Easy Chicken and Rice Soup
This flavorful and easy chicken and rice soup recipe includes tender chicken cooked in creamy broth with Italian seasoning. It’s a quick, easy, hearty, and oh-so-filling comfort food dish.
This easy chicken and rice soup recipe is simple to make and absolutely delicious. It’s one of those comforting meals you can throw together in the time it takes to cook your rice. It’s perfect for a sick day, a hard day, a long day, or a lovely day that just needs a light and lovely finish.
The ingredients are few, but they are enough to give it a wonderful flavor that will have ’em coming back for more. You’re going to need shredded rotisserie chicken, chicken broth, heavy cream, Italian dressing mix, dried parsley, white rice, and instant potato flakes.
The instructions are as simple as combining the chicken broth with the seasonings, adding the shredded chicken, bringing the ingredients to a boil then simmering. Then we stir in the cream and potato flakes (the best soup thickener), and your creamy chicken soup is done! Pop a bed of cooked white rice into your serving bowl and ladle the soup on top. Now that’s what you call a quick and easy chicken and rice soup.
I like to serve it with a side of warm crusty bread to soak up that creamy and flavorful soup broth, but there are more serving suggestions below. It’s also important to note that I’m making enough for 6 to 8 servings because I love soup leftovers. Meal prep, anyone? But feel free to half this recipe if you’d like to feed only 4.
Now let me show you how easy it is to make this delicious homemade chicken soup.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken broth
- Rice
- Heavy cream
- Italian dressing mix
- Rotisserie chicken
- Dried parsley flakes
- Instant potato flakes
How to Make My Easy Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe
First of all, get your rice cooking. Cook two cups of dry rice according to the packet directions.
If you want to have a heartier soup, make more. If you want a lighter soup, cook less.
While the rice is cooking, pour the chicken stock into a large stockpot.
Add in your packet of dry Italian dressing mix.
And the dried parsley.
Give those ingredients a good stir together.
Take your cooked chicken off the bone and shred it, then add it to the pot.
Place this over medium heat and bring just to a boil, stirring every so often.
Then, reduce heat to a simmer.
Add cream.
If you like, you can also add instant potato flakes at this point.
Stir that all up well until your chicken soup looks a little bit like this.
Place about 1/2 cup of cooked rice in a bowl.
Ladle servings of soup over the rice and stir.
Serve with warm crusty bread or whatever you’re in the mood to serve it with.
Enjoy!
Storage
- Store the rice and soup in separate airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat either in the microwave or on the stovetop until heated through.
- You can also freeze them in separate containers for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating as above.
Recipe Notes
- You can use half and half or even milk in place of the cream. It won’t add the rich buttery flavor that cream does.
- If you’re choosing to cook a whole chicken yourself, here’s what you need to do. Cover a whole fryer with water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for an hour, or until chicken is done and broth is rich. Remove chicken. Proceed with step 2. Be sure to add salt to taste if you make your own broth.
- This recipe works great with any kind of leftover chicken breast, leftover roast chicken, or even leftover turkey during the holidays. You just want roughly 2 cups of shredded chicken in total.
- Want to add some veggies to your chicken rice soup? You’ll want to saute them in the stockpot with oil before adding the chicken stock and proceeding with the instructions as directed. Popular soup veggie options include chopped onion, a couple of chopped carrots, a chopped zucchini, and/or a couple of chopped celery ribs.
- If you don’t want a creamy chicken and rice soup, feel free to just omit the cream. The soup will still taste flavorful and delicious.
- Instead of adding dried parsley to the soup, you can garnish individual servings with chopped fresh parsley.
Recipe FAQs
How do you thicken chicken soup?
I love to use instant potato flakes as a soup thickener. I find they give my soup a little more body without altering the flavor.
Should I cook rice before adding it to the soup?
