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Our Chicken and Rice Soup is an easy, delicious meal that’ll fill your house with a comforting aroma. Imagine coming home to tender chicken and fresh herbs that have been simmering for hours. Now that’s chicken soup for the soul!
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This Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice soup is also great for entertaining guests because you can prepare it ahead of time. It’s perfect for those busy days when you need to make something for dinner but don’t have a lot of time to spend on prep work or cooking meals from scratch. It’s truly a fix it and forget it meal that everyone in the family loves. I serve it with some crusty rolls, breadsticks, or my kids’ favorite, cornbread.
Ingredients in Chicken and Rice Soup
- Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
- Chicken broth
- Parboiled rice, long grain rice, brown rice, or make it a chicken wild rice soup by using wild rice (see recipe notes)
- Butter
- Yellow onion
- Garlic
- Medium carrots
- Celery ribs
- Bay leaf
- Parsley
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Thyme
Seasonings for Chicken and Rice Soup
Isn’t it nostalgic to use fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme all in one recipe? These seasonings complement each other so well. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a big Simon and Garfunkel fan. My parents listened to their music when I was growing up and I still listen to it today. I love the song Scarborough Fair/Canticle. It was released on their album, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme”. Scarborough is a town in England and in Medieval times, there was a Fair there that lasted for 45 days! Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme represented virtues that are important to the lyrics of the song. Parsley represented comfort, sage represented strength, rosemary represented love, and thyme represented courage. You can read more about it on songfacts.com.
Health Benefits
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken and Rice Soup are so good for the body and soul, especially when you are feeling under the weather. Studies show that Chicken Soup has properties that soothe cold symptoms like coughs, sore throats, and runny noses. The other veggies in the soup — carrots, celery, onions — also have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Dr. Oz posted an interesting article that gives more details about this called “You Wanted to Know: Chicken Soup.”
After learning this, I feel even better knowing the benefits of this meal! It’s a great source of fiber, protein, and calcium. And if you use low sodium broth, you can keep the cholesterol and saturated fat down without sacrificing flavor. So many good things come from the chicken broth itself. And who doesn’t need comfort, strength, love, and courage? I hope all of this comes to you and more when you enjoy this delicious soup!
Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe Tips
- Use fresh seasonings, as mentioned above. Feel free to add more or less depending on your taste. I tend to use a little more because I love the taste of the seasonings in the soup — especially the sage and rosemary. If I have a seasoning that is losing its flavor, I grind it a little between my fingers before adding it to the soup. This will bring out more of the taste and smell.
- If you want the rice to cook at the same rate as the raw chicken breasts, be sure to use parboiled rice (also called converted rice). This is the best rice and cooks beautifully in the Crockpot. If you prefer basmati, brown, white rice, jasmine rice, wild rice, or even quinoa, prepare 1 cup uncooked rice according to the package directions and stir into the soup just before serving.
- If you are watching fat content, you can totally skip the butter. The butter gives a little more richness to the broth, but it is not necessary. The soup will taste just as good without it.
- Keep the Crockpot lid on while soup is cooking. I know it’s tempting, but each time the lid is removed heat escapes and it add to the cooking time.
- This soup thickens when it cools. I love leftovers of this soup because the flavors really come out after it sits for a day or two, but it will be a thicker soup than when you eat it straight from the Slow Cooker. If you prefer a thinner soup, just add some water to it when re-heating to give it the consistency you desire.
- Reheat the soup either on a pot on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Use rotisserie chicken, chicken thighs, chicken breasts, or any chicken you have on hand for this soup.
- Feel free to toss in any extra veggies you have: broccoli, kale, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on what kind of rice you want to use in the soup. Parboiled rice, also called converted rice, cooks beautifully along with the other ingredients in the soup in the slow cooker. If you prefer using brown, white, or wild rice, prepare the rice in a rice cooker or on the stove top and add to the slow cooker just before serving.
Yes! This is Chicken and Rice Soup can easily be made gluten free! Use a gluten free chicken broth, like Swanson’s Chicken Broth, and you are good to go!
Cook the rice separately and add it to the soup just before serving. If you use parboiled, or converted rice, it won’t get soggy.
This does make a big batch of soup, so you may have leftovers. Allow the soup to cool to room temperature, or close to it. Pour the soup into an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to a week. Rice doesn’t freeze well, so we don’t recommend storing it in the freezer.
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Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Crock Pot (Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut in half
- 1 cup parboiled rice* (also called converted rice)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 teaspoons salt
- pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons parsley
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon sage
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons butter optional
- 9 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in order in a slow cooker. See recipe notes if using brown rice or wild rice.
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
- A few minutes before serving, remove the chicken from slow cooker and shred or cut into cubes.
- Return chicken to the slow cooker, and let it cook for 5-10 more minutes before serving.
- Remove bay leaf and serve soup in individual bowls.
Notes
Alternate method for brown or wild rice:
- If you prefer brown rice or wild rice, leave the parboiled rice out of the slow cooker when adding the other ingredients.
- While the soup is cooking in the slow cooker, prepare 1 cup uncooked brown or wild rice according to package directions. Once cooked, this will yield approximately 3 cups of rice.
- Stir the cooked rice into the soup just before serving.
LOVE made it a few times, making it again today
Thank you for sharing! I’m so glad you love it! 🙂
Hello! I’m excited to try this recipe. I’m thinking about using cooked quinoa at the end. Do you think this will work as I have a rice sensitivity? Thank you!
