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Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Elizabeth Ries
Chicken Wild Rice Soup is a Minnesota classic – it’s on many a restaurant menu and ranges from a brothy textured soup studded with shredded chicken, vegetables and rice to a so-thick-you-could-eat-it-with-a-fork cream version that many of us know and love. My happiness lies squarely in the middle of these two varieties – I like a slight thickness that comes with some added flour and heavy cream and always always always using true hand-harvested wild rice (that’s actually an aquatic grass!) instead of the tough as nails cultivated variety.
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Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup hand harvested wild rice
  • 7 cups chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 carrots chopped
  • 2 stalks celery chopped
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon Turkey Herbs seasoning from Golden Fig*
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • chopped parsley

Instructions
 

  • Rinse the wild rice well. In a medium saucepan, bring 3 cups chicken stock and 1 cup wild rice to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Do not drain.
  • Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and butter in a stockpot or Dutch oven. Season the chicken thighs with the Turkey Herbs seasoning (or other “Thanksgiving” herb blend) and salt and pepper. Cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until browned and cooked through. Remove the pan and set aside. Chop when cooled.
  • Meanwhile, add the vegetables to the Dutch oven and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Add the remaining 4 cups of chicken stock. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the wild rice (and liquid), the chicken and the heavy cream to the pot. Stir gently and simmer for just a few minutes more. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Shower with parsley and serve.
  • *Turkey Herbs season from Golden Fig is an herb blend of sage, thyme, onion, rosemary, bay, celery seed, sea salt and black pepper.

Notes

Byline: Elizabeth Ries has hosted Twin Cities Live on KSTP for more than 15 years. She’s a passionate home cook who maintains a garden and a chicken coop in her Minneapolis backyard. She posts more recipes on her blog Home to Homestead and often shares too much information on her podcast Best to the Nest.