{Gluten Free} Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

There’s just something so comforting about a great steamy bowl of chicken soup. On a cold windy day it just makes you feel so warm and cozy. There are so many variations of chicken soup but recently this chicken and wild rice soup has become one of our favorites. It is definitely one of the more “fussy” meals that I make and I’m sure I could cut my prep and cook time in half if I just threw all the ingredients in the crock pot but doing it this way just seems to extract so much more flavor from all the ingredients. So if you’re up for spending a little extra time in the kitchen I promise this soup will be worth your time.



What you’ll need:
* large soup pot
* knife
* cutting board
* peeler
* spoon

Ingredients:
* chicken (this time I used 2 pieces of boneless skinless thighs & 2 pieces of boneless skinless breasts)
* ½ cup of black wild rice
* ½ cup of long grain white rice
* ½ cup long grain brown rice
* 2 carrots
* 2 celery stalks
* 1 yellow onion
* 1 package of mushrooms
* 3-4 cloves of garlic
* a handful of baby spinach
* 3 tablespoons of gluten free all purpose flour
* 6 tablespoons of butter
* 1 tablespoon of olive oil
* 2 quarts of chicken stock
* spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, parsley, 3-4 bay leaves

Now for the how to:
There are several different steps to making this soup. If you don’t have time to be in the kitchen for a long time you can definitely do a few of these steps in the morning or on a different day and store the ingredients in the fridge until you are ready to assemble your soup. To cut down on the clean up I used one pot for each step.
First thing I did was cook the rice. Put all three of the different types of rice in the pot with about 3 cups of water and cook according to package instructions. While your rice is cooking you can dice all your vegetables. (I like to dice the carrots, celery, and onions to be all the same size and on the small side.) Once your rice is cooked remove from the pot and set aside. It’s ok if you remove the rice from the pot before it is completely cooked because it will continue to finish cooking once you add it to the soup.
Next thing you’ll want to do it cook the chicken. For this soup I boil the chicken. Fill the pot about half way full of water. Place raw chicken and sprinkle in some salt, pepper, one or two shakes of ground ginger, garlic, and onion powder. It will take about 30 minutes to cook through. Once chicken is cooked drain the water, remove chicken from the pot, and set aside to cool. Once the chicken is cool enough to touch shred the chicken into nice bite size pieces.
Next up is cooking your mushrooms. I like to cook my mushrooms before adding them to the soup because I feel like it brings out all the delicious natural flavors of the mushrooms and gives them a nice bite. Place the pot on medium high heat and put a tiny bit of butter in the pot. When your pot is hot and the butter has melted drop in your mushrooms and then leave them alone. After about 3 minutes then you can move them around the pan and let them cook for another 2-3 minutes. They should be nice and brown and should smell amazing! Take them out of the pot and set aside.
Keep your pot on medium high heat and add about 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Then you’ll want to toss in your onions and garlic. Cook for a couple minutes until the onions are almost translucent. Then you’ll want to add in the carrots and celery and all your spices accept the bay leaves. (Like most of my other savory recipes I don’t really measure out my spices. I do a few shakes of each of the spices and a generous amount of salt and pepper.) After this has cooked for a couple minutes now the magic most important part that will give your soup the perfect thick amazing texture that we love in a great soup. Take your remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and drop in the pot and stir it all around until the butter melts. Then you’ll want to take about 3 heaping spoonfuls of gluten free flour and mix it all in. Don’t worry it will look chunky and strange but its ok its suppose to. Keep stirring it around. Then you’ll want to take your chicken stock and slowly start pouring the stock in and continuously mixing it around until all the thick lumpiness starts to go away.
After you pour in about a quart of the chicken stock the broth should be very thick. Now you’ll want
to pour in your spinach, chicken, mushrooms, rice, and bay leaves. At this point you’ll want to start adding the next quart of chicken stalk. After you get most of the quart of stock incorporated you’ll want to taste your broth (be careful its hot) to see if you need to do a second round of seasoning. Let your soup simmer for at least 30 minutes but even longer is better.
I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we did. Hubby had 4 bowls, I had 2, and the kids each had 1 big bowl (veggies and all!). Its great for a nice cool evening and will make your tummy oh so happy!