Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup with Chicken is one of the best soups I make. It uses real wild rice, earthy seasonings, mushrooms, and chicken, to make a hearty, classic soup. This pressure cooker wild rice soup with chicken is a staple from the beautiful state of Minnesota, and I adapted my mom's recipe for the Instant Pot! It's delicious!
Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup with Chicken
My love of soups is strong, and sharing fabulous Instant Pot soup recipes with you is so much fun! Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup with Chicken (or make it without meat) is so delicious, earthy, and hearty. With mushrooms, and just a few simple herbs and spices, and a creamy broth, it's so good!
First, a little history. Wild Rice is actually the State Grain of Minnesota. Did you know there was such a thing as a State Grain? I didn't.
Wild Rice is native to North America, and mostly grows in the Great Lakes region. It has a higher protein content than most cereal grains.
The color is a beautiful dark brown, and to me it smells a little like tea (though it doesn't taste like tea). When cooked the grains "burst" and the texture is creamy and kind of chewy.
In this recipe you only need 1 cup, and that is the perfect amount with all of the other ingredients.
There are wild rice blends out there, but they don't fare too well in this soup because the grains that are not wild rice get cooked away.
If you can only find the wild rice blends in your grocery store, look for the ones with the highest percentage of wild rice in them. Look on Amazon, too. I provided a link below to the brand I like.
Here is a quick look at the steps to make this amazing pressure cooker Wild Rice Soup with Chicken:
It is as simple as sautéing the veggies and aromatics, then adding the remaining ingredients and pressure cooking it all.
This is a tasty, healthy wild rice soup that is total comfort food. I hope you enjoy it!
Instant Pot Mushroom Soup
Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup
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If you make this fabulous wild rice soup, please leave a comment below with a star rating. I'd love to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup with Chicken is delicious and hearty. With wild rice, mushrooms, herbs and a creamy broth.
- 5 slices Bacon, chopped
- 1 med Onion, chopped
- 2 lrg Carrots, chopped (2 cups)
- 3 ribs Celery, chopped (2 cups)
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 1 Bay Leaf
- ½ teaspoon Thyme, dried
- 3 lrg cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
- 4-5 cups Chicken Broth*, low sodium
- 8 oz Mushrooms, sliced
- 1 sprig Rosemary, fresh
- 1 cup Wild Rice, rinsed
- 1 ½ cups Heavy Cream, divided in half
- 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt (or 1 ½ tsp table salt)
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- 2 Chicken Breasts, uncut (skinless/boneless)
- ¼ cup Flour
- ¾ cup Heavy Cream (from divided heavy cream above)
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Turn the pot on to Sauté. Add the bacon pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, until mostly done. If you use a leaner bacon, leave the fat in. If there is more that 1 Tablespoon of fat, spoon it out, leaving 1 Tablespoon.
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Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook a couple of minutes.
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Add the butter, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook for a couple of minutes.
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Add the garlic and stir it in, cooking for 1 minute.
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Pour in the broth and stir it well.
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Add the mushrooms, rosemary, and rice. Stir.
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Add ¾ cup of heavy cream, salt, and pepper, then stir. You can use half and half instead of heavy cream, if you want (if you want to use milk, add it after pressure cooking as it will not cook well. Heavy cream or half and half tolerate pressure cooking).
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Add the chicken breasts, and submerge them in the broth.
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Put the lid on the pot and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Then cancel the Sauté setting. Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial. Then press the +/- button or dial to select 35 minutes. High pressure.
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When the cooking cycle is finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 minute Natural Release). Then Manually release the remaining steam/pressure, carefully, using a controlled Quick Release (A controlled quick release is when you open the valve a little at a time to be sure no soup/sauce is going to spew out along with the steam when you release it. By starting out slowly and releasing the steam in bursts, you can avoid the mess! use a wooden spoon handle, or silicone oven mitts to avoid a steam burn.).
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When the pin in the lid drops down, open it up and carefully remove the chicken to a bowl.
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Mix the flour and remaining ¾ cup of heavy cream together very well, and stir into the hot soup.
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Shred the chicken and add it back into the soup. Let sit for a few minutes to thicken.
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Serve hot. Even better the next day!
*Use 4 cups of broth if you want the soup thick. 5 cups will make it soupier.
Resources to make pressure cooker Wild Rice Soup with Chicken recipe and more
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Shannon
I made this last night. The only changes I made were that I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and I added a little more garlic. I also used half &half because that's what I had on hand. This came out like a stew rather than a soup but oh my goodness it is phenomenal. Delicious, comforting, Mmmmm.
Oh I also added maybe a half teaspoon of chicken bullion just for good measure.
george
Can this recipe be used as a make ahead prep meal for storage in the fridge?
Sandy
I haven't tried it. I can't think of a reason not to!
Tracy
If I don't have heavy cream or half and half, can I use whole milk or 2%?
Sandy
Sure!
Merindy
This is delicious! I always like a bit of brown rice with the white rice, but was Leary of adding too much as the ingredients were creeping up to the full mark and I know brown rice swells some. I added just 1/2 cup, but could have added the full cup. I rinsed it first. Due to the extra rice I added an extra cup and a half of liquid (so 5.5 cups. It was still nice and thick. I could have maybe squeaked in another half cup of broth and still had it fit. I think the flour and cream mixture added at the end would be a little better if the flour was browned first in a roux, but I wanted to try it as written first. It was still delicious, but I think it would be even more flavorful with the roux, altogether a very well written recipe and the step by step instructions are super helpful, as I haven’t used my instant pot much, despite having it for at least three or four years.
Gary
Good day
I made your soup yesterday but I had to make a few changes. My wife doesn't eat carrots or celery so I turned it into a thanks giving soup. I instead of the celery and carrots I added butternut squash and extra onions. wonderful
Ericka
I’m cooking this recipe for the first time, right now. Regardless of how it turns out, I really want to thank you for the step by step directions. I have really struggled with my instapot and other recipes. I haven’t even used my instapot in a year and a half and then I found this recipe. The directions were enough to give me confidence and take one more go at the instapot.
Daressa Finch
My boyfriend and I made this together tonight. It was delicious and easy to prepare. The house smelled fabulous while prepping in the Instant Pot and the Rosemary gave it a fantastic flavor. Very filling!
Jenne
I made this from scratch, and followed the recipe almost exactly, except that I did not have fresh seasonings, so I used all dry spices, and the only shortcut I took was using minced garlic from a tube—Oh, I also had a full lb. of mushrooms instead of what was listed to use in the instructions, also my chicken breasts were large and frozen, but turned out AMAZINGLY well!!
All I would change is to add a bit of extra chicken base, this turned out perfectly, as ALL of your IP recipes have for me! Thank you for another great recipe, Ms. Sandy!