Chicken and Rice Soup is a cozy, homemade meal that’s easy to make and always hits the spot. Tender chicken, hearty brown rice, and vegetables simmer together in one pot for a flavorful, comforting soup. Keep it brothy or stir in a little cream for a rich finish.
Serve it with crusty no-knead bread or fluffy dinner rolls and a simple green salad.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights: Chicken and Rice Soup
- Flavor: Savory, comforting flavor with tender chicken, brown rice, sweet carrots, and subtle notes of garlic, parsley, and thyme.
- Why Make It: Cooking the chicken and rice directly in the broth builds rich flavor while keeping cleanup easy.
- Budget Friendly: Rice and vegetables help stretch two chicken breasts into six hearty servings.
Total Time: 45 Mins Servings: 6 Cooking Method: Stovetop
- Total Time:
- 45 mins
- Serves:
- 6 servings
- Rating:
- 4.9/5
Ingredient Notes
- Vegetables: Cut the carrots and celery into small, even pieces so they cook evenly and you get tender vegetables in every spoonful. Use prechopped vegetables to save prep time, or stir in frozen mixed vegetables towards the end.
- Chicken Broth: Reduced-sodium broth or homemade chicken stock gives you more control over the salt level. Keep extra on hand at the end to add if the soup is too thick.
- Chicken Breasts: Use raw, boneless, skinless chicken breasts so they can cook directly in the broth and shred easily. Boneless chicken thighs are another option; just check that they are cooked through before shredding.
- For an easy shortcut, add shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover baked chicken breasts once the rice is tender.
- Brown Rice: Use uncooked long-grain brown rice. Different varieties can have different cooking times. Instant rice is not a direct substitute.
- Evaporated Milk or Cream (Optional): Add evaporated milk for a lighter soup, or heavy cream for a richer, creamier soup. Be sure to use evaporated milk, not sweetened condensed milk.
How to Make Chicken and Rice Soup
- Sauté the vegetables and add the seasonings.
- Add broth, chicken, and rice (full recipe below). Simmer.
- Shred the chicken and return it to the pot.
Prefer to use your slow cooker? Try my Crockpot chicken and rice soup.
Save It for Later
- Refrigerate: Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freeze: Store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 4 months. Leave out the dairy when possible and add it after reheating.
- Thaw: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Reheat: Warm on the stovetop or in the microwave, stirring and adding broth as needed.
More Chicken Soup Favorites
Did you enjoy this Chicken and Rice Soup? Leave a comment and rating below.
Chicken and Rice Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 3 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1 rib celery diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 5 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts uncooked
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup evaporated milk or cream, optional
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
- Add garlic, parsley, and thyme, and cook 1 minute.
- Add broth, chicken, rice, salt, and pepper. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender and chicken has reached 165℉.
- Remove chicken from pot and shred. Add back to the pot with evaporated milk or cream if using.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Lunch, Soup
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I’ve made this soup many times now and absolutely love it. Today I made homemade turkey stock from my leftover Thanksgiving turkey carcass and I’m going to adapt this for turkey rice soup.
This is my go to recipe. I have made it at least a dozen times over the years. I don’t normally like brown rice but the brown rice in this soup is perfect. Just want to mention NOT to use quick cooking rice or it will get mushy. I don’t add the milk. My family loves this recipe.
First time making this soup and it’s delicious.
First time I made Chicken Soup from scratch. I picked a good recipe. The broth we buy comes in 4 cup portions, so I added a cup of water with some chicken bouillon for the 5th cup of broth. The rice didn’t seem to completely cook through, but it was still good. Next time I’ll cook rice separately and add to soup. I also substituted dried Italian Season for herbs required.
All in all, very quick, easy, and tasty soup. Will definitely make this again.
How many servings does this chicken rice soup make? I cook for one and have no freezer to store left overs. Thank you.
Hi Brenda, this soup serves 6. If you hit print you can reduce the servings down. I hope this helps!
excellent recipe for a yummy soup. I swapped peas for celery, I also swapped cream for evaporate milk and added a touch of lemon zest at the end.
I added chopped celery ,1 cup.
I also added 1 bag of frozen corn
at the ended I added some leftover mashed potatoes.
my family and I loved it!
Will half and half freeze well?
Half and half should freeze okay in this recipe!
Won’t the rice obsorb any liquid in the pot like pasta does?
The rice does absorb some of the liquid.
Best chicken and rice soup recipe I have ever tried. Very flavorful, especially the chicken cooked in the broth. I did do some things differently. I used Jasmine rice as I don’t care for brown. I cooked the cup of rice separately in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock with 1 tablespoon butter and a teaspoon of salt. I only put 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the soup because of the rice being salted separately. I also used whole milk instead of evaporated milk as I didn’t have that. And I added a squeeze of lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon at the very end. I put about 1/2 cup of rice in the bottom of a bowl and added the soup on top and mixed them together. The veggies and chicken were soft and it was so flavorful.
That sounds wonderful Gregory! I am so glad you enjoyed this soup!
Such an easy, affordable, delicious staple in my home! I make this all the time, and often serve it to friends because it comes out so delicious and consistent every time.
I leave out the evaporated milk because I find it makes the flavor more bland, and I also add in an extra onion and celery stock just because.
Just made this recipe. I tweaked it a bit after reading the comments. I cooked my rice separately and added it after everything was done. I also added an additional cup of broth. It is delicious!
This recipe was a failure with the uncooked brown rice. How did you get the rice to cook in 30 minutes, covered and all? I cooked for over an hour and it was still rock hard?????
I can’t say for sure what went wrong but brown rice should definitely be cooked in less than an hour. If you cooked over an hour and it was still rock hard there may be an issue with the rice.
This soup is a winner! I am home sick today and was looking for an easy chicken soup using things I had on hand, and your recipe fit the bill! I will be making this again! I used precooked leftover brown rice and leftover chicken, but would like to try cooking them both in the pot next time with the soup. I had Better-than-Boullion on hand, so I used that to make the broth. I also used Unsweetened Almond Milk instead of Evaporated Milk and it was really yummy! I only added a tablespoon of Almond milk to my bowl, not to the whole batch, but that little bit gave it that extra creamy YUM! Thank you so much for the recipe, it hit the spot!
I made this tonight without the milk. I added additional chicken broth because I wanted to use 1.5 cups of long grain white rice to make a larger quantity. It IS yummy! But I have to agree with others that the broth needs to Greatly increased. I ended up using about 6.5 cups to start- added a cup of water after done cooking and let it sit on a hot pad to cool. The rice continued to absorb the broth and it was more like a thick stew. I added 2 more cups of broth and it’s still super thick.
*Note- I used 2 drained cans of chicken and added a can of corn.
Is the rice cooked or not?
We used uncooked rice in this recipe! Enjoy Karen!
Flavor was good, too much rice and cooked to long. Rice was way over cook and it was not soupy more like a casserole.
I would add less rice and cook for only 20 minutes. Might add more chicken broth.
Made this tonight for dinner and it hit the spot! I added sage and made it vegetarian by omitting the chicken and adding potatoes along with the rice. I think I’ll add some chickpeas next time as well
I’ve made this recipe four times now and it is a keeper. I love all the comments and how you can alter it to fit any need.
Definitely a great recipe, thanks so much, Spend with Pennies!
Love all your great soup choices… one thought b/c I have a big garden trying to put up tomatoes do you have a tomatoe basil soup? Being harvest season want to use up things in garden. Thank you you do great at displaying, explains ‘ designing recipes. Thank you
Hi Sabrina! I love this tomato soup using fresh garden tomatoes.