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
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Tried this recipe because Maurice Sendak’s book “Chicken Soup with Rice” is a favorite of my toddler grandson. It’s simple to make and delicious. A favorite of the whole family.
Love this recipe. Thanks for posting this. I have made it multiple times. I like broth vs. cream soups so I double the broth and omit the evaporated milk. Half the broth I use is a homemade chicken bone broth from whole chickens. The broth made this way is so good this way and really makes the soup more full bodied. I often add kale for added greens. With the added broth the kale doesn’t overpower it. I usually double the thyme only and try to keep salt as minimal as possible and slowly add that in. I never really measure it. Just salt to taste. Really great simple soup recipe. This is a good sized recipe and I love to freeze portions for later.
Sounds amazing Jess! Thank you for sharing! And you’re very welcome for the chicken rice soup recipe.
Hi there!
I would like to make this today but don’t want to leave the house to buy brown rice…I have Jasmine rice or wild rice blend…which do you think would be better?
Cheers!
Shanon
You could try chicken wild rice soup, or cook the wild rice blend, and add near the end. Other readers have used Jasmine and loved the soup. I love brown, so probably would pick the wild rice blend! Enjoy Shanon!
5 stars…..with a few modifications…..
First, I’m old school so chicken and rice soup should be brothy, not creamy so I omitted the milk completely. My family likes their foods meaty so I used two breasts and two thighs for meat and flavor variety. I used three Costco sized carrots, a Costco sized onion, two ribs of celery, and 12 cups of broth. I used the same seasonings, just added more to compensate for the added liquid and 1 1/2 TBSP minced garlic. I still used only 1 cup of rice, just make sure it’s a long grain and not a minute-type rice. The end result was perfect! The ratio of rice to all other ingredients was spot on. It still looked like a soup and not a stew and the flavor was absolutely UH-MAY-ZING!!! Glad I found this post!
Thank you for sharing Elizabeth! So happy that you love the flavor of the soup so much!
my family really liked this. However, maybe it’s because I made it and it sat awhile before everyone got in for supper, but it didn’t have a lot of soupy broth??? It was a bit thick for a soup. Regardless, this has been saved to make again!
This is the second time I’ve made it. The first time I did boneless skinless chicken thighs not breasts. And that really hit it with my wife and the people that tried it they really thought it was great with dark meat instead of white meat.
Looks very good
I am going to make this. Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome Claire!
This was delicious! I didn’t have low sodium chicken broth, so didn’t add any salt. Instead of using rice, I used barley, but only have a cup, and I used cooked chicken, adding it in the last ten minutes of cooking time.
This soup is delicious. Was looking for a recipe for soup using left-over rotisserie chicken and this one fit the bill perfectly. It was so easy to make and super delicious. Used jasmine rice and it turned out thick, but just added chicken stock until it thinned out a little. Will definitely make this soup again and again. Thank you for this yummy reciie.
You’re very welcome Phyllis! So glad you love this soup!
Loved this recipe! I added extra celery and carrots. I didn’t have the parsley but added a little turmeric and garlic powder and it was delicious. I also used only about a half cup of whole milk instead of the evaporated milk.
The rice expands in the soup so it turned out to be mush. I even added only 1/2 of rice. Won’t be making this again. It went in the garbage right away.
That’s disappointing, most readers have had success with this recipe. Did you use long grain rice (not minute rice)? I would suggest a whole grain brown rice like Uncle Ben’s brown rice. If you use instant rice, you’ll want to reduce the cooking time just until the rice is tender.
I didn’t like it. All I could taste was the milk…
Sorry that you didn’t enjoy it Mark. Thank you for trying it.
This is dee-licious❣️ I used three chicken breasts and just added a bit more broth and rice. My husband, who won’t eat soup (he doesn’t like “drinking his meal” ) loved it. I think that was because it gets nice and thick. It’s the best Chicken Soup recipe I’ve tried.
So happy to hear that Cyd!
5 star rating. My husband made this recipe, since we did not have brown rice, he used Jasmin. Since he likes carrots and celery, he added more plus the celery leaves. I suggested he share this with my daughter-in-law, no way he said, this is the best soup I ever made. Will make this again.
This was so quick and easy and hands down one of the most flavorful chicken soups we’ve had. Even my picky 4 and 7 year old gobbled it up. The only change was I added an extra stalk of celery and two more carrots to get more veggies in. And an extra cup or so of broth because it was easier to just do a 32 oz box and 14.5 oz can. I also left out the milk because I didn’t think it was needed. I’ve already printed this out to add to the dinner rotation!
This recipe is amazing. It’s soooo flavorful. I was kind of skeptical at first but the end product is wonderful. I definitely recommend anyone give this simple yet tasty recipe a try.
This soup was FANTASTIC!! I added 1/2c finely chopped spinach during the last five minutes just because we are trying to up our nutrient levels. It was a nice addition. I might throw in sliced mushrooms next time too. But this soup is really great as is!
Question- is the chicken supposed to be added raw or cooked? Thank you.
The chicken goes in raw and cooks in the broth. Enjoy!
Just thought I’d throw a mans comment out there. My choice of cooking is, well, smoking. You know the 13hr brisket, 6hr ribs, you get the picture. I was hungry for soup and saw this “simple recipe “ and dove right in to creating it on a cold February day. Let’s just rap this up by saying FANTASTIC! Totally easy, fantastically savory. Was skeptical about the milk part but it add a very good balance. I use 2% and have no regrets. My only change would be to buy one of those rotisserie chickens next time from our local deli instead of the chicken Brest I had in the freezer. I think it would add much more flavor it begs for.
So glad you love this chicken rice soup Marty! Thank you for sharing!