Chicken and Mushroom Wild Rice Soup

For a hearty and delicious soup try this creamy chicken and mushroom wild rice soup. Full of veggies, tender chicken and wild rice this is a meal in a bowl kind of soup. A healthy, filling soup to warm you on cold days and it’s easy to make! 

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We had 2 Thanksgiving dinners at my house this year, one of which was for my son’s Friendsgiving. Anyway I was trying to think of what to make with the leftovers and my husband suggested a soup. So I made this chicken and mushroom wild rice soup but with turkey.

We liked it so much I now make it with chicken but come next Thanksgiving I willl probably use leftover turkey! I used 5 vegetables (onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and spinach), already cooked chicken and a box of wild rice with the seasoning. The result was a super flavorful creamy broth to make a very filling soup.

This is the perfect soup for dinner kind of meal. Just add a salad and crusty bread and you are set. This was pretty easy to make too. You have to chop the veggies but other wise it’s pretty much a dump and go kind of recipe. It also freezes well so you can have it on hand for an easy dinner on busy weeknights!

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

The simple ingredients I used to make this recipe is chicken, wild rice blend mix, onion, carrots, celery, fresh mushrooms, butter, garlic, broth, Better than Bouillon chicken base, spinach and cream cheese. You can add salt and black pepper too but the wild rice mix has a lot of flavor and a bit of saltiness so I didn’t think it needed it.

Chicken
I used cooked rotisserie chicken for this recipe. I often buy a few, chop up the chicken into bite size pieces and save in baggies in the freezer for meals like this. You can use white meat, dark meat (chicken thighs) or even leftover chicken from another meal. This would also be great with leftover turkey!

Wild Rice Blend Mix
This was pretty key to the recipe. Instead of plain wild rice I bought the mix. It was an accident the first time I made this. I didn’t know it had the added spices but it turned out great so I use this mix I get from Aldi all the time now.

Cream Cheese
I used this to create a creamy soup but if you don’t have any you can use heavy cream instead. Just add it at the end. You could also use canned coconut milk if you are dairy free but it would add a bit of a different flavor. 

Also I used this to thicken the soup instead of adding flour or corn starch. The result is a thinner broth than without the flour but it’s very tasty regardless.

Veggies
I used carrots, celery and yellow onion which I think are essential to any soup but the spinach and mushrooms are extra. I love the flavor of both and it’s a good soup to add extra veggies. If you don’t like them then you can eliminate them.

Broth and Better than Bouillon Chicken Base
I used Better than Bouillon in all my soups and many, many more recipes on this blog because it has such delicious flavor. I highly recommend it, however you can also use regular bouillon with water or just chicken broth or chicken stock. You might have to add a bit more seasoning though.

I also used butter instead of olive oil because I like the flavor with the mushrooms. However you can easily substitute olive oil for butter if you want. 

How to make chicken and mushroom wild rice soup.

Step 1: Get out a large dutch oven or soup pan and heat to medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and when it is melted add the sliced mushrooms. Turn the heat down to medium heat and saute the mushrooms until they start to brown. I like cooking the mushrooms first in butter so they brown and add a bit more flavor.

Step 2: Next add the rest of the butter and along with the onions, carrots and celery. Cook until the vegetable mixture has softened a bit. Add the better than bouillon to the veggies and mix to incorporate and then add in the broth. Mix well.

Step 3: Stir in the box of rice with its seasonings. Mix well and then bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes until the rice cooks through. It will have a chewy texture but not too chewy. Check on it every once and while to make sure it doesn’t boil over.

Step 4: Take off the lid and add in the chicken pieces and simmer for another 5 minutes. At this point taste the broth and season with salt and black pepper if you feel it needs it. Like I mentioned above I felt the seasoning in the wild rice box was enough flavor and salt for me. 

Step 5: Then take a ladle full of just the hot broth and place in a medium bowl. Add the cream cheese and mix to combine. You can add the cream cheese to the pot but it’s harder to get it melt nicely. Pour back in the pot along with the chopped spinach. Mix well and let cook for a few minutes more and it’s done.

Let cool for a few minutes then ladle into soup bowl and enjoy! Store leftover soup in an airtight container. I like to also freeze this soup in individual portions for a quick lunch. Note you could garnish with fresh parsley for color but adding the spinach at the end will keep it pretty green.

Serve this with crusty bread and green salad to make it a complete meal. It’s a very hearty and filling soup so it great for a light supper. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

To make this in a slow cooker.

You won’t be able to brown the mushrooms so just add everything except the cooked chicken, cream cheese and spinach to the slow cooker or crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Note cooking times may vary.

When the veggies and wild rice are soft and chewy respectively, take a ladle or two full of the hot broth out of the slow cooker and add to a medium bowl and whisk with cream cheese. Then add that back to the pot along with the cooked chicken and spinach and let it sit in there and combine with the rest of the soup. That’s all there is to it!

You could also probably use boneless skinless chicken breast and put it in the crockpot at the beginning. You would want to take it out at the end and chop or even shreds and add back to the crock.

More tasty and hearty soup recipes to try.

I’ve become an avid soup maker over the years and here are few of my favorite recipes though I have over 53 delicious soup recipes!

• tortellini and meatball or creamy tortellini
• ham and cabbage
• pasta fagioli
• vegetable beef noodle and chunky chicken noodle
• the easiest and best wedding soup
• green chicken enchilada or corn and poblano
• beef barley or chicken barley

Well I was quite happy with this chicken and mushroom wild rice soup. Originally I made it with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving but now I just use chicken. It’s a hearty warming bowl of soup for cold days. I hope you love it as much as we do!