Chicken Rice Soup

Chicken Rice Soup is the perfect comfort food for a cold day or when you’re sick. With hearty ingredients like chicken, carrots, celery, and brown rice.

Just like Beef and Cabbage Roll Soup or White Bean Kale Soup, this Chicken and Rice Soup is an easy One-pot Meal, that’s perfect for weeknight dinners.

Chicken Rice Soup in bowl

CHICKEN RICE SOUP

This gluten-free Chicken Rice Soup is sure to become a go-to comfort food in your household. It has all the classic ingredients you’d expect from chicken noodle soup like chicken broth, hearty chicken, carrots, and celery. Making the soup with brown rice makes it even healthier. Plus, rice is gluten-free, which noodles aren’t.

On top of being gluten-free, this recipe is also dairy-free and relatively low-sodium. A lot of Chicken Soup recipes have you use a store-bought chicken broth, which are often high in sodium. For this recipe make your own chicken stock by cooking the chicken, celery, carrots, and garlic in water.

Chicken Rice Soup collage

This soup is especially great if you or anyone in your family is feeling under the weather. It’s full of protein and important nutrients, but it’s easy on the throat and the stomach. Serve it with a Yogurt Biscuit to dip in the broth for the perfect meal when you have a cold.

It’s also very easy to make. The total time is a little over an hour and a half. Don’t let that intimidate you though, most of the cook time is just a matter of leaving the ingredients to simmer together in the dutch oven.

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Chicken Rice Soup collage

VARIATIONS ON CHICKEN AND RICE SOUP

  • Chicken Breasts: This soup recipe calls for bone-in, skinless chicken thighs. However, you can still make the chicken soup with boneless chicken breasts. Just keep in mind that the chicken breasts will cook faster than chicken thighs because they’re made up of white meat.
  • Chicken Noodle Soup: Instead of making a rice soup, you can use the same basic recipe for a classic chicken noodle soup. Prepare the easy chicken and vegetables as usual. Instead of preparing brown rice, boil some egg noodles to add to the broth.
  • More Rice Options: This Rice Soup recipe uses long grain brown rice, but you can use almost any rice in Rice Soup. Try white rice or wild rice for a Wild Rice Soup. Just keep in mind white rice isn’t as healthy as brown rice. Whatever rice you use it will be a hearty and filling Chicken Soup your whole family will enjoy.
  • Add-Ins: There are some flavor add-ins you can mix into the Chicken Soup broth. Try adding some extra spices like minced cloves, onion powder, fresh thyme, or chopped parsley. You could also add a little bit of lemon juice for some tart flavoring in the broth. ½ tablespoon or so of lemon juice will play off the chicken broth well without overpowering the other ingredients.

Chicken Rice Soup in pot

MORE WAYS TO MAKE CHICKEN AND RICE SOUP

You can also make this soup recipe in the Instant Pot or in a slow cooker. The cook time will change, but the flavor of the soup should be the familiar taste you love.

Instapot Easy Chicken Soup

  1. Set your Instant Pot to sauté mode. Add olive oil, diced onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.
  2. Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes on each side. Remove the chicken and cut or shred it.
  3. Pour in chicken broth.
  4. Add the shredded chicken and rice back into the Instant Pot. Pressure cook for 15 minutes, then quick release for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Rice Soup in bowls

Slow Cooker Rice Soup Recipe

  1. Put the chicken, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and water in the slow cooker to make the broth.
  2. Cook on medium-high for 3-4 hours.
  3. Add the rice and cook on medium-low for another hour.
  4. Remove the chicken and cut it into bite-sized or shredded pieces. Add it back to the chicken soup.
  5. If the rice is cooked, remove the bay leaf and serve.

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HOW TO STORE CHICKEN AND RICE SOUP

  • Serve: After it’s cooked, don’t leave Chicken and Rice Soup at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
  • Store: Keep cooked Chicken and Rice Soup in the fridge for 3-4 days. Let it cool completely before storing the broth and ingredients in an airtight container.
  • Freeze: Chicken Rice Soup can be frozen for up to 6 months. Put it in an airtight container or heavy duty freezer bag. Make sure it’s properly sealed so none of the chicken broth leaks. The next time you’re ready to eat some chicken soup let it defrost in the fridge, then reheat it on the stovetop. It’s an easy pre-cooked dinner.

Chicken Rice Soup in bowl

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Chicken Rice Soup

Chicken Rice Soup is the perfect comfort food for a cold day, or when you're sick. With hearty ingredients like chicken, carrots, celery, and brown rice.
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Soup
Cuisine American

Ingredients
 

  • 4 chicken thighs , skin removed
  • 1 large onion , diced
  • 3 large carrots , peeled and chopped
  • 4 stalks celery , chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic , minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 1/2 cups long-grain brown rice
  • 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Place the chicken in a dutch oven cover with 6 cups of water. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to medium heat.
  • Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and bay leaves, then cover and cook for 1 hour.
  • Remove the chicken from the dutch oven and set aside. Add the rice to the dutch oven, then cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
  • Remove the chicken bones and chop the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces.
  • Remove from heat, add the chicken, salt, and pepper, and stir. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 188kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 55mg | Sodium: 953mg | Potassium: 305mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 4648IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1mg
Keyword: Chicken Rice Soup

Chicken Rice Soup collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a trained professional chef who has cooked for private clients for over a dozen years. Experienced in handling dietary restrictions, allergies and picky kid eaters, she's well versed in coming up with healthy, yet flavorful recipes.

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