so everything is perfectly cooked and done at the same time.
That said, if you use a different brand of rice, it could take longer to cook. If that’s the case, store the shredded chicken in the refrigerator until the rice is ready then stir it in just before serving.
Great for a Meal Train
This crockpot soup recipe is one of my favorite recipes to take to new parents, or someone in need of a hot meal. There’s a couple ways you can deliver it:
- Fully prepared: slow cook the soup at home then transfer to a storage container and deliver hot.
- Meal kit: add all the ingredients, minus the broth, into a gallon-size Ziplock bag then deliver with either cartons or cans of chicken stock/broth. They can pour the ingredients into their slow cooker when they like, or stash the bag in the freezer for later.
Deliver with a side salad, and Gluten Free Focaccia.
Can You Freeze Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup?
Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is one of my favorite recipes to turn into a meal kit and freeze BEFORE cooking. Here’s how:
- Freeze: add all the ingredients except the broth into a Ziplock freezer bag then freeze flat.
- Thaw: 24 hours before slow cooking, thaw the bag in the refrigerator (the USDA advises that you do not slow cook frozen chicken).
- Slow cook: pour the ingredients into the crock pot, add the broth, then push “on”.
Recipe Tip
I’ve had readers freeze the meal kit with chicken bullion, so all they have to do is add water when they pour the ingredients into the slow cooker. Brilliant!
How to Make Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Step 1: Add the ingredients into the crock pot.
Add all the ingredients into a 6 quart crock pot then stir, cover, and cook on LOW for 4 hours.
Slow Cooker Tip
Unless you are using monster-size chicken breasts (3/4-1lb each), boneless, skinless chicken breasts only need to cook on LOW for 4 hours. Any longer and they’ll become dry and chalky. If you are using extremely large chicken breasts, cut them in half so they slow cook in 4 hours on low.
Step 2: Shred the chicken.
Remove the cooked chicken from the crock pot with tongs, then shred and stir back into the soup.
Again, I think a common misconception is that chicken breasts need to be slow cooked for many hours, but that’s not the case. The chicken should shred with the tap of a fork after just 4 hours in the slow cooker!
How to Store and Reheat
This soup reheats fabulously. Let it cool until the soup is nearly room temperature then scoop into airtight containers and store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave or in a pot on the stovetop. You might need to add an extra splash of chicken stock or broth when reheating.
I find that cooked > frozen > thawed > reheated rice doesn’t hold up well, so I don’t recommend freezing this soup recipe once it’s been cooked.
Family Friendly Recipe
Crock Pot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is truly one of my family’s favorite meals. My kids and husband find it filling and comforting, and I love that it’s so, so easy to put together and (slow) cook.
I usually serve with a side salad and homemade Gluten Free Focaccia or Gluten Free Biscuits and we’re off to the races. I hope you and yours love this easy, crock pot soup recipe as much as we do – enjoy!
More Cozy Chicken Soup Recipes
- Chicken Stew
- Pastina Soup
- Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- CrockPot White Chicken Chili
- Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
- Easy Chicken and Rice Soup
- One Pot Chicken and Rice
- Gluten Free Homestyle Chicken and Noodles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 1 small onion or large shallot, minced
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced (~1 cup)
- 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried ground sage
- small pinch dried rosemary, crushed between your fingers
- 1 large or 2 small bay leaves
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cup Wild Blend Rice, Lundberg Farms recommended
Directions
- Add all ingredients into a 6-quart crock pot then cook on LOW for 4 hours or until chicken breasts are cooked through. Rice should be done around the same time.
- Shred chicken then stir back into soup and serve. Soup will thicken slightly as it cools.
Notes
- If you use a wild-brown rice blend other than Lundberg, it may not be cooked through at 4 hours. If that’s the case, shred the chicken then keep in the refrigerator until the rice is tender, and then stir into soup before serving.
- Do not use straight brown rice, or straight wild rice for this recipe. It was developed to use a brown rice-wild rice blend.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin
This looks so good. Can’t wait to try it! If I was to freeze this meal to have later, would you cook the meal first then freeze? Or freeze uncooked?
Ooo that’s a great idea! I’d freeze uncooked without the rice. I’ll have to make a few batches to have on hand in the freezer myself!
