Chicken and Wild Rice Soup-Recipe Gluten Free

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This Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Recipe Gluten Free is probably the best you’ve ever eaten. It can also be made dairy-free with a few substitutions.

Soup Season is Calling

Having grown up in Minnesota, wild rice was a normal ingredient to have in the pantry. I have heard that wild rice is more of midwestern comfort food, but with the expansion of Panera Bread all over the USA, I know more than just the hearty folk of the north appreciate it too.

If you want more Gluten-Free soup recipes, check out my Gluten-Free Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe here.

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Where To Find Wild Rice

If you aren’t living up in the Great North, you may not have a stock pile of this here wild rice ready to go. (Yes, I am imaginging saying that sentance in the most Minnesotan accent I can muster…) So in that case, check your local grocery store in the rice section to see what your options are.

For the sake of ease, here are a few choices from Amazon.

I have found regular wild rice at Trader Joe’s. The price will be much better in-store than through this link to Amazon, but I like to share a picture of what you are looking for.

If all you can find is Lundberg’s Rice Blend, that will work. But personally I prefeer just straight wild rice. Must be my Minnesotan upbringing.

Some stores only have Uncle Ben’s. I wouldn’t suggest using this kind unless you are really hard-pressed to find something to add to this soup. If that is the case, leave out the seasoning packet. The ingredients in the packet are highly questionable. If you need to use this, it will probably take 4 boxes to get the same amount of rice as the recipe calls for, so not very budget-friendly either.

How to Cook Wild Rice in the Instant Pot

Wild Rice takes a bit of time to cook. The easiest and fastest way to cook it is in an Instant Pot.

First, measure out your wild rice (1 cup uncooked for this recipe) and place it in a colander with small holes, like a wire colander. If you don’t have a wire colander, you can use a regular colander with a thin kitchen towel placed over the colander.

Place the 1 cup of wild rice into the colander and rinse it with cold water for about a minute. (This is a good practice to do because wild rice is grown in freshwater marshy areas.)

Once your wild rice is rinsed, place it into the Instant Pot pot.

Add 1 1/2 cup water to the wild rice in the pot.

Sprinkle 1/4 tsp of salt into the pot and give a gentle stir

Turn Instant Pot to high pressure and set time to 20 minutes.

Once the cooking time has passed, carefully release the pressure according to your Instant Pot’s directions.

There may be some water left in the bottom of the pot, so strain the wild rice and set the cooked wild rice aside.

Kitchen Tip

I usually cook the rice a day beforehand and store it in the fridge till I am ready to cook the chicken and wild rice soup.

If you do not have an Instant Pot, follow the directions on your packaging of wild rice.

Ingredients for Gluten Free Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Pre-cooked Wild Rice: About 1 cup dry before cooking. It will be equal to 4 cups cooked.

Butter: Makes everything better. But if you need to keep this dairy-free, use plant-based butter.

Avocado Oil: To add to the pot when it is hot and just before making the roux.

Sliced Carrots, Diced Celery, and Diced Onion: This creates a mirepoix, which is a classic French way of adding delicious flavor to the soup.

Gluten-Free Flour Mix: Creates a roux to thicken the base of the soup. This is my favorite blend of GF flour.

Chicken Broth: I prefer homemade and I have an easy recipe for it here. If you use store-bought chicken broth/ stock, don’t add any additional salt until you have tasted the soup.

Cooked Chicken: I love using chicken thighs for flavor, but any de-boned cooked chicken works. See notes at the bottom of the recipe for exactly how I cook chicken for this soup.

Garlic: I like a lot of garlic. You can tone it down if you aren’t a garlic lover.

Poultry Seasoning: Find it in the spice aisle of your local grocery store or grab it here. (If you don’t have it on hand, it is a blend of thyme, sage, black pepper, marjoram, rosemary, and nutmeg.)

Salt and Pepper, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder

Half and Half or Heavy Cream: Takes this soup over the top! If you are doing a dairy-free version, I prefer a dairy-free blend of oat milk and coconut milk.

