This Chicken Rice Soup is a hearty, healthy soup recipe that’s perfect for fall! Loaded with vegetables, lean chicken and brown rice it can be made stove top or slow cooker.
Table of Contents
Soup season continues here on The Recipe Rebel and I’m back with this easy Chicken Rice Soup! It’s hearty, healthy, and creamy so it ticks pretty much all of my boxes 😉
Soup is pretty much my favorite way to get loaded up an all kinds of healthy stuff, and this one is no exception (this Chicken Pot Pie Soup and this Cabbage Soup are more favorites!).
I’ve used onions, garlic, carrots and celery but you could add all kinds of vegetables here. Mushrooms would be great (if you’re into that sort of thing), peppers, spinach, kale, or even frozen peas stirred in at the end. I often do this to cool down the soup for my kids and it works like a charm (plus, extra veggies!).
I know that a lot of Chicken Rice Soup recipes use wild rice, but with the long cook time I just didn’t think I wanted to go that route. You can, if you like, but keep in mind that it requires an even longer cook time that brown rice.
We use brown rice because it packs more fiber and protein, but still cooks in a reasonable amount of time. And we always have a giant bag around!
Variations of this Chicken Rice Soup:
- As mentioned above, feel free to swap out the vegetables or add more in! You do need to keep cook time in mind though and may want to add them at the end if they are quick cooking (like broccoli for example, unless you like it very tender).
- I use brown rice, but you could also use wild rice (a much longer cook time) or white rice (a lesser cook time). Again, keep in mind for the swaps you make you may need to adjust the liquid and cook time.
- If you really want this to be quick, you can use instant rice, but you may want to leave it out of the soup until the carrots are cooked because they can take a while to become tender and you don’t want mushy rice!
- This soup is naturally gluten-free, but double check all of your packages to be sure.
- This soup can easily be made dairy-free, by omitting the milk or cream.
How to make ahead Chicken and Rice Soup ahead:
This soup is great refrigerated and reheated, so feel free to make a large batch on the weekend for quick, easy meals during the week.
How to freeze soup:
Low fat milk does not freeze well and will separate. If you know you plan to freeze, I recommend using whole milk or even cream as the higher fat content does better when frozen and thawed.
Cool to room temperature, then place in a large freezer bag, seal completely, and lay flat to freeze in a thin layer. This will help the soup to thaw quickly when you need it for dinner!
To thaw, you can submerge the bag in lukewarm water until thawed, then reheat to desired temperature in the microwave or on the stovetop.
To make Slow Cooker Chicken Rice Soup:
You will follow many of the same steps, but the cook time will be considerably longer:
- Add the veggies, broth, chicken and rice to the slow cooker and cook on low for 3-6 hours or until the rice is tender — brown rice will cook considerably longer than white rice.
- Remove chicken and shred. Add back to the slow cooker with the evaporated milk.
Find the web story for this recipe here.
Chicken Rice Soup
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 onion minced
- 3 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1 rib celery diced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 5 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 chicken breasts raw
- 1 cup long grain brown rice rinsed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup evaporated milk (more or less as you prefer)
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots and celery and cook and stir for 3-4 minutes, until onion begins to turn golden.
- Add garlic, parsley and thyme and cook 1 minute.
- Rinse rice under cold water. Add broth, chicken, rice, salt and pepper. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium-low (a simmer), cover, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, or until vegetables and rice are tender.
- Remove chicken from pot and shred. Add back to the pot with evaporated milk. Serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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Eva says
I looove this!! I eat it for breakfast or lunch because am so obsessed with chicken and rice , plus I love it mushy like a congee ❤️
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Eva! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for this kind review!
Lola Agard says
good recipe. I used it as stated didn’t try to change it in any way since I wanted to make what the recipe was for. It turned out great! I checked frequently to make sure the rice was not overcooking.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Lola! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for this review!
Pegg says
I tried this recipe today and felt it should be renamed Chicken and Rice Mush. I used the exact ingredients in the slow cooker verses cooking it on a range. I missed having more broth in my soup, but was hesitant to add more based on other comments. I also made sure that I rinsed my brown rice prior to cooking, as the directions stated. Lastly, there was too much thyme for me. It seemed to drown out all of the other flavors. Perhaps I’d have better results if I’d cooked it in a big pot.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Pegg! I’m sorry you had trouble with this recipe. It’s hard to know what went wrong without being in the kitchen with you, but did you happen to check the rice after 3 hours? It said 3-6 hours or until rice was tender, so just trying to understand at which point your rice was tender. That is point where it was done, so it shouldn’t of been mush.
Pegg says
I checked it at 3 hours, but the rice wasn’t done. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to check on the cooker for another hour and a half. Every slow cooker is different and I think somewhere in between those hours my cooker was probably ready to be turned off. I thought it would be safe to continue cooking since the directions stated 3-6 hours. I still think cooking it in a big pot would have been better and reducing the amount of thyme.
Sue says
I used long grain white rice instead of brown and sadly, it all turned to mush. I added more broth at the end but it was too late. It tasted wonderful but way too thick. Bummed.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Sue! Did you see the variations on timing in the blog post if using white rice? Also adding more broth would of made it mushier.
Madeleine Fuchs says
Thank you for this very yummy soup. I used a splash of 1/2 and 1/2 .
It is very comforting.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Madeleine! So glad you enjoyed the soup! Thank you for this review!
Ann Carrera says
I don’t have evaporated milk. If I use regular liquid whole milk will I be okay?
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Ann! A suitable substitute for evaporated milk is going to be heavy cream or half and half. Or you can just leave the milk out. Hope you enjoy it!
bridget says
I use 1-2% milk all the time and it works! 🙂
The Recipe Rebel says
Great to hear! Thanks Bridget!
Chyanne Jones says
This is my go to recipe for chicken and rice soup! I love it and my family loves it! Buuuttt I can’t seem to get the rice cooker completely. It just stays kind of crunchy. HELP! Lol
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Chyanne! Which version are you doing, stove top or slow cooker? So glad you enjoy it!
Julia says
Could I use instant rice instead of long grain?
Ashley Fehr says
You can, you will just want to add it in the last 5 minutes
Rebecca says
I bought a routtsierre chicken. Could I just make the soup without the chicken and add it later?
Ashley Fehr says
Yes absolutely!