The creamiest and most delicious Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup! This soup is loaded with vegetables, protein, and healthy carbs. 10 minutes prep is all you need.
After cooking Instant Pot wild rice for the first time I was shocked to say the least. Up until then, brown rice was my favorite in terms of taste and white Jasmin rice in terms of quick and easy to prepare. Now, I’m Mrs. Wild Rice!
Wild rice is delicious, that was always clear, but oh man it takes FOREVER to cook. Right?!? Well yes, but only in a regular pot on the stove. Not so much in the pressure cooker. Woot woot!
Mix that pressure cooked wild rice with chicken and a boatload of vegetables, add some broth and then make it creamy and you’ve got the most delicious Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup of all times!
This is one of those soups that warm up your bones. One of those soups that warm your soul!! If you know anybody that currently needs a little more than a hug to feel good again, make this Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup for them, they’ll be grateful forever. Promise!
Is Chicken Wild Rice Soup Healthy?
Absolutely! You’ve got a well-balanced soup recipe here loaded with vegetables, protein and healthy complex carbs.
Yes, it contains a béchamel sauce to make it creamy that some people might argue isn’t the healthiest. It’s made from scratch though folks, and remember we need healthy fats in our diet.
Also, the béchamel can easily be made gluten-free if you need it. Best gluten-free flours to make béchamel: rice flour, buckwheat flour, or millet flour.
And, it can also be easily be made dairy-free: replace the butter with olive oil and the milk with dairy-free milk such as soy or almond.
How Long Does It Take To Cook Wild Rice in the Instant Pot?
A mere 30 minutes + natural pressure release. So, no, it’s not done in the blink of an eye. However, remember you don’t have to babysit it!!
You don’t even have to be in the kitchen while the Instant Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup cooks itself. Because it does just that, it cooks itself.
And, you don’t have to cook the wild rice separately as in some soup recipes I’ve seen out there. You cook all together in ONE pot and you’re done with it.
You can in theory even skip the browning the onions and garlic part and just dump all ingredients into the pressure cooker, close it and program it and walk away. That would make it a 15 minute prep time meal (if you’re a real slow veggie washer and chopper).
I honestly don’t recommend it though. Making a sofrita out of the chopped onions and garlic makes a huge difference in flavor. It’s worth the extra five minutes.
Now let’s not talk any more about this Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup and rather get right into the recipe, shall we?
Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs - (chicken breast can work will be VERY dry though)
- 3.5 oz brown mushrooms - (100g)
- 1 cup cubed carrots
- 1 cup cubed yellow bell pepper
- 1 cup cubed celery
- 1 cup wild rice - (only wild rice will work, not brown rice or wild rice mix)
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh sage
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whipping cream - (35% fat)
- 1/2 cup milk
- sea salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Peel and chop onion and garlic. Peel and cube carrots and wash and cube celery and bell pepper. Slice mushrooms. Cube chicken thighs.
- Press "sautée" and once the Instant Pot says "hot" add a dollop of oil, chopped onions and garlic and brown them.
- Once nice and brown add a splash of water to deglaze, then add cubed chicken, mushrooms, cubed vegetables, wild rice, 4 cups of chicken broth, sage, thyme, lemon zest and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper if your broth is not already seasoned.
- Securely close the lid and turn the valve to the sealing position.
- Hit "cancel" and then set the Instant Pot to high pressure for 30 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally (this can take anywhere from 20-25 minutes).
- When the high pressure cooking time is over and the Instant Pot's alarm goes off prepare a Béchamel sauce.
- Béchamel: Add 1/4 cup butter to a small saucepan and melt over medium-low heat. Once melted, add 1/4 cup flour and whisk until well combined. Add cream and whisk well (don't worry if it curdles), then add 1/2 cup milk and whisk until well combined and keep whisking until milk is heated up, then immediately remove from heat and continue whisking until it thickens (about 5 minutes without stopping).
- Add Béchamel to ready cooked soup in Instant Pot and stir.
- You can serve like this, or wait a little and keep stirring. The longer you stir, the thicker the broth will become. For super-duper, extra creamy broth, hit the soup button (keep the lid OFF) to bring everything to a boil and keep stirring for 10 minutes so the broth and béchamel become one creamy soup.
