I love making this Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup With Chicken when I crave a hearty soup on cold days. It’s my family favorite for busy weeknights, and I get excited every time I make it.
You can’t beat the combination of real wild rice, tender chicken, and a creamy broth that comes together fast. Plus, using an electric pressure cooker significantly reduces the cook time. If it’s your first time cooking with an Instant Pot, don’t worry. We will make it together.
This wild rice soup recipe brings together chicken, veggies, and heavy cream (or milk, if you prefer). I rely on chicken thighs, chicken breasts, frozen chicken, or even store-bought rotisserie chicken, whatever is on hand. Sometimes I make it with leftover chicken to save even more time, and it still tastes amazing.
For rich flavor, I always use real wild rice instead of a mixture of wild, brown and white rice. I also like adding fresh herbs, like fresh thyme to boost the taste. If you want a heartier version, go for extra heavy cream. And if you’re watching calories, switch to half-and-half or milk. You can even add a dash of olive oil if you want to lighten things up further.
This recipe is part of my Soup recipes collection where you can find a few made in Instant Pot. If you like using this kitchen gadget, I also encourage you to try this Beef Vegetable Soup, Caldo Tlalpeño- Mexican Soup, or these Romanian Stuffed Peppers.
Easy Instant Pot Soups is also a collection of soups that you might like, but I also share a collection of 17 Instant Pot Stew Recipes, just to keep you warm and well fed all winter long.
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A few words about wild rice
Wild rice (affiliate link) is popular in Northern America and an essential part of the diet for many indigenous peoples (Ojibwe, Chippewa, Sioux), who consider it sacred. If you visit Minnesota, the state that adopted me, you’ll find that nearly every household has its own wild rice soup recipe.
Officially recognized as Minnesota’s State Grain and almost as old as history itself, wild rice is actually the seed of a grass that thrives in marshes. It’s highly nutritious, with a chewy texture, especially when I cook it first and toss it in a bit of butter for extra flavor.
Why Make This Soup in the Instant Pot?
Compared with other types of rice, wild rice needs a long time to cook. While I love taking my time and making all kinds of dishes for my family, sometimes I do not have enough time to cook.
This is when the Instant Pot becomes an essential tool for me. For many years, I resisted buying new gadgets until one day when I decided to give it a try and buy an Instant Pot (affiliate link).
I still do not use it to its full capacity, but I like making soups in it, especially when I need a quick dinner for the family.
This wild rice soup falls into the category of making a hearty dish in no time, so why not use the pot? In about 35 minutes, you can have a gorgeous dinner on the table.
Ingredients
For The Instant Pot:
- Chicken: It could be any part of the chicken you like, breast, legs, or thighs, boneless or not, skinless on not, they are all good.
- Carrots: I used medium size carrots.
- Celery- 2-3 stalks
- Onions : You can also replace the regular onion with green onion if you have it available.
- Garlic: Once in a while, I get green garlic from the farmer's market and use it in recipes. If you have some, you can use it in this soup. Otherwise, regular garlic is what you need.
- Parsnips: 1-2 medium size
- Wild Rice: Please use real wild rice in this recipe. No white rice, no parboiled, brown, instant, or anything like that. Wild rice is wild rice and if you don't have it, try this Greek chicken soup instead.
- Vegetable or chicken broth: Choose the low-salt version.
- Salt
For The Stovetop:
- Butter: I used unsalted butter
- All-purpose flour
- Half and half: If you prefer heavy cream or just regular milk, use what you have. Obviously, the creamy mixture for the soup will be rich if you use heavy cream, so keep that in mind. You can even make a mixture of heavy cream and milk to make it less rich.
- Salt
How to make
- Sauté The Vegetables: Set your 6-quart instant pot to the sauté feature. Add a splash of olive oil or butter. Chop all vegetables listed on the list and place them in the Instant Pot with the chicken. If you prefer, you can choose the Saute option for 10 minutes to toss the vegetables in a little bit of oil in the pot.
- Add The Chicken And Wild Rice: Place the uncooked chicken meat, into the pot. Add the wild rice. Pour in chicken stock or cups of water, depending on your preference. For a flavor boost, I sometimes use homemade broth.
3. Pressure Cook: Secure lid on your electric pressure cooker. Select high pressure for about 30 minutes of cooking time. After cooking, do a quick release if you’re short on time, or let it do a natural pressure release if you’re not in a hurry.
Make sure the pressure valve is set to the right venting position to release any remaining steam or remaining pressure. Open the pot, remove the chicken, and shred it. Add it back to the soup.
How To Do a Quick Release of Steam on your Instant Pot:
If you are using the Instant Pot for the first time, you need to know what is a Quick Release of Steam. This article explains how to do this the correct way.
Make the Roux- or the Creamy mixture on the stove:
Move to the stove top for the thickening step. In a small bowl or saucepan, melt butter or warm olive oil. Whisk in flour or corn starch for thickening, then slowly add heavy cream.
Keep whisking to avoid lumps. Pour this mixture back into the Instant Pot and give it a good stir. This step is the best part of this recipe because it transforms the dish into the creamy chicken soup.
Serve
To serve, grab a ladle and fill up bowls with this warm, creamy, delicious wild rice soup with chicken and eat it with crusty artisanal bread or a baguette. Do you know what kind of bread would be excellent to make? This No Yeast Bread.
Also, nothing would scream more like traditional Minnesota than a bowl of hot soup with a slice of this fantastic Beer Bread recipe.
If you don't want chicken, you can make this soup using mushrooms or a handful of spinach.
How To Store
Keep any extra soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days. You can reheat it on the stove top or microwave. If you plan to freeze it, consider adding the creamy sauce right before serving. Dairy in the freezer can sometimes separate, but it’s not a deal-breaker. Just give it a stir or add fresh cream when you warm it up.
I hope you enjoy it!
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📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
For the Instant Pot:
- 1 pound chicken
- 2-3 medium carrots chopped
- 3-4 celery stalks chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1-2 medium parsnip chopped
- 1 cup wild rice
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Stovetop:
- 5 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 ½ cups half and half
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
Instant Pot:
- Place all ingredients in the pot: chicken, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, parsnip, wild rice, vegetable/chicken broth or water, salt.
- Cover and set the Instant Pot on Manual High Pressure for 30 minutes. Then, do a quick release steam using the valve on top.
- Open the pot, remove the chicken and shred it. Add it back to the soup.
On the stovetop- How To make Roux:
- Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add flour and whisk for 2 minutes, so it gets cooked. Continue whisking while you slowly pour the half and half ( or heavy cream or milk). Add a pinch of salt and mix until you obtain a creamy, smooth mixture.
Combine the soup with the sauce:
- Pour the sauce over the soup in the Instant Pot and stir to incorporate it.
- Serve warm in bowls with crusty artisanal bread or a baguette.
Notes
Nutrition
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