Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
A cozy, creamy soup built on a light roux base, loaded with tender chicken, mushrooms, wild rice, and a generous helping of vegetables and fresh spinach. The kind of one-pot dinner that makes the whole kitchen smell like home.
- 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 1 small white or yellow onion, peeled and diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 6 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock)
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, diced
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups plain milk (cow's milk or plant-based milk)
- 2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
- Fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- Melt the butter or heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, celery, and garlic, and sauté for another 3 minutes.
- Stir in the flour and cook for 1 more minute, stirring frequently — this brief cook removes the raw flour taste before any liquid goes in.
- Gradually pour in the chicken stock, stirring constantly as you go so the flour dissolves smoothly into the broth rather than forming clumps. Add the chicken breasts, mushrooms, wild rice, rosemary, and bay leaves, and stir to combine.
- Bring the soup to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 40 to 45 minutes, until the wild rice is tender, stirring every 5 to 7 minutes so nothing catches on the bottom of the pot.
- Use tongs to transfer the chicken breasts to a clean plate. Dice the chicken or shred it with two forks into bite-sized pieces, then stir it back into the soup.
- Stir in the milk and chopped baby spinach until combined and heated through.
- Remove and discard the bay leaves. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed, then serve warm.
Chef's Note: The light roux at the start — flour cooked briefly in butter before the stock goes in — is what gives this soup its creamy body without needing a heavy cream base. Stirring constantly as you pour in the stock is worth the extra attention; it's the difference between a smooth, velvety broth and one with stubborn little flour clumps floating through it.
Short on time or working from leftovers? Swap the raw chicken breasts for 3 to 4 cups of precooked diced or shredded chicken, stirring it in during the last few minutes just to heat through. This recipe also adapts well to other appliances: for an Instant Pot, pressure-cook the vegetables, stock, chicken, wild rice, rosemary, and bay leaves on high for 30 minutes with a 10-minute natural release, then whisk the butter, flour, and milk into a separate thickener to stir in before finishing with steps 4 onward. For a slow cooker, cook the same base on low for 6 to 8 hours (or high for 3 to 4), then finish the same way.
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