- Season with sea salt and pepper if necessary, sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and enjoy.
Nutrition
This recipe was inspired by Pinch of Yum’s Wild Rice Soup.
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Jessie Smith says
This was so good! Great flavors! I had never heard of a Bechamel, but it was fun and easy to make and really thickened the soup up!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Phillip L. says
This is a keeper, this is perfect for a cloudy cool rainy day. So flavorful added a large pablano pepper to give it a kick of flavor without spice. It worked. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Jennie says
I made this tonight and it was fantastic! I am going to try freezing some leftovers because this would be a great soup to keep in the freezer and pull out when I need to take some comfort food to someone who just had a baby or surgery. Thanks for a great recipe!
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy to read you love it Jennie. I’ve frozen the soup before and it freezes fantastically. It does become a little more pasty but it’s still super delicious.
BRENDA says
I don’t have an Instant pot. Can you cook it in a slow cooker/crockpot?
Lorena says
Yes! I would add an extra cup of broth because the slow cooker isn’t 100% sealed :)
Zing says
And time if made in the slower cooker please?
Lorena Grater says
4 hours on high or 8 on low.
Rosie Wendt says
Can I cut the recipe in half for my mini pot? Will the cooking time remain the same?
Lorena says
Yes! You can cut in half, no problem. The cooking time stays the same. Wild rice needs the same amount of time to cook regardless of the size of instant pot.
Pam says
I just made this for the first time! It is SO GOOD! I enjoyed it so much once sauce thickened. Thank you for sharing!
Mai says
I made the recipe today. It will be one of my favorites. Since my elbows weren’t working properly I couldn’t whisk the dairy for 5 minutes straight. Instead I used my electric hand mixer, with only one spoke, on the lowest setting for about 4 minutes. It turned out just fine. Also, I used frozen chicken, some of it chicken breast. It wasn’t dry on my end either. Next time, I’ll add a little more liquid and a few minutes to the cooking time. The rice was cooked, but it didn’t have the burst grain that I like to see with wild rice soup. Thanks for sharing!
Maureen says
Made this today and the results are YUMMY!!!! I cook salt free (including all ingredients—butter, broth. Etc). The soup is so flavorful and each bite you take has some of every ingredient in it. Hubby is waiting for a serving right now! Thanks.
Lorena says
I am so incredibly happy to read this!!
Susan says
I made it and it was amazing! Still learning to use the IP and I loved the results. I added all of the ingredients and it was fantastic! Thank you!!!!!
Lorena says
I’m so happy to read that you liked it Susan :)
Jennifer says
Looks delicious! I was wondering if using dried herbs would work and what amounts would you suggest if so? I’m sure fresh is best but pricy to buy here. Thanks!
Lorena says
Yes, it will absolutely work with dried herbs as well. Since dried herbs are more potent it is suggested to use 1/3 of the amount of fresh herbs.
Myra says
Hi, can you use parsnips in this soup….?
Lorena says
I don’t know Myra, I haven’t tried but I’m sure you could try with a little to figure out if it can withstand the high-pressure cooking time :)
Joan says
Question, not comment! Can you double the recipe and still have it fit in the Instant Pot?
Lorena says
It depends on the size of your IP. In an 8 quart you might be able to double it. In a 6 quart I doubt it.
V says
Made this tonight and happy with the results. Lovely blog post!
A few comments for the readers: I am counting calories right now and this can totally work. I ate two big ladles worth and it’s coming up to about 280-290 calories depending on what calculators I’m using. At that rate, this is a whopping 11 servings! (Husband ate 4 big ladles worth.. so for most people probably 6 ish servings for full recipe).
For the blogger: I love optionated bloggers! Like, use dark meat so the chicken isn’t dry. Why such specificty on rice type? Just cook time?
