Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Blend Rice Soup (with Crock Pot instructions too!)

This Instant Pot Family Favorite Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Blend Rice Soup recipe is done in minutes and will quickly become your FAVORITE soup! Ladle up a bowl of this luscious, rich, flavor-packed soup today! It’s the perfect comfort food!

I’m at that age where soup is not just a seasonal thing but rather it’s perfectly acceptable that it be served in the middle of winter or on a hot summer day. Soup for me is a meal and not so much a starter to something more. I want my soups to be hearty, filling and comforting. And now, with my being in the midst of recuperating from surgery, soup is all I want. Plus, honestly, it’s all that I can almost taste.

So the other day I had some minor outpatient surgery to have a deviated septum repaired and my turbinates reduced. Go on, google ‘turbinate’ as I had to do it too. Long story short, it felt like both of my nostrils caved in and I couldn’t breathe at all through them. I was sneezing (hard) at least 100 times a day and sounded like I had a stuffed up nose 24/7. This all came on rather abruptly and, when it started to affect my breathing, the doctor quickly scheduled me for surgery.

Now he did warn me that it would be discomforting and that under no circumstances was I allowed to blow my nose or sneeze. The latter, is well, torture for a girl that sneezes as much as I do. However, what he didn’t warn me about is the fact that I would feel like they hit me in the face with a brick and that my teeth would positively kill me. OMG… it’s just terrible. But… I figure that it’s just some short term discomfort for a lifetime of easier breathing… right?!

The past few days I’ve been lying in bed, not by choice mind you as I’m not a good patient at all. I just can’t sit still. I’m so used to taking care of things that letting someone take care of me is honestly really, really difficult.  I was raised to be the caretaker if you will though Mr. Fantabulous is loving this right now. He’s doing his best to take care of me while he still heals himself.

So we made a compromise – we’d cook together and take care of one another. This soup is perfect for us to make together. Since he still only has the one arm to use, I chopped up all of the veggies and sauteed up the rice while he carried the heavy stuff.

This soup, honestly, couldn’t have been any easier to make as we really didn’t have to do much other than chop, stir and press a few buttons.  Oh, Instant Pot how I love thee! Seriously! I’ve been preaching out pressure cooking for years – well before the Instant Pot became the most popular kitchen equipment today. All that’s missing from it is that whole ‘fry’ factor. I know there is some other PC out there that also has like an air fryer built-in but I’m loving my IP still. Though full disclosure I still use my other 2 pressure cookers and love them just as much.

With this recipe, we wanted a bit of a creamy base to it rather than straight stock. It’s not thick like say cream of broccoli or potato soup but rather it’s more of a light cream base. You can certainly make it thicker but I, personally, didn’t think that would fair as well with the rice. I think that would be too heavy but hey, if that’s your preference, go for it.

Also, you’ll notice this recipe doesn’t use straight wild rice or brown rice. It has to be a mixture of wild rice blend. I find that that type/blend of rice is easiest to find and the most inexpensive.

This soup is exactly what Mr. Fantabulous and I need for the next few days to help us heal It’s literally just one pot we have to clean and makes enough that we don’t have to worry about cooking for a little while.

Now let’s address a few questions I’m sure you guys will have:

1. Can I use boneless thighs? Absolutely! The dark meat will add such a rich and deeper flavor
2. Can I use bone-in meats? Yes but… Because this is also cooked with the rice and veggies you have to be super careful of bones. What I would do is wrap the meats in cheesecloth to help keep the bones in the cloth.
3. Can I use turkey? Yep! That works too!
4. Do I have to add the cream? No. I will be posting a non-creamy version very soon. It’s just a tad different than this recipe but just ever so slight.

So with that guys, if you’ll pardon me I want to go take my medicine, change my dressings and actually lie down. I’m going to listen to Dr. Fantabulous and try to rest.

Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Blend Rice Soup (with Crock Pot instructions too!)

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This Family Favorite Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Blend Rice Soup recipe is done in minutes and will quickly become your FAVORITE soup! Ladle up a bowl of this luscious, rich, flavor-packed soup today! It’s the perfect comfort food!

• Author: TKWAdmin

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup wild grain blend rice
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon olive oil *only for the Instant Pot
• 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 large carrots, cut into 1/4” pieces
• 2 stalks celery (including leaves), cut into 1/4″ pieces
• 1 medium yellow onion, minced
• 2–3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 3/4 cup heavy cream (or can use half and half)

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Instructions

Instant Pot

1. Place the oil into the 8 quart Instant Pot and set it to saute. Add in the onions, carrots, celery and a pinch of the salt and pepper.  Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the rice, stir and cook for 2 minutes as you want to lightly toast the rice. Turn off the instant pot.
2. Add in 1/2 cup of broth and stir to pick up any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add in 2 1/2 cups more stock, the rest of the salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves and chicken.  Close the lid and pressure cook on HIGH for 25 minutes.  Perform a quick release when the time is up.
3. Remove the lid, fish out the bay leaves (discard). Remove the chicken and shred into pieces or cut into small chunks. Stir the soup.
4. Add the rest of the stock to the instant pot and place it on saute. Add the chicken pieces to the pot. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and flour. Carefully pour into the soup and stir. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring til incorporated and the soup is hot all the way through.
5. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired.

Crockpot

1. In an 8 quart crockpot, add all of the ingredients except the flour and cream. Cover and set it to HIGH and cook for 4-5 hours or set it to LOW and cook for 7-8 hours.
2. When done, fish out the bay leaves (discard). Remove the chicken and shred into pieces or cut into small chunks.
3. Add the chicken pieces back  to the pot. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and flour. Carefully pour into the soup and stir. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring til incorporated and the soup is hot all the way through.
4. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired.

Notes

This broth is creamy but light. If you want a thicker soup add another 1-2 tablespoon of flour to the cream before adding it to the soup.

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