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Crockpot Hearty Chicken and Rice Soup. The perfect comfort food. Slow-cooked chicken and vegetables with fresh herbs, lemon, and rice. It’s warming, hearty, full of flavor, and simple to make. We love to add grated parmesan cheese and parsley on top, plus bread on the side for dipping. Totally delicious!
Something my mom always made was chicken soup (and frozen potstickers). She adores just about any bowl of soup. One thing she always used to do that I thought was so unique was stir a cup or so of instant rice into the soup just before serving.
One thing about my mom? She was the queen of the instant rice. She’d always have it on hand for an easy side. But more times than not, she’d stir the rice into soup. And then? She’d top it with popcorn.
Another thing about my mom? She loves a bowl of homemade popcorn more than anyone you’ll meet.
And this is how she made her bowls of chicken soup. By the end of the bowl, the rice usually soaked up much of the broth, but it’s actually so delicious!
I’ve made a lot of chicken and wild rice soup before, but I haven’t shared a classic version like the one my mom would make.
When the temps got really cold during Christmas week, I made this soup in the crockpot. I’ve been loving my crockpot this winter!
I started the base the night before I planned to serve this. Then I just let it cook, low and slow, all day long. It turned out so yummy that my family ate up bowl after bowl!
And, of course, my mom fully loves this recipe the most!
These are the details
Ingredients
- salted butter
- chicken breast and or chicken thighs – I use boneless, skinless
- yellow onions
- shallots
- garlic
- celery
- carrots
- fresh thyme, sage, and rosemary – if fresh is unavailable, dry spices work!
- dried bay leaf
- broth – I use bone broth
- dry basmati rice – any dry white rice will work
- baby spinach
- lemon juice
- fresh parsley
Special Tools
You need a crockpot for this recipe. Or you can use the stove-top cooking method.
Steps
Step 1: add ingredients to the crockpot
In the bowl of your crockpot, layer the butter, chicken, onion, shallots, garlic, celery, and carrots. Pour over the broth.
Now add the thyme, sage, rosemary, and bay leaf. Season with lots of salt and black pepper. If you have one handy, add a parmesan rind for an even more flavorful broth!
Note that the order really doesn’t matter; just get everything into the crockpot!
Step 2: start the cooking!
Now cover the crockpot and slow cook. You can cook on high for just a couple of hours or on low all day long.
And again, if you don’t have a crockpot, you can easily make this on the stove.
Step 3: add the rice
The very final step is adding the dry rice. It’s important not to add the rice until you are ready to serve. If you add the rice too early, it will soak up all of the broth. The dish will become souper rice (my mom used to make this when she was in middle school!). It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not what we’re looking for with this recipe!
If you want to be able to serve this at any time you like, just cook the rice separately, then stir it into the soup when ready. Either way is just fine!
Add the spinach and lemon juice with the rice as well.
Step 4: serve
Ladle the rice and soup into bowls. You can top it simply with parsley, or add some parmesan, which is, of course, is so yummy!
Make sure to serve with bread, or you can try what my mom loves – add some popcorn on top! It’s fun!
A note about leftovers
Lastly, if you’re planning to enjoy this soup leftover, just note that the rice will soak up a lot of broth. You can do what I mentioned above and not add the rice directly to the soup when cooking, or you can add additional broth to the soup when rewarming.
Looking for other soup recipes? Here are my favorites:
Brie and Cheddar Apple Beer Soup
Creamy Gnocchi Soup with Rosemary Bacon
Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup
Creamy French Onion and Mushroom Soup
Healthier Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Soup
Pumpkin Beer Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Lastly, if you make this Crockpot Hearty Chicken and Rice Soup, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Crockpot Hearty Chicken and Rice Soup
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 444 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 pound boneless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 cup chopped, celery
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped sage
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups dry basmati rice
- 3 cups chopped fresh baby spinach
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Crockpot
- 1. In the bowl of your crockpot, mix the butter, chicken, onions, shallots, celery, and carrots. Pour over the broth. Add the thyme, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Add the parmesan rind, if using. 2. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 2-4 hours. Shred the chicken,3. 20 minutes before serving, stir in the rice, spinach, parsley, and lemon juice. Let cook for 15-20 minutes, until the rice is fluffy. Alternatively, you can cook the rice separately and add to the soup before serving.4. Ladle the soup and rice into bowls and top with fresh parsley. Enjoy!
- Stove
- 1. In a Dutch/oven, mix the butter, chicken, onions, shallots, celery, and carrots. Pour over the broth. Add the thyme, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Add the parmesan rind, if using. 2. Set the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or up to a few hours. Shred the chicken.3. 20 minutes before serving, stir in the rice, spinach, parsley, and lemon juice. Let cook for 15-20 minutes, until the rice is fluffy. Alternatively, you can cook the rice separately and add to the soup before serving.4. Ladle the soup and rice into bowls and top with fresh parsley. Enjoy!