Let’s Get Cooking: Making Gluten Free Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1. Gather ingredients and make sure you have your rice precooked. (See notes.)
2. In a large dutch oven or heavy bottom stockpot melt 6 tablespoons butter over medium heat.
3. Mix in the mirepoix. (1 large onion equal to about 1 cup diced onions, 5 stalks of celery diced to be 1 1/2 Cups diced and 3 large carrots about 1 1/2 Cups sliced carrots) and cook until tender. About 4 minutes. Don’t cook too long as the mix will continue cooking in the soup.
4. Add 5 cloves of minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
5. Drizzle 2 Tablespoons of Avocado Oil over the cooked mirepoix and bottom of the pot.
6. Whisk in 1/2 cup King Arthur Gluten-Free flour mix and continue cooking till the mixture gently bubbles.
7. Slowly add 2 cups of the 12 total cups chicken broth. (3 cartons of 32 oz containers from the store if not using homemade.)
8. Whisk the vegetable mixture, gluten-free flour with the 2 cups of chicken broth till the flour clumps are gone. Make sure to gently scrape the bottom of the pot so the gluten-free flour doesn’t burn.
9. Add in the remaining 10 cups of chicken broth.
10. Turn up the heat to medium-high and bring the pot to a simmer, whisking often till the sauce thickens. About 1-2 minutes.
11. Next add the wild rice, minced garlic, and the bay leaf.
12. Add the cooked, shredded chicken, 3-4 Cups. (About 2 pounds of chicken before cooking.)
13. As the soup continues to simmer, make sure that the wild rice grains have split open. (Otherwise they will be tough to chew.) If they haven’t split yet, continue simmering before moving on to the next step.
14. Turn down heat to low.
15. Stir in the half and half (or heavy cream, or DF substitue.)
16. Season well to taste with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and poultry seasoning. (Taste the soup! Even though I give measurements, there are many different variables between your kitchen and mine. I always season things well and taste along the way.
17. Make sure all ingredients are heated through and serve warm. Enjoy!

Notes:

This recipe calls for the wild rice to be precooked. To do this you can either follow the stovetop directions on the packaging or do it in the Instant Pot.

I prefer to cook the wild rice in the Instant Pot, making the cooking time 20 minutes rather than about 45 minutes. I share exactly how I do this above in the section How to Cook Wild Rice in the Instant Pot.

How to Make this Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Dairy-Free

As mentioned, you can make this dairy-free with substituing a dairy-free butter for the butter the recipe calls for. For the half and half or cream, I like to substitute a store bought blend of oat milk and coconut milk. Using straight coconut milk would also be good but less creamy.

How Should The Chicken Be Cooked?

Feel free to use what works best for you. Whether that is grabbing a rotisserie chicken from the store, putting some chicken breasts/ thighs in the Instant Pot, or using up some leftovers from the fridge. Do what you like, but if you want a very practical step-by-step guide, here it is. 😉

The following directions is my default way of quickly cooking up some chicken.

How to Cook Skinless, Boneless Chicken Thighs

1. Remove 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs from the refrigerator. (If your chicken is frozen, unthaw it first for this method.)
2. Heat a large cast iron pan over medium high heat.
3. Add 3 tablespoons of a high heat approved cooking oil. Such as avocado oil or coconut oil.
4. Let the oil heat for about 30 seconds.
5. Add the boneless, skinless chicken thighs to the heated pan.
6. Season well with salt and pepper on the side that is facing up.
7. Let cook for about 5 minutes.
8. Then flip the chicken thighs over to cook the other side.
9. Season again with salt and pepper. This time also add 1/2 tablespoon of both garlic powder and onion powder.
10. Cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees.
11. The chicken should be easy to cut apart with the edge of a spatula in the pan. Still tender, not dried out but separates under pressure.
12. Turn off the stove, remove the pan from heat and then carefully remove the chicken from the pan to a wooden cutting board.
13. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting/ shredding. You can add it directly to the soup when you are at that step of the process.

If you are making the chicken ahead of time and need to put it in the refrigerator, first let it cool to room temperature.

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