Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Welcome back friends!  I’m sorry for sporadic posting, but if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that we’ve had a lot of illness come through our house since the end of January.  I’m sure the wacky weather we’ve been having here doesn’t help either.  Over 60 and sunny one day, and the next it’s barely 20 and there’s 3″ of snow on the ground.  That’s Pennsylvania for you!

But since the end of January, each of the kids has been ill in some form or another.  Lady Bug keeps getting sinus congestion, Bookworm has been battling a stomach bug the last few days.  But then there’s Monkey.  He has taking it pretty tough the last 5 weeks.  In that time span, he’s had strep throat, double ear infection, and now we’re on croup and a stomach bug.  Throw in a migraine or two for him as well… I feel so bad for the kid.  This is one of those times as a parent where I wish it was me that could be this ill rather than him.

I’ve been trying to keep our meals over the last week or so very simple.  Not just time-wise, but also something that’s super easy to throw together and forget about it the rest of the day.

Soup tends to be one of those meals for us.  It’s always easy to throw together, feeds a crowd {or a family for days}, and doesn’t cost a whole lot either.  The ultimate frugal meal!

And that brings me to this creamy chicken & wild rice soup.  I used my chicken wild rice soup as a basis, but I wanted something creamier, kind of like the soup that Panera has.  What I came up with was absolutely delicious!

It was made even better when I took the plunge and threw it in the slow cooker to cook all day.  I’m not really a slow cooker meal maker {is that even a thing} by nature.  I enjoy multiple parts to our meals, but I’ve slowly been learning to let the slow cooker do some of the work for me so I can focus on other things.  Like sick kids.

I’m not going to say that this is the healthiest thing out there.  It has a lot of butter in it, but most of it is for the roux that acts as a cream of soup replacement.  If you are able to use canned cream of soups, you can substitute them in and it makes the prep work even simpler!

Ingredients:

• 8 Tablespoons butter, divided {2T for sauteeing vegetables, 6T for roux}
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled & diced
• 4 cup broth, divided {1 cup for roux of & 3 cups for soup}
• 1 cup half & half
• 6 Tablespoons flour
• 2 cups cooked chicken, cubed {you can use roasted chicken, or shredded chicken cooked in a slow cooker}
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1-2 cups water, or however much is needed.
• 1 cup dry wild rice, cooked according to directions.

Directions:

1. Spray a slow cooker with cooking spray.   While it’s not a necessary step, I prefer to spray my slow cooker insert to prevent any major cleanup later.  Add in cooked chicken and 3 cups chicken broth.
2. In a skillet {I love to use our cast iron* for this} over medium high heat, melt 2T butter.   Saute onion, celery & carrots until tender.  Place in slow cooker with the broth and chicken.
3. **To cook roux, the same skillet, melt the remaining 6T of butter.  Once melted, add in the flour and thyme, whisking until combined and no longer frothy.  Slowly add remaining 1 cup of chicken broth {I use our homemade chicken broth}, whisking continually until combined.  Slowly whisk in half & half, continually whisking until bubbly.
4. Add roux {or the cream of chicken soup} to the slow cooker, stir to combine with the other ingredients.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add 1-2 cups water, stirring to combine.  This is a purely optional step, but I add it because I know my slow cooker tends to cook a little high and needs some extra liquid to not burn the food.
6. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
7. 20 minutes before serving, add cooked wild rice, stirring to combine.

Serves 10.

**Note: If desired, you can skip this step and add 2 cans cream of chicken soup.