This slow cooker chicken and wild rice soup recipe is one of those wonderfully simple meals that does most of the work for you. Chicken, whole-grain wild rice, mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and broth cook low and slow until everything is tender and flavorful.
Then, right at the end, a little heavy cream turns the broth rich and creamy. The result is a hearty, nourishing soup that tastes like exactly what you want simmering away on a chilly fall or winter day.
It’s recipes like this and easy chicken masala, tender slow cooker BBQ pork, or a quick pantry soup I love for busy days because you can get everything into the slow cooker, walk away, and come back to dinner nearly finished. No complicated techniques. No long list of specialty ingredients. Just a practical, filling meal made with real food.
Quick Look at This Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- ✅ Ready In: About 4 to 5 hours, plus prep time
- ✅ Yield: 8 servings
- ✅ Calories: Approximately 215 calories per serving, depending on the chicken, broth, cream, and mushrooms used
- ✅ Tools: Slow cooker, cutting board, sharp knife, measuring cups and spoons
- ✅ Freezer Friendly: Yes, with a few considerations for the cream and rice. See the storage instructions below.
- ✅ Why You'll Love It: Creamy, hearty, hands-off, and made with simple ingredients that turn into a filling family meal.
- ✅ Tip: Check your wild rice for tenderness before serving. Slow cookers vary, so use the cooking time as a guide rather than relying on the clock alone.
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What Makes This Recipe Unique?
If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t have time to spend all afternoon making dinner,” this is a really good recipe to keep tucked away. It gives you that homemade, from-scratch meal without asking you to stand over the stove for hours.
- Simple prep: Everything except the cream goes straight into the slow cooker.
- A complete, satisfying meal: You’re getting chicken, vegetables, whole grain wild rice, and a creamy broth all in one bowl.
- Perfect for colder weather: It’s warm, creamy, hearty, and just right for those days when the sun goes down early, and everybody comes inside hungry.
- Made with familiar ingredients: There’s nothing fussy here, and you can make several substitutions based on what you already have.
- Easy to fit into real life: Start it after lunch, and dinner can be waiting for you later in the day.
- Family-friendly: The mild, creamy flavors make this a wonderful soup to put in front of the whole family.
That’s what practical cooking should do. It should work with your day, not make your day harder.
Key Ingredients
For a full list of ingredients and measurements, check out the recipe card below.
- Whole Grain Wild Rice - Wild rice has a pleasantly chewy texture and earthy flavor that stands up beautifully to several hours in the slow cooker. Make sure you’re using whole grain wild rice rather than assuming every packaged “wild rice” product will cook the same way. Rice blends can contain other grains with different cooking times and may give you a different final texture.
- Vegetables - A combination of mushrooms, carrots, onions, and celery builds the flavor base for our creamy chicken and wild rice soup recipe. There’s something so satisfying about seeing those simple vegetables turn into a rich, warming meal after a few hours of slow cooking.
- Chicken Broth - Homemade chicken bone broth is wonderful here if you have it, but use the broth that works for your kitchen.
- Heavy Cream - A half cup of heavy cream goes in at the very end. That’s enough to give the broth its creamy finish without turning the entire soup into a heavy cream sauce. And adding it at the end is important. We don’t need the cream cooking away for four or five hours.
Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Variations
One of the things I find really helpful for cooking from scratch is understanding what each ingredient is doing in a recipe. Once you understand the why, it becomes much easier to confidently work with what you have.
- Use chicken thighs or breasts. You can use any cut of boneless, skinless chicken, so use what you already have.
- Try different mushrooms. White button or cremini mushrooms are both natural choices, but the recipe itself allows for any variety.
- Add extra vegetables. If you have vegetables that need to be used, you can experiment with adding them. Just remember that different vegetables cook at different rates and may change the liquid level or final texture.
- Adjust the creaminess. I recommend making the recipe as written the first time, then deciding whether you’d like to adjust it the next time around.
- Using a wild rice blend? This is one substitution where I’d be careful. A blend containing brown rice or other grains may cook differently from whole grain wild rice. Check the package and watch the texture closely.
And don’t worry about making every meal perfectly. Use what you have, learn what your family likes, and make a note for next time. That’s how cooking becomes second nature instead of something you have to Google every time.
Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Fill the Slow Cooker
Place the diced onion, celery, carrots, chopped mushrooms, minced garlic, wild rice, raw chicken, salt, and pepper into the crock of your slow cooker.
Pour the chicken broth over everything.
Step 2: Cook the Soup
Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours.
Because slow cookers can vary, begin checking toward the earlier end of that range. You’re looking for fully cooked chicken and tender wild rice.
For food safety, chicken should reach a safe internal temperature of 165°F (74°C) when checked in the thickest portion with a food thermometer.
Step 3: Shred the Chicken
When the cooking time is over, remove the chicken from the slow cooker.
Chop or shred it into bite-sized pieces, then return it to the soup.
Step 4: Make It Creamy
Stir in ½ cup heavy cream.
Give everything a good stir and serve warm.
That’s it. A big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup without spending your afternoon hovering over the stove.
Tips and Troubleshooting
My Wild Rice Is Still Too Firm
Give it a little more time. Slow cookers don’t all heat exactly the same way, and whole grain wild rice naturally has more chew than white rice.
If the chicken is already done, remove it while the rice continues cooking so you don’t unnecessarily overcook the meat. Return the shredded chicken before finishing the soup.
My Soup Is Thicker Than I Expected
Rice continues absorbing liquid as it sits. If the soup becomes thicker than you’d like, stir in a little additional broth until you reach the consistency you want.
This is especially helpful with leftovers.
My Soup Is Too Thin
First, remember that this is soup, so you do want plenty of broth. If you’d prefer it thicker, allow it to sit briefly after adding the cream. The rice will continue absorbing some of that liquid.
Can I Put Raw Chicken in the Slow Cooker?
Yes, the recipe is designed for the raw chicken to cook directly in the slow cooker with the other ingredients.
What matters is that the chicken is fully cooked before serving. Use an instant-read thermometer rather than trying to determine doneness by appearance alone. The chicken should reach 165°F (74°C).
When Should I Add the Heavy Cream?
At the end.
Let the chicken, vegetables, broth, and rice do their slow cooking first. Once the chicken is cooked and shredded, stir in the cream and serve.
It’s a tiny extra step, but it gives you that lovely creamy finish.
Serving Suggestions
This slow cooker chicken and wild rice soup recipe is hearty enough to be a meal all on its own, but a thick slice of fresh-baked no-knead artisan bread alongside it is pretty hard to beat. This sourdough dinner rolls recipe is a favorite, but whatever bread you already have on hand will be just right for soaking up that creamy broth.
If you want to round out the meal a little more, add a simple green salad or some roasted fall vegetables.
And really, this doesn’t need to be complicated. Put the slow cooker right on the table, add a basket of warm bread, and let everybody fill their bowls. It’s simple, nourishing food that makes a chilly evening around the family table feel just a little cozier.
Storing Crock Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- Refrigerator: Cool leftover soup promptly and transfer it to covered containers. Refrigerate within two hours and use within 3 to 4 days. Keep in mind that wild rice will continue absorbing broth in the refrigerator. Your leftovers may look substantially thicker the following day. That’s normal. Add a splash of broth when reheating if needed.
- Reheating: Reheat leftovers until they reach 165°F (74°C). You can gently reheat the soup on the stovetop, stirring occasionally, or reheat individual portions in the microwave.
- Freezer: You can freeze leftovers, although cream-based soups can sometimes separate slightly after freezing and thawing, and the rice may soften further.
- Make Ahead: For the best make-ahead results, if you’re intentionally preparing a batch for the freezer, consider freezing the soup before adding the heavy cream, then thawing, reheating, and adding the cream when you’re ready to serve.
FAQs
It’s wonderfully simple. Add the onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, whole grain wild rice, raw chicken, seasonings, and chicken broth directly to your slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours. Once the chicken is fully cooked and the wild rice is tender, remove and shred the chicken, return it to the slow cooker, then stir in the heavy cream just before serving.
One of the biggest things to watch is the rice. Whole grain wild rice and wild rice blends don’t necessarily cook the same way, so make sure you’re using the type of rice called for in the recipe. Also, don’t add the heavy cream at the beginning. Stir it in at the end for the best creamy texture. And remember, slow cookers vary, so check the chicken and rice for doneness rather than relying only on the clock.
