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
Just wondering if anyone has tried to alter this recipe and cook the soup in a dutch oven instead of a crockpot?
Here are Dutch Oven instructions, Christina! https://iowagirleats.com/2013/01/28/chicken-wild-rice-soup/
Made this recipe last week, yummy! Next time I will add more rice, maybe 1 or 1 1/4 cups. I will definitely be making it again! Thanks for th great recipe!
Do you know if you can cook it on high and if so how long? Was going to make it for a friend having surgery tomorrow and don’t want to be up until 11 making it. Thank you!!
I think cooking on high might not allow the rice to cook all the way through, but if I were to try, I’d start with 2.5 hours then check!
This recipe looks great. Do you think if I put it on 10 hour low that it would be okay if I started it before I went to work and ate when I got home? I only work an 8 hour day but would put it on the lowest setting.
Thanks!
Hey Hal! Unfortunately I think 8-10 hours would cause the chicken and rice to overcook. I recommend making it on the weekend then having leftovers during the week. It reheats perfectly!
Love this recipe! Great that you have the seving size for the recipe. Can you tell us what the
Calorie, Protien, Sodium, Sat. Fat. and Sugar content is for this recipe?
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. I have a question about the rice. I followed the recipe to the tee and also used the exact rice blend that you suggested, but after four hours everything was cooked except the rice. When that happens, how much longer will the rice need to cook before it is done? Also, would parboiling the rice for five minutes or so in the broth help it to cook faster? Thank you.
Hi Lei! It may just be that your crock pot cooks a big different than mine. I’d keep cooking in 30 minute intervals until the rice is done (the chicken and vegetables should be able to take it, but if you’re worried about the chicken drying out just remove, shred, then store in the refrigerator until the rice is cooked!)
Thanks for the help. I loved the first batch I made. I left the rice in the slow cooker for 30 additional minutes but I then had to transfer everything but the chicken to a pot, bring it to a boil, and slow cook it for 30 minutes before it was done. I will try it again and see what happens. This recipe is definitely one that I will be making a lot. Thanks for posting it.
Have been looking for a good wild rice soup recipe. This looks wonderful. Am anxious to make it. Thanks
I made this recently and didn’t care for the texture of the dried herbs. They were hard, crunchy and got stuck in my teeth. Do you have any suggestions for a substitution? Thanks!
Hi Tara! Next time you might try crushing the herbs between your finger tips to break them up a bit, or you can use a bit less of each of the herbs in their fresh state!
I made this tonight. Holy smokes! ? I haven’t had a soup this good in quite some time. My somewhat picky young boys loved it and my bf complimented it several times. I have been following your blog for a long time, made many of your delicious recipes, but this one topped it all. Thank you for all you do!
Love to hear it, thanks for the feedback, Melinda!
I really enjoy making these soups during the autumn, i am here in london and really enjoy finding these great american influenced recipe ideas. : )
Christopher
Any suggestions for brand of chicken broth? I don’t want it to end up too salty. Thanks!!
I just used HyVee chicken broth. You could use low-sodium if you’d like!
Made this tonight! It turned out perfectly!
I made this last weekend and it was so good. I didn’t have wild rice, so used brown rice and it was just as good. I froze it in individual portions and by the time I reheated it, it was like stew, which I loved.