This post was originally published on January 29, 2025
Loved this! All the fresh herbs made the broth taste great. Will definitely make again.
Hey Sophie,
Amazing! Love to hear this recipe was enjoyed, I appreciate you making it! xx
Made this soup yesterday in my crockpot and did edit some things as I saw fit. I used two large chicken breasts (so probably a little more than what the recipe calls for), most of one onion but only one shallot instead of two (two shallots plus an onion would be a whole lot), 3 celery stalks, two carrots. I purchased the poultry blend of herbs from the store which comes with sage, rosemary and thyme. It definitely was short on sage and rosemary but I thought the end result was still flavorful. I cooked the rice separately and also stored it separately. The lemon juice was a nice touch at the end. I added the spinach leaves to the bowl upon serving. Overall I think its very tasty if you make a few tweaks here and there!
Hey Leah,
Thanks so much! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, I appreciate you making it! Have a great weekend! xx
This is… really bad. I love this site but this was rough. The issues are
– way too much onion. Onion and shallots are overkill
– everything is a bit crunchy, and feels undercooked? It should be high 4-6 hrs and low 8-10.
– the chicken… why god did I not just think and season the chicken?
Just mi opinion!
Hi Leila,
Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, so sorry to hear it was not enjoyed! xx
I feel like I’m being pranked…. This should be called onion soup 😭😭 I’m so genuinely disappointed because this took a lot of prep and I waited all day for it in the crock pot.. for it to just taste like onions. I checked the recipe like 5x after to make sure I didn’t mess up.. the onion and shallots are so overpowering- I scooped so many of them out to try and save this soup. I love onions.. but DANG the proportions are off :/
Hi Mary,
So very sorry to hear this! Was there anything you may have possibly adjusted in the recipe? Please let me know how I can help! xT
This recipe took me 45 minute plus to prep. While HBH recipes can be tasty when they work out they are often wildly inaccurate for prep time.
Hi there,
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback and sorry this took so long to prep. Please let me know if I can help with anything! xx
Missing instructions on when to add the garlic.
Hi Jamie,
The garlic is added in step 1. Please let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
This soup was good. If you are making it and planning to have leftovers, I would not add spinach until you are actually eating it, as it got pretty slimy. Delicious on days 1 and 2, slightly less appetizing the longer it sat.
Hey there,
Happy Monday! So glad to hear this recipe was a hit, I appreciate you making it and your comment! xx
I’m assuming acrockpot is a slow cooker. Just wondering why so much butter is needed – it isn’t going to stick if it has 1.89 litres of chicken broth in it as well, which won’t evaporate in a slow cooker. It will add a certain amount of flavour (and salt) but could it have less fat???
Hi Fiona,
Yes, a crockpot and slow cooker are the same:) Feel free to reduce the butter to your liking. I hope you love this recipe! xT
So yucky. Disappointing. Made the recipe exactly as per the instructions. Followed you for a long time and have loved and make so many recipes on repeat. Now recipes are just being churned out, mostly all the same ingredients.
Hey Heidi,
So sorry to hear this recipe was not enjoyed. Was there something specific that went wrong that I can help with? Please let me know! xx
I made this mostly as written. I added brown cooked rice at the end. I added quite a bit more lemon juice. We loved it.
Hey Darla,
Amazing! Thank you so much for trying this recipe, I am so glad it turned out well for you! xxT
If you cook the rice separately, doesn’t that change the liquid content of your soup? If you add the rice per the recipe to the soup to cook, aren’t you absorbing about 3 cups of liquid for one and a half cups of rice?
OK I didn’t make the exact recipe but was delicious. Instead of chicken I used up some leftover cooked turkey which I added with the rice. And used dried herbs and red bell pepper instead of celery as that’s what I had.
Hey MJ,
Wonderful! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, thanks a lot for giving it a try! xxT
Hi there,
I was wondering if this could be made in a instapot instead of a crock pot or on the stove?
Thanks!
Alexia
Hey Alexia,
So sorry, I have not tested that with this recipe, so I do not have the instructions. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for you. Please let me know if I can help in any other way! xx
I made this tonight and it was incredibly delicious! I had not used a crock pot much so after the 6 hours, I put it on low for a few hours until dinner and when I went to scoop it out for dinner, there was not much broth so I added another 32 oz chicken broth and heated it up in the microwave. I should have turned it off I guess but the soup was awesome with so many flavors coming through. Will definitely make it again, but not leave it to simmer so long.
Thanks so much, Dennis! Love to hear this soup was a hit, I appreciate you making it! xT
Thank you Tieghan!
This recipe came to me in my second day of a nasty flu. I can’t thank you enough for helping me heal. Very light, tasty and satisfying soup. As always you knock out of the park!
Many thanks for delivering fabulous meals to us.
Hey Anar,
Fantastic! Thanks so much for making this recipe and your comment, so glad it turned out nicely for you! Happy Sunday! XxT