My Creamy Chicken Minnesota Wild Rice Soup is a hearty chicken soup with Minnesota wild rice, vegetables, and cream that is equally as wonderful for the cold winters here up North or any day of the year!
Amazing hearty wild rice soup!
Since my family and I have now been living in the state of Minnesota for almost eight years, I figured it was time to integrate a few of the local ingredients and culinary dishes (think hot dish and beef commercial dinners) into my recipes and the site.
This easy, Creamy Chicken Minnesota Wild Rice Soup is well worth the extra saucepan to cook up the Minnesota native wild rice!
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Do you love chicken soups? Try my classic chicken noodle soup or my best ever chicken tortilla soup! Serve this creamy chicken wild rice soup with a buttered slice of my quick and easy French bread. Enjoy!!
🤔 What is Minnesota Wild Rice?
Integrating this rice-that's-not-a-rice was a logical first to me as I absolutely love the texture and nuttiness that the seed head of the aquatic marsh grasses produce. So...botanically Minnesota wild rice isn't a grain, but nutritionally it has all of the qualities of a grain and is super healthy for you. Kind of like quinoa, being a pseudo-grain. It's also one of the only rices you can get that is free of arsenic.
Minnesota adopted the wild rice variety as their state grain in 1977 and it has been a staple food of the local Ojibwe tribes for centuries. Must be good stuff!!
We are using a brand of wild rice found in Wal-Mart stores (KC's) that is very reasonably priced for such a select rice, around $5. Some of the soup blends of wild rice are priced a little lower, but the rice goes a long way and is worth buying a really good quality Minnesota wild rice.
🥘 Ingredients
- Minnesota Wild Rice - raw, rinsed and cooked as directed below.
- Chicken Stock (bone broth or broth) - vegetable broth can also be used if you want to omit the chicken and make a vegetarian version with something wonderful like cremini (baby bella) mushrooms!
- Butter - salted butter to saute your mirepoix vegetables
- Yellow Onion - sweet yellow onions are preferred by my family, white onion is also an option. Finely dice your onion (I used a food processor for my onion, carrots and celery).
- Carrots - around 3 medium to large carrots, washed and cut (I used a food processor for my onion, carrots and celery).
- Celery - around 4 larger ribs of celery, washed and cut (I used a food processor for my onion, carrots and celery).
- Bay Leaves - 2 to 3 bay leaves added with the seasoning for the soup, to be removed before serving your finished creamy chicken Minnesota wild rice soup.
- Thyme - fresh or dried thyme is a wonderful addition to anything with chicken in it. Rosemary and marjoram work as substitutions.
- Parsley - chopped fresh parsley is also one of those herbs that really works well with chicken, don't skip it and save some for garnish when serving.
- Garlic Powder - or crushed and finely chopped fresh garlic cloves, for me I want the flavor of garlic in the soup so have opted for powder.
- Chicken Bouillon - I use Knorr brand chicken bouillon cubes which are larger than the usual squares, either will work, and Better than Bouillon can also be used to really heighten the chicken flavor of the soup.
- Salt & Pepper - starting with a small amount of about a ½ teaspoon each, add more to taste and personal preferences as tasting the soup while cooking.
- Dry White Wine - (Pinot Grigio) is my favorite when cooking savory dishes, but you can add some additional chicken stock if you don't have wine on hand.
- Cooked Chicken - use up any leftover chicken, turkey or a rotisserie chicken if you have one on hand. When I roast a whole chicken, I save the carcass to make my own stock (as time allows) which would be the base for this soup!
- Heavy Cream - Just a bit of heavy cream (or Half & Half) to add the creamy texture to my soup, but not enough to wash out all of the wonderful flavors that have been added.
🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
Minnesota wild rice should be thoroughly rinsed in hot water using a fine mesh sieve for a minimum of 3o seconds. Place 1 cup raw wild rice into a saucepan of 3 cups boiling chicken stock, stir, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 45 minutes then drain off any excess liquid. Set aside for use in the soup. *If the package instructions for your wild rice vary greatly (ie. instant wild rice will not take as long to cook, hand harvested wild rice will need more liquid), follow the cooking times and amounts as recommended on the package instructions.
