Description
This ultimate chicken mushroom wild rice soup recipe is creamy, hearty, and perfect for comfort food cravings. Easy stovetop, Instant Pot, and slow cooker methods included!
Ingredients
What You Actually Need:
- 2 tbsp butter (or olive oil if you’re out of butter)
- 1½ lb chicken thighs, boneless (thighs are key – don’t use breasts)
- 1 onion, chopped however you want
- 2 carrots, diced small so kids don’t pick them out
- 2 celery stalks, sliced thin
- 2 garlic cloves, just smash them with your knife
- 10 oz mushrooms, any kind from the store
- 5 cups chicken broth (I buy the boxes at Costco)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste from the little can
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp white wine if you have an open bottle
- Fresh thyme sprigs or 1 tsp dried
- 1 cup wild rice, rinsed under cold water
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Fresh parsley for looks
- Salt and black pepper
Instructions
1. Put butter in your biggest pot and melt it over medium heat. Don’t use high heat or the butter burns and tastes bitter.
2. Brown the chicken thighs on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. They don’t need to cook through completely. Just get some color on them. Take them out and put them on a plate. Don’t clean the pot.
3. In the same pot with all those brown bits, add your chopped onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything starts getting soft. This is called a mirepoix if you want to sound fancy.
4. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. They’ll release liquid and shrink down. That liquid is flavor gold so don’t drain it off.
5. Add the smashed garlic and stir for maybe 30 seconds until you can smell it. Don’t let it burn or it gets bitter.
6. Put the chicken back in the pot. Add the chicken broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, wine if using, and thyme. Stir everything together until the tomato paste dissolves.
7. Add the wild rice that you rinsed. Bring everything to a boil, then turn heat down to low and cover with a lid. Simmer for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.
8. Take out the chicken pieces and shred them with two forks. They should fall apart easily if they’re cooked enough. Put the shredded chicken back in the soup.
9. Stir in the heavy cream and taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper until it tastes right to you. Every brand of chicken broth has different salt levels so you’ll need to adjust.
10. Serve hot with chopped parsley on top if you want to look like you know what you’re doing.
I got an Instant Pot two Christmases ago and finally figured out how to use it for this soup. Use the sauté function to brown the chicken and cook the vegetables first. Don’t skip this step even though it’s tempting – it makes a huge difference in flavor.
Add everything except the cream and parsley. Seal the lid and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Let it naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release the rest. Shred the chicken, stir in the cream, and you’re done in half the time.
This works but requires an extra step. Brown the chicken and vegetables in a regular pan on the stove first, then transfer everything to your slow cooker. Add the broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire, wine, thyme, and wild rice. Cook on low for 5½ hours.
Shred the chicken, stir in the cream, and cook for another 30 minutes. The slow cooker method takes longer but it’s hands-off once you get it started.
Notes
Wild rice should be tender but still have a little bite when it’s done. Start checking it at 35 minutes. If it gets mushy, you’ve overcooked it and there’s no going back.
Taste your soup before adding salt. Some chicken broths are really salty already and you might not need any extra. I learned this the hard way when I over-salted a whole pot.
If you accidentally curdle the cream, don’t throw the soup away. Scoop out a cup of the soup and blend it until smooth, then stir it back in. It helps fix the texture.
Fresh thyme is way better than dried but dried works if that’s what you have. Use about 1 teaspoon of dried thyme instead of the fresh sprigs. Add it with the broth.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop, Instant Pot, Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American