Creamy Chicken Rice Soup
January 14, 2018
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Creamy Chicken Rice Soup: Creamy, cozy, and hearty soup packed with chicken, mushrooms, and rice. Perfect to warm up your winter.
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Brrr! I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but the temperature around these parts has been downright cold these past few weeks. Chris and I staved-off the cold with a hearty bowl of this bone-warming creamy chicken rice soup (and our bone-warming furnace!).
Add rice and vegetables for a hearty creamy chicken rice soup
I like this creamy chicken rice soup a lot. It goes beyond the typical broth + meat + noodle combo, using a mixture of brown and wild rice to add a hearty, rich texture. The brown rice makes the soup thicker and fuller, and the wild rice lends a surprising little chew. It’s fun to eat!
I like my soup vegetables soft (am I the only one??), so I start by cooking the vegetables until they are soft all the way through before adding any broth. I find that this is the only way to actually get them soft — they just never seem to get any softer in the broth. My recommendation is to cook the vegetables separately until they are close to your desired softness, and then and only then add the broth and continue the recipe.
Cook the chicken in the broth
On the other hand, cooking the chicken directly in the broth works awesomely! It imbues the chicken with all that delicious brothy flavor, and mushrooms add a meaty flavor (umami for the win!). Near the end of this creamy chicken rice soup recipe I enhanced the broth with a quick, simple, white sauce to add creaminess and hold all the flavors and textures together in a cozy, warm, fill-your-tummy-in-winter way.
Other delicious soup recipes to help get you through the winter:
- Beef Barley Soup – 2teaspoons
- French Onion Soup – 2teaspoons
- Turkey Enchillada Quinoa Soup – half baked harvest
- Homemade Tomato Soup with Warm Goat Cheese Toast – seasons & suppers
Creamy Chicken Rice Soup
Ingredients
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2 tablespoons olive oil
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1 cup diced carrots
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1 cup diced onions
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1 cup diced celery
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16-20 ounces by weight sliced mushrooms
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1 teaspoon salt
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1 teaspoon pepper
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1 teaspoon dried thyme
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4 cups chicken broth
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2 cups water
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1 cup dried rice I used half brown rice and half wild rice
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1 bay leaf
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1 lb boneless skinless chicken (breasts or thighs)
White Sauce
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2 tablespoons butter
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3 tablespoons flour
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1 cup milk
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1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half
Garnish
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salt and pepper to taste
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parsley optional
Instructions
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Heat oil on medium heat in a large dutch oven or soup pot. Add carrots, onion, celery, and mushrooms. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes.
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Add salt, pepper, and thyme, and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
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Stir in broth, water, rice, and bay leaf. Place whole chicken pieces into broth. Simmer until chicken and rice are fully cooked, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
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Once chicken and rice are fully cooked, make white sauce by melting butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Whisk in flour and let cook for a few minutes, whisking constantly. Slowly pour in milk, whisking constantly, until combined. Remove from heat. Stir in cream. Set aside.
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Remove bay leaf and chicken from soup pot. Discard bay leaf. Shred or dice chicken, and return chicken to pot.
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Stir milk mixture into soup pot. Simmer until desired thickness, about 10-15 minutes. Add extra milk or cream if soup becomes too thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with optional parsley. Enjoy with warm, crusty bread!