Now, I don’t personally stir the rice directly into the soup. If we did and were planning on having leftovers, the next day that rice would be all bloated up, and the soup would look more like a weird rice pudding. So just keep them separate until serving. Cooked rice refrigerates and even freezes well anyway.
What is the best rice to use in soup?
White rice is the best rice to serve with soup, like long grain white rice, jasmine rice, or basmati rice. But other options include wild rice for chicken wild rice soup and brown rice.
What do you serve with chicken and rice soup?
Serve your chicken rice soup with some sort of bread side dish to soak up the broth, like crusty bread, cornbread, garlic bread, or a soft buttermilk biscuit.
You may also like these sensational soup recipes:
Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe
How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 64 ounces chicken broth
- 1 shredded rotisserie chicken
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 0.7-ounce packet Italian dressing mix
- 1 cup instant potato flakes (optional)
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley (optional)
Instructions
- Pour broth into a large stockpot. Stir in Italian dressing mix and parsley if using.64 ounces chicken broth, 1 tablespoon dried parsley (optional), 1 0.7-ounce packet Italian dressing mix
- Debone and shred chicken then add it to the pot. Place over medium heat and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer while rice cooks.1 shredded rotisserie chicken
- Cook rice according to package directions.2 cups uncooked white rice
- When the rice is done, stir cream and potato flakes into the soup.1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup instant potato flakes (optional)
- Fill each individual bowl with 1/2 cup of cooked rice. Top with soup and stir to combine. Enjoy!
Nutrition
“No one ever injured their eyesight by looking
on the bright side of things.”
~Unknown
Submitted by Jenny.
Awesome, easy, soup recipe! Can’t wait to make it…thanks Christy! Too cute about the “style situation”. Both of my girls definitely had their own ideas about what to wear, and there was no budging them. That’s ok, I was the same way!
Great post, thanks again…
Deb
Hahahahaha! Bless both your and Katy Rose’s hearts. 🙂 What a great story. (Growing up — well, and now too, but let’s not dwell on that — I was always the unfashionable one and my mother was/is the fashionista. As a baby, it was bonnets and little frilly dresses all the way … until I grew old enough to profess my love for OshKosh, and soon after began dressing myself in all manner of discombobulated ways. Poor Mama never had a chance after that, though she continued to try to talk some sense into me from time to time.)
And this recipe looks great. I’ve mentioned before I’m a vegetarian, but this is easily transferable to veggie broth and “chik’n”! As usual. Thank you so much for what I’m sure will become a fall and winter favorite! 🙂
Christy, your daughter is a doll! She’s lucky to have someone like you for a mom and I’m sure she knows it! Now… if I could just convince MY daughters how lucky they are to have me for a mom, I’d be in good shape. My younger daughter has just decided at the tender age of 10 1/2, that she is finally going to start following the fashion trends popular with tween girls right now, so needless to say, she’s torturing me. She HATED skinny jeans and all denim on a Monday, and by Tuesday, she just HAD TO HAVE THEM!!!! All because a classmate wore them and her eyes were ‘opened’ to all the fashion possibilities skinny jeans offer…..anyway, keep your lil pumpkin wearing her fluff and sparkles…. it sure beats the discussions I’ve got ahead of me, such as ” Oh, no you are NOT wearing jeans that tight outside this house!”. …sigh! Wish me luck. Now, speaking of precious little girls, I hope you don’t mind if I switch gears for a moment; I wasn’t sure where else to post this on your site, but I know you are a woman of deep faith and I am asking if you would lift one of my daughter’s dear friends up in prayer all the way from Alabama. She is a 10 year old girl who was just diagnosed with Hodgkins’ Disease, Stage 4. She is such a precious little thing and my daughter just loves her so much. Joy has been her best friend all through elementary school – even when they didn’t share the same class, they still remained friends. I am asking everyone I know for prayers for Joy, and now I’m asking you too. Thanks so much. I know I’m looking forward to the release of your new book. I’m planning on bringing Joy and her family one of your delicious recipes to try to provide a little bit of comfort in the midst of what they’re going through. Gotta keep that girl strong for the fight ahead. This chicken rice soup might be a good place to start. Thanks and have a nice day!