Lorena says
I’m so happy you liked the recipe and the blog post itself. You made my day!! The reason the recipe calls for wild rice and wild rice only is that it is (as of my current knowledge) the only type of rice that won’t continue swelling and absorbing water. If you use brown rice, for example, it might taste great right out of the pot at the minute the soup is ready but about 20 minutes later already it will keep absorbing liquid and make the soup super pasty. Wild rice, on the other hand, stops absorbing liquid once it burst. I don’t think there is another type of rice that has the same chemical qualities, but of course, I could be wrong. I’m sure there is plenty of rice types in the world I haven’t tried yet :)
Nicole says
I made this last night and it was really good! Left out the bell peppers because I’m not a fan. The only reason this is 4 stars and not 5 is because the recipe was written a bit confusingly in two places. The first place was the sauté part – it never says if you need to turn off the sauté option at any point, but I felt really uncomfortable with the idea of sautéing uncooked rice and that just didn’t seem right so I tossed everything in except the rice, browned the chicken, and then turned it off to add the rice. The other confusing direction is stirring in the instant pot while it’s set to soup – soup is a high pressure setting so I wasn’t sure how that worked. I ended up keeping the setting but putting it to low pressure which I think is what you meant to have us do? I mean, it worked!
The soup itself was so good though. I added some worchestershire sauce at the end because it’s a magic ingredient for creamy soups and I had like three servings. I would be happy to receive that soup in a restaurant.
Lorena says
Hi Nicole, I’m sorry the instructions were confusing to you. There is a video in the recipe card that shows all the instructions as well, just in case. I’m not sure why you thought the chicken and rice or anything has to be sautéed. I will try and change the instructions to make that clearer for others, so thanks for letting me know it wasn’t clear. You press sautée “add oil, chopped onions and garlic and brown them”. Once they are brown you add all other ingredients (chicken, rice, chicken broth, spices etc.), not to sautée, it doesn’t matter if the sautée button is still on or not, this is a 30-second process. You add everything, you press cancel and set the Instant Pot to pressure cook.
The soup button or any button for that matter won’t let your pot come to pressure if there is no lid on it. Pressing a button basically just turns on the heating plate on the bottom of the Instant Pot like a burner on the stove. The soup button on high is great because it brings the soup to a boil fast and thickens the soup fast but on low it obviously works, too. Just takes a little longer. Makes no difference in texture. The important part here is to just keep stirring so nothing burns to the bottom. I’m glad you were able to make it work and enjoy the soup. :)
Kimberly says
glad for this explanation! I’m new to instant pot cooking and cooking in general! lol. I need ALL the help! :). gonna make this as my next project!
Maggie says
I love the sound of this recipe and can’t wait to try it out. I don’t have an instant pot, can I make this recipe using the crock pot?
Lorena Grater says
I recommend a regular pot instead of a slow cooker. Just follow the same directions and add an extra half cup of broth to account for evaporation and then bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let simmer for approx. 45 minutes or until the wild rice is cooked through.
R Meehan says
This was a really great recipe! I did use chicken breast instead of thighs with great results – not dry. I cut the chicken up into cubes and started the cooking process when it was still fairly frozen so perhaps that allowed it to stay tender and moist.
Lorena says
Fantastic!! Yes, I’ve tried it even with a block of frozen chicken thighs the other day and it worked like a charm. Happy to hear it works with breasts, too :)
Danielle says
This soup was SO delicious!! I followed it to a few, with the exception of omitting celery because I’m not a fan :) The flavors were amazing. Thank you so much!! Will definitely be making again.
Lorena says
Yay!!! I’m so happy you liked it! :D I love this soup so much!
Robert Farlee says
The flavor was good, but the texture was pretty mushy. I wonder if a reduced pressure-cooking time would help. I’ll probably try that next time.
Lorena says
Robert, I have an Instant Pot Beans post which gives me the biggest headache because EVERYBODY has different results. I’ve finally gotten to a few conclusions thanks for 100s of comments. Bean age plays a big role in cooking time and water quality, too. So it’s becoming suuuper difficult to nail a bean recipe *sigh* Hardly anybody knows the age of their beans or what minerals are in their water. Most people are successful with the timing though, which is why I’m leaving the recipes up. I’m glad you are going to give this recipe another try. I’m sure you’ll love it once you nailed the timing for your beans and water :)