What's more comforting than a steaming bowl of chicken and rice soup? CREAMY chicken and rice soup! This simple soup is low on effort and super high on the health and comfort factor. And of course, you know it's going to be affordable and easy because as always all the ingredients are from Aldi UK. Because we love a one-stop-shop and we love affordable! ♥
This soup is the perfect homemade chicken rice soup to make on a cold autumn day, because it's creamy and hearty and delicious, but it's also healthy and full of vegetable. There are so many amazing things about this soup.
But here are the 5 best things about this creamy hearty homemade chicken soup!
- It's perfect for meal prep
- Creamy without using cream!
- This soup is made with fresh chicken, not rotisserie chicken
- You can make it on the stovetop, or you can toss it in the slow cooker. (I've included instructions for both.)
- You can file this soup under "ways to use leftover chicken with rice." If you made roast chicken on Sunday (and millions of us did!)... this is how you want to use the leftovers.
Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup
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Chicken and Rice Soup Ingredients
- Chicken
- Celery
- Carrots
- Onion
- Garlic
- Mushrooms
- Rice
- Stock Cube
Step By Step for Creamy Chicken Soup with Rice
- Heat some olive oil in a pan and sautee the mushrooms. We want a deep golden brown here. Taking a little extra time to brown the mushrooms well will pay off big time in the flavour department. Once the mushrooms are deep golden remove them to a bowl and set aside while you soften the onions, carrot and celery. Add in the garlic here too.
- Once the vegetables are soft, add in the rice and give everything a good stir. As the vegetables soften, they'll start to lose some moisture into the pan and you want to stir the rice so it gets coated in all the lovely vegetable juices. Return the mushrooms to the pan. Slowly add the hot stock to the pot. You want the vegetables and rice to be covered by the stock. If you need to add a little more stock or water then that's fine. This is also where you add in the chicken pieces. Bring everything to a simmer and cover for about 15 minutes. The chicken and rice should both be cooked in that time.
Make the Roux Sauce
- Making a roux sauce for this soup rather than adding cream just gives it a hearty thickness that cream just can't achieve. To make the roux sauce melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan. Add in the flour and whisk to combine. Once you have a thick paste, slowly add in the milk whisking the whole time to avoid creating lumps. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
- Pour the roux sauce into your pot of chicken rice soup and adjust the seasoning. Feel free to add a little more stock or water to get the consistency you love.
Rice Soup FAQ's
Q. Can you add uncooked rice to this soup?
- A. Heck yes! This is the only way to make this soup. Starting with uncooked rice and letting it cook directly in the soup, just means that it soaks up all that chicken goodness and vegetable deliciousness.
Q. Does this soup keep in the fridge?
- A. Why, yes. Yes, it does. But I will let you know, as it sits in the fridge, the rice absorbs more of the soup liquid and you may need to add some more water on reheating it or have it as a warm chicken and rice bowl. Either way, you've just won dinner time because both are out of this world amazing!
To recap real quick... this soup is...
- Creamy without cream
- Full of tender chicken and veggies
- Has the comfort of rice
- Is super easy to make
The only thing left to say is move over chicken noodle soup! Moooove Over!
More Gorgeous Soup Recipes You'll Love!
The Best Easy Chicken And Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons) olive oil
- 250 g (3 2/7 cups) pack brown mushrooms, washed and chopped
- 2 cups (2 cups) head celery, chopped
- 1 cup (1 cup) large carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 (2) large garlic cloves, minced
- 175 g (1 cups) rice, basmati
- 200 g (3/7 lb) boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into 2cm cubes
- 1.5 (6 cups) litres chicken broth made with a stock cube
- For the Roux Sauce
- 40 g (1 ⅖ oz) butter
- 35 g (1 ¼ oz) plain flour
- 500 ml (2 cups) milk
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add in the mushrooms and brown them until golden. See Notes about sautéing mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are golden, remove them from the pan and set them aside in a small bowl to add back later.
- Add the celery, carrot and onion to the pan and sauté the vegetables until they are soft. About 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
- Stir the rice into the vegetables to coat with some of the oil. The rice will get slightly toasted and give a depth of flavour.
- Pour the chicken broth to the pot and simmer for about 10 minutes until the rice is almost cooked through. Add the diced chicken and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes until the rice is fully cooked and the chicken is cooked through. Set the pot of soup aside while you make the roux sauce.
- In a medium sauce pan over medium heat melt the butter. Once the butter is melted add the plain flour. Stir together until a thick paste forms. Slowly add the milk and whisk continuously until the sauce is thick and smooth. Bring to a boil. See notes. Once the roux sauce has boiled season with salt and pepper. Gently pour the thick roux sauce into the chicken rice soup and add back the mushrooms. Stir well.
Notes
- When sautéing mushrooms leave the salt out for the first 2-3 minutes so that the mushrooms sear in the hot oil. Adding salt in the beginning will draw out the moisture from the mushrooms and steam them rather than sauté them.
- Add the milk slowly to the flour butter paste so that lumps don’t form. While cooking the roux sauce whisk continuously or use a wooden spoon to stir continuously so that the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
Nutrition
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