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.
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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
So good ????
This was so easy and tasted amazing! I will be making this often!
I’m so glad you loved it Jen – thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
This recipe was delicious, I followed it to the T and I cooked it in my instant pot, manual setting for 10min and 10min natural release. This will be my go-to work lunch!
Oooo I am so trying this!!! Thanks for the info, Sarah!
This is my favorite soup! I’ve been making since your originally posted it. I’ve started making it in the crock pot and it’s excellent. I saute the vegetables with the butter and spices, add everything else and do 35 minutes on manual. Perfection!
Yum! This was a hit. My very picky 9yo ate it up. Followed the recipe to a T (but forgot the bay leaves!) it was SO GOOD! We’ll totally be making this regularly.
If I wanted to add mushrooms to this recipe, should I do that from the beginning or should I wait?
I don’t personally love slow cooked mushrooms so, if it were me, I’d saute them on the stovetop then stir in at the end!
We have made this before. It’s so good! Can we use white rice instead of wild rice? My kids like white rice better so just wondering about this substitute. Thanks!
Hi Alison! Totally understand – I haven’t tried cooking white rice in a crock pot so I can’t say for sure what the timing would be – I’m thinking it would cook much quicker than 4 hours. You could make this a stovetop recipe and cook it that way, or you could add cooked white rice to each bowl before serving!
Do you have the nutritional info for this? Trying to log it into my fitness tracker :) Thank you, this is a favorite in my house!
Hi Margot! I don’t use a recipe nutrition calculator plugin on my site because I can’t verify them to be 100% accurate and I’d hate to steer someone wrong who is eating with a medical issue in mind (diabetes, for example). I’m sorry I can’t be of more help in this area, again, just coming from a place of not wanting to provide inaccurate information to my readers.
This soup is always a winner. I doubled the recipe this time and had to cook the rice and veggies about an hour extra on low (after removing the cooked chicken as someone else suggested). I used one chicken breast and the rest was boneless skinless chicken thighs. So comforting and easy to make. Thank you for this recipe!
I’m so glad you love it, Natalie! I need to try with thighs – never have before!
Hi! My local store doesn’t have all the spices I need, so could I use Italian Seasoning? It has the thyme, sage, and rosemary, but also oregano and basil. Will it change the flavor profile much? And if I CAN use it: how much should I use? :) Thank you!!
Hi Brooke! That should be totally fine. I’d go with 3/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning.
We made it per the directions with the brand of rice that was recommended and it was still crunchy after 6 hours. We made sure to take the chicken out after 4 and that was fine, but the rice never cooked. Our crock pot is in good shape so I don’t know what could have happened. Should we have rinsed or soaked the rice first?
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that, Kiley!! I don’t rinse or soak my rice first so I don’t think that’s it. What brand/size of crock pot do you have?
I hate to be in the minority here but we found this recipe to be very bland. I tried adding lemon, additional garlic, and additional spices…just didn’t do it for us.
I made this and after 4 hours the chicken was not cooked and the vegetables were still rock hard. Maybe it should have been 4 hours on high? Or 8 hrs. on low?
Hi Danny, I’m sorry to hear that! It’s 4 hours on low. Is your crock pot on the older side, maybe? What brand/size is it?