Yes. This recipe is specifically designed for the raw chicken to cook right in the slow cooker along with the broth, vegetables, and wild rice. Just make sure the chicken is completely cooked before serving. For safety, I recommend checking the thickest part with an instant-read thermometer to make sure it has reached 165°F (74°C).
Not for this slow cooker chicken and wild rice soup recipe. Add the uncooked whole grain wild rice directly to the slow cooker, and it will cook right along with everything else. It absorbs all that wonderful chicken broth and flavor as it cooks, which is one of the reasons this recipe is so easy.
The Homestead Kitchen
This creamy chicken and wild rice soup recipe was featured in issue No.63 of the Homestead Kitchen magazine. This is the magazine we wish we had when we first started homesteading!
I wanted to make healthy, delicious meals from scratch that my family loved, but Better Homes & Gardens didn’t really prepare me for the overwhelming abundance of the seasonal, homesteading life.
What do you do with all those eggs? Those bushels of green beans? That 25-lb bag of wheat berries? Or all that basil?
We started publishing the Homestead Kitchen magazine to give homesteaders an affordable, inspiring read chock-full of the BEST recipes, DIY projects, and tips to make homesteading doable and FUN.
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Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Recipe
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- knife
- cutting board
- measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Onion diced
- 3 Ribs Celery diced
- 2 Medium Carrots diced
- 6 Ounces Mushroom chopped
- 5 Cloves Garlic minced
- 1 Cup Wild Rice whole grain
- 1 Pound Chicken Breast or cut of choice
- 1 teaspoon Salt We use Redmond Real Salt. Use that link to automatically get 15% off your order! https://homesteadingfamily.com/redmond-real-salt-b
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- 8 Cups Chicken Broth I recommend homemade chicken bone broth.
- ½ Cup Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Place the onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, wild rice, raw chicken, salt, and pepper in the crock of a slow cooker. Pour the chicken broth over the top.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours, or until the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C) and the wild rice is tender.
- Remove the chicken and chop or shred it into bite-sized pieces.
- Return the chicken to the slow cooker.
- Stir in the heavy cream.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then serve warm.
Notes
- My Wild Rice Is Still Too Firm - Give it a little more time. Slow cookers don’t all heat exactly the same way, and whole grain wild rice naturally has more chew than white rice. If the chicken is already done, remove it while the rice continues cooking so you don’t unnecessarily overcook the meat. Return the shredded chicken before finishing the soup.
- My Soup Is Thicker Than I Expected - Rice continues absorbing liquid as it sits. If the soup becomes thicker than you’d like, stir in a little additional broth until you reach the consistency you want. This is especially helpful with leftovers.
- My Soup Is Too Thin - First, remember that this is soup, so you do want plenty of broth. If you’d prefer it thicker, allow it to sit briefly after adding the cream. The rice will continue absorbing some of that liquid.
- Can I Put Raw Chicken in the Slow Cooker? Yes, the recipe is designed for the raw chicken to cook directly in the slow cooker with the other ingredients. What matters is that the chicken is fully cooked before serving. Use an instant-read thermometer rather than trying to determine doneness by appearance alone. The chicken should reach 165°F (74°C).
- When Should I Add the Heavy Cream? At the end. Let the chicken, vegetables, broth, and rice do their slow cooking first. Once the chicken is cooked and shredded, stir in the cream and serve. It’s a tiny extra step, but it gives you that lovely creamy finish.
- Refrigerator: Cool leftover soup promptly and transfer it to covered containers. Refrigerate within two hours and use within 3 to 4 days. Keep in mind that wild rice will continue absorbing broth in the refrigerator. Your leftovers may look substantially thicker the following day. That’s normal. Add a splash of broth when reheating if needed.
- Reheating: Reheat leftovers until they reach 165°F (74°C). You can gently reheat the soup on the stovetop, stirring occasionally, or reheat individual portions in the microwave.
- Freezer: You can freeze leftovers, although cream-based soups can sometimes separate slightly after freezing and thawing, and the rice may soften further.
- Make Ahead: For the best make-ahead results, if you’re intentionally preparing a batch for the freezer, consider freezing the soup before adding the heavy cream, then thawing, reheating, and adding the cream when you’re ready to serve.
