This hearty and comforting Roasted Chicken and Rice Soup is packed with tender chicken, rice, fresh vegetables, and mushrooms—perfect for warming up on a chilly day!
Why We Love This Soup!
- Healthy and Nutritious – This delicious soup full of vitamins, minerals, protein, and carb is basically a whole healthy meal in a bowl!
- It’s Easy to Make! -Using roasted chicken, instead of cooking chicken from scratch will save you lots of time. All you need is 1 pound or half of store bought roasted chicken. I make this dish whenever I have left over roasted chicken I purchased from my local store.
- No need for Stock – You don’t need to buy store bought stock for a flavorful broth. Roasted chicken, veggies, mushrooms and herbs combined create delicious, flavorful broth.
Roasted Chicken and Rice Soup Tips for Best Results
- Sauté vegetables until they are tender. Don’t brown the veggies, we don’t want them to be caramelized.
- Save the thigh bone to simmer with soup for a flavorful broth.
- Use short grain rice such as sushi rice or Arborio rice. Short grain rice has high starch content that will thicken the soup and make it creamy!
- If soup gets too thick, add more water to adjust the consistency.
Variations of this Soup
- If you’re tomato lover, add cherry tomatoes! I made this soup with cherry tomatoes that was too ripe for a salad. Overripe tomatoes added sweetness and additional flavor to the soup.
- You don’t have to use brown beech mushrooms and shiitake. Try cremini or king trumpet mushrooms.
- Instead of onions, you can add chopped leeks. Leeks offer sweet onion flavor and are popular addition to soups.
- Add pasta to the soup instead of rice. Cook pasta in a separate pot while soup is simmering and add pasta to the soup pot at the very end so it does not get overcooked.
How to Serve Roasted Chicken and Rice Soup
Serve this tasty, hearty soup in a good sized bowl like pudding bowls from Burleigh Pottery. I love these pieces so much that I purchased additional bowls in Pale Blue Felicity. This pattern and color is also one of Burleigh’s most popular collections and it’s been around since the 1930’s.
Before you dive in, add some chopped parsley and squeeze some lemon juice to the soup. This brightens the soup with refreshing flavors!
More Soup Recipes
- Creamy & Savory Purple Cauliflower Soup
- Beans and Veggie Soup with Braised Pork
- Curried Carrot Soup
- Roasted Bell Peppers and Tomato Soup
Roasted Chicken and Rice Soup
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 lb roasted chicken shredded or chopped. Keep thigh bone to simmer in soup.
- ¾ cup short grain rice, washed and drained
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 6 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced into half moons
- 3.5 oz shitake mushrooms cleaned and ends trimmed
- 3.5 oz beechwood mushrooms cleaned, based removed and broken off into smaller pieces
- 2 tbsp thyme leaves
- 6 cups water
- 3 bay leaves
- salt to taste
- fresh ground pepper
- lemon wedges for serving
- freshly chopped italian parsley for serving
Soup Topping
Instructions
- Heat soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons olive oil. Sauté onions, celery and carrots until tender.
- Toss in garlic, mushrooms, thyme leaves in the pot and mix to combine. Stir in 1 tablespoon olive oil and let mushrooms cook until tender.
- Add water, rice, bay leaves and salt to the pot and simmer over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Stir the pot occasionally.
- Once rice is cooked, take out thigh bone, bay leaves from pot and discard. Stir in chicken, reduce heat to medium low, place cover on pot and simmer for additional 15 minutes, stirring the pot occasionally.
- Serve immediately with fresh ground pepper, chopped parsley and lemon wedges.