Sharon, so sorry to hear of one so young having that dreaded disease. I will definitely pray for Joy, her family and you. I’m sure they will love and appreciate the soup that you take them. It will bring a little ‘food comfort’ to them during such a hard time. They are blessed to have a friend like you.
Dear Sharon, thank you so much for giving us the honor of praying for your sweet Joy. It sounds like she is a light that lives up to her name and please know that we will be lifting her, her entire family, and yours up to God and praying that He will wrap them in love, comfort, and miracles only He can provide.
I’m so glad you asked us. Please keep us updated.
Gratefully,
Christy
Michelle from Overland Park KS- Christy, i was cracking up as i read your post- Katy Rose does sparkle btw- i too prefer to wear “off the cover of the catalog” /mannequin- in fact at the class reunion my outfits were totally from the catalog cover, when i was asked ” where did you get that outfit? yea.. it was on the cover .. there is NO way i’d be creative to pair a bright Katyrose pink sweater/ and a blue polka dotted top- i do think it flattered, but i was attempted to copy stylish, and i think i did well- i was dressed as a child, and bless her she tried- but its too cold in Nebraska to wear skirts unless its summer- at one point in my 20’s ( 90’s) my clothes were ALL BLACK. black is easy to pair with black. 5 years ago i decided when i looked at my closet and saw dark colors- to put color in my wardrobe and bought every color they offered in the same shirt to see what color fit me best- i am more drawn to blues – my gramma was a 1930’s lady dress girdle coty red lipstick and stylish hat scarf and coat got her hair done everyweek at the salon, until she passed in 93.. she did her best trying to accessorize me the dear lady. but i look at jewelry handbags and shoes in the store and flinch and cant wait to flee. my shoes are all black, i have one black purse. and i gravitate to my favorite couple tshirts and flannels still- Bass pro shops is awesome and you will LOVE those flannel shirts.. i hit a similar sale couple years ago and got mine 🙂 anyway i’m so happy that you are healed up and i really hope in the spring your book tour comes to Overland Park Ks !
Oh Bobbie I forgot to tell you that to get your saved recipes you just have to click on the “RECIPE BOX” button and then put in your email and password and all of your recipes come right up including the pictures. I LOVE THE EASE OF IT!!!!! It is especially handy when you are in a hurry or low on ink and can’t print. You just save it to recipe box and go on about your business. Christy has made it so simple to save the recipes for a later date. You can even make a grocery list.
Bobbie, at the top of each recipe there’s a button that says “SAVE RECIPE” when you click on that a new box will come up and it lets you set up a free account through zip list. You will put in your email and a password you want. Then after that when you want to save a recipe you will click on the “SAVE RECIPE’ button it will ask you for your email and password then you will click that you want to save the recipe and it puts the recipes you want saved into your own recipe box. It really is very easy and great to be able to save all your recipes in one spot. ESPECIALLY WHEN CHRISTY HAS SO MANY GREAT RECIPES!!!
This looks like a really delicious soup sold at a local restaurant (Demo’s). Theirs wouldn’t have the potato flakes — the broth is thin — and it has lemon. I think it’s probably their take on a traditional Greek agovolimno soup. The lemon adds so much flavor! I’m going to try this, -flakes/+lemon, and see if it’s close to theirs. Thanks!
I make this soup with a rotisserie chicken, a box of chicken stock and an undiluted can of cream of chicken soup…and the rice cooked separately, of course. My husband loves Demo’s soup and swears this is a good clone!
Kim I was gonna say the same thing about Demo’s! That soup is one of my daughter’s favorite things to eat out. I am gonna try this and see what she thinks. Christy I was gonna ask if u had ever eaten there and tried their chicken and rice soup.