This Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is a Panera Copycat recipe! Haven’t tried Panera yet? Well, you don’t need to after you cook up this soup! There are no pre-packed rice mixes in my version, it’s all fresh, simple and seriously delicious – and my version is gluten-free! This is going into the permanent soup rotation for this winter. We ate it with a delicious crusty loaf of French bread ( not gluten-free haha!) for dinner and it was a hit with the entire family.
How to Make Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
So, Panera is a big thing in the States. People love their food; their soups, their mac n’ cheese, you name it and people are gaga over it! I had never tried it before, Panera’s don’t seem to be in the areas that we regularly travel. One of the things that I absolutely love the most about traveling to the United States is trying out all the new restaurants out there.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Combine all of the step 1 ingredients in your slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours, until the rice has softened.
- Whisk together the second step cream ingredients in a large, microwave safe glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stopping every minute to whisk it smooth again, until the mixture has thickened.
- Whisk the thickened mixture into the soup. Let it cook another 5-10 minutes, then serve!
Instant Pot Instructions
- Combine the step one ingredients in your Instant Pot.
- Press the “soup” button and cook for 20 minutes high pressure. Manually release the pressure when the 20 minutes are done, the rice will be perfect then.
- When the soup is done, whisk together the second step cream ingredients in a large, microwave safe glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stopping every minute to whisk it smooth again, until the mixture has thickened.
- Whisk the thickened mixture into the soup. Let the soup sit on the “warm” setting for another 5 minutes to let everything meld, then serve!
While I have seen a lot of Facebook videos on their Mac n’ Cheese, I am a soup girl, all the way through. I will take a good soup any day of the week over mac n’ cheese. And cream of chicken and wild rice soup is one of my ultimate comfort foods. I think it’s because I honestly don’t like wild rice any other way than in soup. Is it just me? Wild rice can be so…. pokey. Tough. Chewy. Mr Magpie won’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
Oh, but you throw it in a soup to simmer all day long? It’s perfection in a soup bowl. Both of us will eat wild rice in soup – and the kids as well. The entire family loved this cream of chicken and wild rice soup.
While you may find some of the spice ingredients odd, I went and researched them from their ingredient list for the soup. Turmeric is what gives their soup a nice creamy yellow colour – it is basically almost negligent for flavour. IF you exclude it, your soup won’t be creamy yellow. I use turmeric to color my Ukrainian Babka as well, FYI! When I don’t have saffron, it’s turmeric for colour. So when I was reading their list of ingredients, I had that light-bulb moment of why they used it.
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Tips & Tricks
- Make sure that you use brown wild rice! You cannot use any other type of rice to cook all day, it won’t work. Don’t blame me when the recipe doesn’t work out if you don’t follow the instructions given! ( I say this because someone Facebooked me telling me how the soup was terrible, she had used white and wild rice. Sigh.)
- This is a copycat recipe, with ingredients that match Panera’s wild rice soup. If you are looking for another type of chicken and wild rice soup, try this regular chicken and wild rice soup.
- If all else fails, watch the video! I do them for a reason!
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Video
My Copycat Cracker Barrel Fried Apples in the Crockpot came from my absolute LOVE of Cracker Barrel. We adore that restaurant. Some of their dishes are my favourite things to eat in the States. We love checking out chain restaurants in the States, what can I say. And Panera? Well, they just happen to be in Seattle, where we took off on our Alaskan Cruise.
So, who else is now a Panera convert? I can’t wait until the next time I can go try them out – and explore the menu some more! Don’t worry, I have some more secrets up my sleeve – we didn’t just eat one thing (as if!)
To make it gluten-free, I used cornstarch ( my preferred thickened as I can always “taste” flour in a soup) and make sure the broth etc is gluten-free!
Happy cooking babes! Make sure to add this cream of chicken and wild rice soup to your rotation list!
Love,
Karlynn
Crock pot Cream of Chicken and; Wild Rice Soup (Panera Copycat)
Ingredients
First Step Soup Ingredients
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 3 cups of chopped cooked chicken breast
- 2/3 cup of brown & wild rice mix
- 1 cup cubed carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1/2 teaspoon dry parsley flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
Step 2 Cream Ingredients
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup light cream
- 2 cups milk
Instructions
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Combine all of the step 1 ingredients in your slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours, until the rice has softened.
- Whisk together the second step cream ingredients in a large, microwave safe glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stopping every minute to whisk it smooth again, until the mixture has thickened.
- Whisk the thickened mixture into the soup. Let it cook another 5-10 minutes, then serve!
Instant Pot Instructions
- Combine the step one ingredients in your Instant Pot.
- Press the “soup” button and cook for 20 minutes high pressure. Manually release the pressure when the 20 minutes are done, the rice will be perfect then.
- When the soup is done, whisk together the second step cream ingredients in a large, microwave safe glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stopping every minute to whisk it smooth again, until the mixture has thickened.
- Whisk the thickened mixture into the soup. Let the soup sit on the “warm” setting for another 5 minutes to let everything meld, then serve!
Video
Nutrition
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Tara says
I followed this recipe. Mine turned out more like a stew, with very little liquid and the rice was mushy. What did I do wrong?
Natalie says
I was really excited about this soup and it was so bland. I followed the recipe to a tee. It was very liquidy and barely had any flavor. Not sure where I would have went wrong. I’m wondering if this happened to anyone else and what they did to fix it.
Joanne D says
This is good as is but I did bump up the chicken flavor with some concentrated chicken broth.
Marina says
I just made this in my instapot and I felt like it was missing something. Not quite like panera’s but still very yummy. Couple of questions though, what type of milk did you use? Also my chicken breast ended up looking more like pork haha, it turned pink. Not sure what from. Also I had to had way more than 1/4 cup of starch to get it to thicken.
Tiffany says
it says cooked chicken, sounds like you added raw chicken maybe? even boiled chicken should he white at the end…. so not sure why it would be pink unless it’s raw
Carol says
Thank you for a great recipe! I think this is my new favorite soup. I cut up a Costco rotisserie chicken and it was great!
Lindsey says
I was wondering what kind of milk you used in this recipe. Skim, 2% or whole? Or something else entirely? Thank you!
Heather says
Can’t I just add raw chicken to the soup if using the instant pot? I like easy, cooking the chicken first seems like an unnecessary step.
Irma Lee says
Made this IP style. Awesome!!!! Delicious!!! I cooked some breasts first in my IP. They made tasty chicken broth to use in the soup. Prepped while they cooked. This is in our rotation of soups now.
Jen says
This is a silly question, but you used dry rice as opposed to any sort of instant correct? I’m mystified by rices (don’t know why), and I’m struggling to find the right one! Any brands you recommend? So excited to try this recipe!
Kathy says
If I double the panera crockpot chicken wildrice soup would I double the cornstarch or is the original amount enough to thicken soup?
Thanks, Kathy
Lily says
Can you cook the chicken from frozen?
Hazel Kosandiak says
I made this today and we loved it, thank you for sharing! I cooked it in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker according to your instructions, but made a few tweaks. I used 500gm bag of frozen soffrito which is a mixture of chopped onions, carrots and celery and added more seasoning by way of chilli and ginger sauce, fish sauce and liquid aminos. I used slightly less stock because it does not evaporate in pressure cooking. The cream mixture went straight into the cooked soup in the IP on saute for 5 minutes and I was very pleased with the result. It looked exactly the same as your picture and I shall be making this regularly in future?