Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

by Heidi Updated: Nov 21, 2024

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Thanks to the Instant Pot pressure cooker, this easy chicken with wild rice soup is rich, creamy (without any added cream), and fast to make, and it tastes even better the next day, making it a great addition to your meal prep plans. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, not to worry, I’m sharing my stove top directions as well.

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It’s soup week!

This week I’m sharing a few of my favorite soups, old and new. And a good thing too, because when my daughter came home from school and looked at me with a red-ringed nose and her eyes at half-staff and announced her “throat was sooooooo sore”, as she breezed past me and coughed, wheezed, and hacked her way down the hall and into her room to flop onto her bed like a left-behind Raggedy Ann doll, I knew we were in for the night.

Good thing I had this soup prepped and ready for cookin’.

Creamy chicken and rice soup. Pure comfort and totally right for all that feels wrong.

Today’s wild rice soup recipe comes from my good friend and baking maharishi/mentor/advisor Barbara Schieving’s new cookbook The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook. Barbara not only creates amazing desserts and main meal recipes on her blog Barbara Bakes (look at that cheesecake!) but put herself way ahead of today’s pressure cooking trend when she started her other recipe blog Pressure Cooking Today where her most popular recipes are quick and easy recipe standouts!

In fact, if you’re the proud owner of an Instant Pot, you’ll see Barbara’s recipes in the handy dandy recipe manual that accompanies each pot. Yep, she’s that dialed into the pressure cooker cooking scene.

Here are a few things I LOVE about Barbara’s new cookbook:

The 200 tested and approved recipes are recipes you crave. No weird flavor combinations. No complicated methods. These are home-cooked meals you’ll want to eat again and again.
The 150 main course dinner recipes are divided into 3 chapters that make it easy to choose what to make depending on time or occasion: Shortcut Dinners, 30-minute Meals, Soups, and Sunday Suppers.
Barb’s advice and tips are invaluable, including tips for adapting your own recipes for the pressure cooker, high altitude cooking conversions, and a super helpful troubleshooting guide. Pressure cooking has been around forever but for many of us, it’s a whole new world.
And she doesn’t forget about desserts and sides. Brownies! Creme Brulée! Peanut Butter Cheesecake! Barb makes sure our sweet tooth is cured and she also shares simple side dish recipes to complete the meal. And just look at the dreamy cream puffs I made from her first cookbook. See what I’m talkin’ about??!!!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Ingredients

This recipe calls for 2 large chicken breasts. Mine came in at about 1 ½ pounds.

I try to keep a stash of homemade chicken broth in my freezer to use whenever I’m in need. If you don’t have homemade chicken stock, choose a high-quality store brand instead.

Long grain wild rice can often be found in the bulk aisle of your grocery store but it’s not always readily available by the bag. Or, do what Barb suggests and buy a box of a standard rice blend and use the rice, but ditch the seasoning packet. Barb also notes her readers have found success by using regular wild rice instead of the long grain as well. And of course, you could always use plain long-grain white rice if you prefer.

I added just a bit of acid in the way of lemon juice to make the flavors pop just a bit more. If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you can totally skip this step.

There are three things that combine to make this soup creamy without adding a lot of unnecessary fat and calories that keep this soup on the healthy-ish side:

a slurry of water and cornstarch thickens the soup
a knob of cream cheese thickens and adds flavor to the soup
instead of cream that adds fat and calories, this recipe uses equal amounts of milk (I used 2% fat milk) and half-and-half to add that extra bit of richness.

The soup delivers plenty of broth, and at first, I thought maybe a wee too much. But what was terrific is that, unlike a lot of rice or noodle soup recipes, there was plenty of broth for the rice to absorb and still be brothy enough for leftover servings the next day.

How to Make Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Cooking in the Instant Pot makes dinner really easy. Why? Because it’s a multi-cooker there’s no need to brown on the stovetop and transfer to the Instant Pot. It’s all done in one.

The thing about making soup in a pressure cooker is it tastes like it’s been simmering all day even when it’s been cooked in the pressure cooker time of 30 minutes or less. For this chicken and wild rice soup, I followed Barb’s directions nearly to the T.

To make this Instant Pot chicken and wild rice soup recipe, you’ll first need to sauté the onion, carrots, and celery in some butter. Stir in the chicken, broth, rice, parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, then lock the lid in place and select High Pressure and 5 minutes cooking time.

Once the cooking time is over, turn off the pressure cooker and let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then finish with a quick release.

Turn the Instant Pot to simmer/sauté, then stir in the cornstarch slurry, cream cheese, milk, half-and-half, and lemon juice. Heat through, then serve.

Can I Make This on the Stovetop?

Absolutely! I’ve shared detailed instructions on how to make this creamy chicken and wild rice soup on the stove in the recipe card below.

Can I Freeze Chicken and Wild Rice Soup?

Yes, this soup freezes well. I recommend freezing it in individual containers or freezer bags so that you can reheat one portion at a time for quick lunches or dinners.

Tips for Making Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

If you’re like me and meal prep chicken for the week (my easy baked chicken breasts and slow cooker whole chicken have saved mealtime more than once), then you could easily skip using fresh chicken breasts and add 3 ½ to 4 cups of your meal prepped chicken instead.

If you’re more of a fan of darker meat, skinless chicken thighs would work well here, too. But thanks to the pressure cooker, the chicken breast meat is tender and juicy, not dry or stringy.

If you don’t keep half-and-half on hand, you could likely get away with using all whole milk. Your chicken and wild rice soup won’t be quite as thick or creamy, but it’ll still be good.

More Easy Instant Pot Recipes to Master

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

4.68 from 46 votes

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

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Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword chicken soup, instant pot, wild rice soup

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Servings

Calories 197kcal

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts , diced into bite-size pieces
2 14.5- ounce cans chicken broth (or homemade) , (or 4 cups / 1 quart)
1 package (6 ounces) long-grain wild rice , (such as Uncle Ben's minus the seasoning packet)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 ounces cream cheese , cubed
1 cup milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

If making in an Instant Pot:

Select Browning/Sauté function and melt the butter in the pressure cooking pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.
Stir in the chicken, chicken broth, rice, parsley, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Lock the lid in place and select High Pressure and 5 minutes cooking time.
When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes (just let it sit, the steam will escape on its own), then finish with a quick release (be cautious and use a wooden spoon to shift the pressure relief valve so the hearty blow of steam escapes.)
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Select Simmer/Sauté and add the slurry to the pot stirring constantly. Sir in the cream cheese until melted. Stir in the milk, half-and-half and lemon juice and heat through (do not bring to a boil). Serve sprinkled with more parsley and black pepper if desired.

If making on the stove top:

Heat the butter in a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat until shimmering and add the onion, carrots, and celery and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the chicken, chicken broth, rice, parsley, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer and simmer for 30 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is cooked through.
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and cold water until smooth and add to the pot, stirring constantly. Raise the heat to medium high and stir in the cream cheese until melted. Stir in the milk, half-and-half and lemon juice and cook until thickened. Serve sprinkled with more parsley if desired.

Nutrition

10 More Soup Recipes for Your Soul

Remember to check back all this week for more NEW soup recipes, and take a look at some of my favorites below.

Get your copy of The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook and find more recipes on Barb’s food blogs Barbara Bakes and Pressure Cooking Today.

Get your own Instant Pot here.

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