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
I’ve made this recipe several times in the crock pot, it’s a family favorite! I’m wondering if you’ve ever made it in an instant pot and what the time conversion would be if so. Thanks!
Oh I’m so glad to hear it, Libby! I don’t have an IP so I can’t say for sure!
So yummy! Thanks for a delicious recipe!
This recipe sounds amazing. I am counting calories, do you have the nutritional vlaue?
So funny, I started following you on Pinterest a couple of years ago simply because I was homesick (I’m an Iowa girl stuck in Arizona), but last year it was recommended that I go GF after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s… and I rediscovered you trying to find a couple GF meals! SO GLAD I did!!! For this soup I forgot I was out of sage and thyme, so I subbed in oregano and rosemary. I also put in extra salt because I only had low-sodium broth. I followed all of the other measurements with the exception of throwing in two extra carrots, an extra celery stalk, and a couple extra cloves of garlic just to sneak extra nutrients since I knew it would all blend right in (I have VERY picky eaters in the house and veggies are a battle). Made this soup with the recommended rice blend, and to my surprise it really was cooked through at the same time as the chicken, which fell right apart. Only four hours on low, just like you said! Even my pickiest eater loved it, it was everything a soup should be. And the soup looked just like the picture lol!
I really love this soup. It’s so comforting and easy!! Since my crockpot is a little, well, different (or difficult!), I cook on low for 5 hours and have to sauté the onions a bit beforehand since I’ve found they don’t always soften. But I always use brown rice and only 4 cups of chicken broth (we like thick soup!). Thanks!!
LOVE this recipe! But the carrots and celery shown in your pic are most definitely not minced!! “Minced” implies extremely small bits, what you show is “sliced into 1/2” pieces”. You don’t want minced for this recipe, very small pieces would cook too fast and be mushy. You might consider changing either the recipe or the accompanying pic. Can’t wait to make it!!
Threw this in the crockpot last night after rediscovering the recipe. Last year I made this like 4x in 3 weeks bc we loved it so much! Forgot about it until I saw my pin. Can’t wait to dig in for dinner and lunches all week!
By gluten free chicken broth I assume you mean chicken broth?
Hi Trent – not all chicken broth is gluten-free, so if you need to eat/cook for someone who is GF you’ll want to check the label to ensure it’s GF.
I made this today, this is very good
Making this Vegan style with Great White Northern Beans and using a veggie stock. Looks Yumm!! Getting beans ready now. Cannot wait to dig in tonight.
If I’m adding egg noodles, do I put them in with all the other ingredients?
Just saw this! :) I haven’t cooked egg noodles in the crock pot before so I can’t say for sure how they’d hold up. That said, I’d recommend cooking them separately then stirring in just before serving.
Hi there! Would an 8 qt crockpot be too big for this recipe? Also, If I double the recipe do I need to add more time?
This is my go-to recipe! I have made this for new babies and family get-togethers. Inevitably someone asks me for the recipe. I have made several of your other recipes. Thanks so much!!