- Start with 1 cup of rinsed, raw wild rice in a saucepan with the heated 3 cup portion of chicken stock while you prep the rest of the soup ingredients (see above). *Using the chicken stock will add another layer of flavor to your wild rice, but I strain the cooked wild rice and discard the stock that was used as it may add a bitter flavor to the soup.
- In a stock pot or a dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, carrots, and celery (I like the mirepoix vegetables in this soup finely chopped, so will often do a rough chop and then blitz them a few times in a food processor). Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the carrots are softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add seasoning (thyme, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper) as well as the bay leaves and a chicken bouillon cube. Add dry white wine and chicken stock, then stir to combine.
- Increase heat to high and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add chopped chicken, cooked Minnesota wild rice, and heavy cream. Continue to simmer until the chicken is heated through, about 4-5 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed to personal preferences.
The Minnesota wild rice can be cooked in advance (if desired) and stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator (for up to 2 days) until ready to use in your soup.
🥡 Storing & Reheating
Store any unused portions of your chicken and wild rice soup in an air tight container and refrigerate cream soups for 3-4 days. I do not suggest freezing this soup as cream based soups tend to separate once thawed and reheated.
To reheat your creamy chicken Minnesota wild rice soup, simply add to a saucepan and heat on low, stirring occasionally, until warmed all the way through (for multiple servings). My daughter loves this soup and microwaves her individual portions for 2-3 minutes, stirring half way through heating, with wonderful results!
📋 Recipe
Creamy Chicken Minnesota Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw wild rice (rinsed thoroughly in hot water using a fine mesh sieve)
- 9 cups chicken stock (divided - 6 cups for the soup, 3 cups for cooking the wild rice)
- ¼ cup butter (salted)
- ½ cup yellow onion (peeled, finely diced)
- 3 carrots (washed, diced)
- 4 ribs celery (washed, diced - use the green leaves from the celery if you have them)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped - use another ½ to tablespoon of chopped parsley to garnish, if desired)
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cube chicken bouillon (I use the Knorr brand cubes)
- salt & pepper (to taste, start with about ½ teaspoon each)
- ¼ cup dry white wine (I like Pinot Grigio - or substitute some more chicken broth)
- 2 cups cooked chicken (chopped or pulled chicken, skin removed)
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Minnesota wild rice should be thoroughly rinsed in hot water for a minimum of 30 seconds. Start 1 cup of rinsed, raw wild rice in a saucepan with the heated 3 cup portion of chicken stock while you prep the rest of the soup ingredients (follow the cooking instructions on packaging with these exceptions). *Using the chicken stock will add another layer of flavor to your wild rice, but I strain the cooked wild rice and discard the stock that was used as it may add a bitter flavor to the soup.
- In a stock pot or a dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add chopped onion, carrots, and celery (I like the mirepoix vegetables in this soup finely chopped, so will often do a rough chop and blitz them a few times in a food processor). Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the carrots are softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add seasoning (thyme, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper) as well as bay leaves and the chicken bouillon cube. Add dry white wine and chicken stock, then stir to combine.
- Increase heat to high and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add chopped chicken, cooked Minnesota wild rice, and heavy cream. Continue to simmer until heated through, about 4-5 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed to personal preferences.
Nutrition
Angela is an at home chef that developed a passion for all things cooking and baking at a young age in her Grandma's kitchen. After many years in the food service industry, she now enjoys sharing all of her family favorite recipes and creating tasty dinner and amazing dessert recipes here at Bake It With Love!
CoolObserver says
Exactly how did you use the food processor for the vegetables? Did you cut them into chunks and then process them until they were like a paste, a chop, or a dice? It would be helpful because I'm not sure of the size from the picture.
CoolObserver says
Sorry, I did not read the directions well. As stated in the ingredients, I would process the vegetables to produce the fine dice and dice sizes. Therefore, I should chunk the vegetables to a size my food processor can handle.
Julie says
I made this, and it didn’t turn out creamy, there was no thickness. I wondered, because besides adding heavy cream, there was no thickening agent. Besides that, it was super tasty! I’d definitely make it again, and use flour or corn starch to thicken.
Ashley says
We made this tonight for the panthers and Minnesota football game, it was delicious! I didn’t have a chicken bouillon cube so I added a can of cream of chicken soup. My family loved it!