I was wondering about freezing too. I’d like to give this to a friend recovering from surgery so she can just dump and turn on crock pot. veggies and chicken and spices can be frozen together? Rice in separate bag and box of stock? All she would need to add was butter? Does that sound like it would work? Or should spices be mixed with the rice and not frozen?
I actually did this for freezer meals before we had our second son. Add everything, including rice and butter, to a ziplock bag then thaw before adding to the crock pot with the broth.
Hi – I know this is an old post, but did you find the veggies were okay after being frozen? I’m recovering from surgery on my hand and chopping is difficult. I’m thinking of making this with a frozen carrot, celery & onion veggie mix. I was thinking of adding it near the end so they wouldn’t get mushy. But now I wonder if I should thaw them and add them at the beginning?
Why not frozen chicken?
Just curious….liquid ratio gets thrown or what?
The USDA doesn’t recommend it, and someone usually asks, so I just usually throw the disclaimer in! :)
Ahhh! I see. Thanks!
Yum this looks delicious! I am always in need of super easy recipes like this! Especially soup, because eating lots of soup is the only way I can survive cold Iowa weather ha! :)
Exactly – brrrr!
Yum! It looks super easy to make on a busy day. Plus it would be great on a chilly fall night for dinner.
I have a wild rice/quinoa blend. I wonder what quinoa would do in a slow cooker for 4 hours? This sounds really good and I really appreciate slow cooker recipes that are truly the one-step cooking process vs browning, etc.
Hi Sarah! I have a recipe for quinoa in the crock pot, but it only takes 3 hours (and just barely that) to cook before getting mushy. Maybe if you cut the chicken into 2-3 pieces per breast it would cook quicker than 4 hours!
Hi Kristin
This looks so yummy. I absolutely love rice but am not much a fan of Wild rice… I know different rice holds up differently in the crock pot but is there a specific kind of rice..ie jasmine etc. that you think would work best as a substitute.
Hi Sondra! I only tested this recipe with the brown/wild rice blend, but if you want to stick with either white or brown, I’d go with brown. I’m just not 100% sure how long it would take to cook. I’d check at 3 hours to see how it’s doing!
This looks wonderful. Do you think I could add some cream at the end, or half-and-half?
I think adding sour cream at the end would be a great idea if you want the soup on the creamy vs brothy side!
This looks like the perfect meal to make ahead and take to work for lunch all week – one of those recipes that gets better each time you reheat it! I just pinned it to make this weekend.
Yes, exactly, Kealey! Hope you love it!
Right before I read this post I was thinking, “What can I make for dinner tonight without having to go to the store for any extra ingredients?” And the I saw this blog post! This will be going in the crockpot at 3pm today so it’s ready for dinner at 7! I have a Bobs Red Mill wild and brown rice blend that I think will work perfectly in this soup. Can’t wait!
Yesss – love when that happens! Hope you love it!
Could you use a 4 quart crockpot??
I have a bigger one but my hands are weak and I can’t use it but I have picked up a 4 quart one with a pot that comes out for washing and I could handle that.
But will it make this recipe.
The recipe looks delicious and I hope to make it.
Hi Nancy! I *think* it’d be ok, but I’d start with adding the chicken broth first then determining if adding the other ingredients would cause the broth to spill over. Let me know how it turns out!
I urgently need to go to Old Navy. Just pulled out a V-tee of yore and there is a hole in the armpit. Not cute. Time to freshen up for fall! Also, this soup is my lunch survival mode. On this weekend’s must-make list!
I feel ya’!! Their tops especially are so comfortable yet cute right now!
Life has been so crazy busy with work, school, and a new workout split (I’ve jumped on the “body building” bandwagon-but still want to eat real people food) that I have THREE crockpot recipes on the meal plan this week. And I am seriously considering adding in this one. CWR is one of my top 5 favorite soups (and soup is in my top 5 favorite foods ever), and this looks like just what I need to eat this weekend.
Awesome!! Hope you love this easy version!
Can I ask, what crockpot brand and size do you use? I have had the worst luck with mine…cooks too quickly, too slowly, etc.
You bet! I use a 6-quart crock pot that’s very similar to this: I love it because you can program it, then it will turn to auto warm once the set cooking time is over!