That should work just fine– would probably be delicious! Let us know how it turns out!
This is not a soup by conventional standards. The recipe as-is will be very thick, more closely resembling stew. But it is very good!
We just made this on the stovetop, 1 1/2 x the recipe to feed our hungry crew and to have leftovers. Cooked the rice separately. It was delicious–loved the herbs!
I’m wondering if the problem folks are having with the rice is that they’re using minutes rice instead of long cooking rice as some say it’s mushy and some say it’s perfect. Haven’t tried this yet but definitely going to…love soups for the fall and winter months.
I am making this recipe today. I hope it all comes out nicely. dumb me went by the picture and added the rice with all ingredients. dumped and wasted all my chicken broth dummy once again! removed all rice i could and put ingredients back in crockpot to cook. reseasoned and all. i made a terrible mess! Thank you for the recipe. I will give review once done!
I made this tonight and I’m guessing, crockpots are different. I followed the recipe to the letter, but when I got home, the carrots were still a little hard and the rice was not cooked at all. I put it on high for another 2 hours, since I have to leave to go to Bible Study. I’m hoping when I return, it will be ready.
Let us know how it turned out! Hope it turned out well for you!
my rice never cooked up either, the broth had a lot of flavor, was looking for a soup recipe that be made in the crock pot…. May have to cook the rice separately…
I put the rice in at the very beginning but found it way too firm so I cooked it one and a half hours longer. Still too firm. I followed the recipe exactly. I will have to cook it longer yet in a stock pot. The flavour was good though.
I think rice is really hard to cook in the slow cooker. Slow cookers cook at different temperatures and it’s hard to judge. We’ve had comments like yours saying the rice doesn’t cook and others say it overcooks. I think the safest bet with this recipe, unless you have used your slow cooker for rice in the past and know it will cook it, is to mix in already cooked rice at the end. I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out in time.
My rice also came out firm. I put it back on for a while. My son is eating it. Smells great. I will try it once it cooks a little while longer
I MADE THIS TONIGHT FOR TOMORROW FOR DINNER IN MY 6 QT CROCKPOT AND WITH ALL THE INGREDIENTS; EXCEPT FOR THYME IT FILLED MY CROCK TO THE TOP. I ADDED MY WHITE RICE AT THE VERY END OF COOKING AND IT TURNED OUT PERFECT. IT NEEDED A TAD BIT MORE SALT BUT THAT’S IT. NO BUTTER OR MARGARINE ADDED. SIMPLY DELICIOUS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE, I WILL DEFINITELY MAKE THIS AGAIN.
I ALSO USED KNORRS TOMATO BOUILLON W/CHICKEN FLAVOR…..9 TSP TO 9 CUPS OF WATER, INSTEAD OF CHICKEN BROTH/STOCK.
Can I add potatoes to this recipe and it still taste great? I’m craving a chicken and potato soup but saw this and fell right in love!
Sure! When you should add the potatoes would depend on how big you cut them. I am sure it would still be great. Give it s try and let us know how it turns out!
If I’m going to use white rice, how should I adapt the recipe?
You can add cooked white rice at the very end. You can also add uncooked the white rice an hour or two so before serving.
I want to make this as a freezer prep meal to save for later. Should I make it in the crock pot first then throw it in the freezer, or throw all uncooked ingredients into a freezer bag, freeze, then pull it out at a later date to put into the crock pot to cook??
Hmmm we have never made it that way before. I am guessing you could throw it all in uncooked. I think if it were me, I would add all the ingredients EXCEPT the rice into the freezer and then when ready to cook, thaw, and put the rice in last. Does that make sense? Hope this helps!
Would this recipe work with some sort of pasta noodle too?
Absolutely! It would work great with pasta. Stir the pasta into the soup 1 hour before serving. It will cook and be ready the same time the rest of the soup is ready. Thanks for asking!
We didn’t have issues with mushy rice. Our rice and vegetables were completely uncooked! So, now we’re having to find something else for dinner at 6:00 in the evening… We’ve changed the setting to high, will let it continue to cook, and maybe eat it tomorrow.
Loved this recipe! My rice was def mushy, but you warned us! May I site you in a post I’m doing for http://www.the-playground-chronicles.com?
Yes, of course! We appreciate you asking!
I made this soup today and added white rice at the two hour mark, by the four hour mark the rice was still completely uncooked. Wondering if the rice would’ve cooked faster if I changed the settings to high?
I Made this soup today, followed recipe, but added cooked rice in at the end. It was delicious. My husband loved it. Thumbs up 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
I made this soup on the weekend, boy is it good. I never comment on a recipe however for this one I thought I should give you guys a 10/10 from Australia.
Hi Deb– thank you so much for your comment! Glad you liked this soup– a 10/10! That is a huge compliment, thank you!!
Thanks for the great recipe! Made it and loved it! I cooked on low for just over 5 hours. Shredded the chicken at 4. I should have chopped the carrots smaller as they weren’t as soft as I’d like. I sautéed 3/4 of the onion and 2 garlic cloves prior to adding to crockpot. I used basmati rice and you’re supposed to soak it prior to cooking so that helps take off starch. I didn’t have issues with the rice getting overly soft. But I like it soft too so I did add it at the beginning. Great flavour too! Will make again by I think I’ll do chicken things and breasts.
Thank you for sharing, Sarah. I’m so glad you liked it!
I want to add frozen corn to recipe. Do you think I should add from the start or towards the end?
Great idea! I would add it the last hour of cooking. Thanks for asking!