Soooo, it turns out that Austin apparently has freezing winter days too.
Who knew?!?
Ok ok, I may have noticed a slight dip in the month-long forecast for our stay here when we were driving away from winter in Kansas city. But hey, if a “dip” here means just pulling on a pea coat (vs. my usual puffy-furry-down-lined-marshmallowness at home), walking around town in a crisp breeze (vs. trudging through snow and negative windchills) for just a few days (vs. what I’m pretty sure feels like decades at a time at home)…I’LL TAKE IT.
Hey, I’ll even make a warm and comforting curried chicken and wild rice soup to celebrate. ;)
Ok ok, I’ll stop rubbing it in. I’m well aware that I’m heading back to the land of freeze-your-toes-off arctic blasts in three days, so I’ll be back to seriously needing a soup like this soon. But in the meantime, it also warmed us up nicely down here in Texas.
And I must say, at this point in the winter when I’ve already made my way through all of my traditional soups, it was kind of nice to switch things up a bit with a curried take on a classic — chicken and wild rice soup.
I have mentioned on here before that I’m (surprisingly) fairly new to the curried world. For basically my entire twenties, some mystery ingredient in the magic potion that is curry used to upset my stomach big time. I tried for years without success to pinpoint the culprit spice, and was about to just give up and decide that curry was going to hate me for the rest of my life. BUT. Lately I have been very slowly reintroducing curry back into my life. And surprisingly, it has been perfectly fine. Like, perfectly fine. What the heck?!
I’m sure it could be due to a hundred things, but hey, I’m calling it my very own little curry miracle. :)
Anyway, that said, I have been doing some mega catching up over the past two years on every epic curry opportunity I have missed over the past decade. And without a doubt, much of that is happening in the soup world. I love a good curried soup. Especially simple ones like this one.
It’s all of the goodness of traditional chicken and wild rice soup. But instead of cream, I went with coconut milk. And instead of Italian seasonings, it’s curry for the win.
It’s easy to make, nice and creamy, perfectly (and fairly lightly) spiced, naturally gluten-free, and mmm mmm good. Perfect for warming you up on a chilly day, whether that’s in south Texas or northern Canada. It’ll do.
Curried Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
- 2 large carrots, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 stalks celery, diced (about 1 cup)
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 4 cups good-quality chicken stock
- 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
- 2 teaspoons curry powder*
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
- 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk (**see note below)
- optional garnishes: chopped fresh cilantro, crushed red pepper flakes, shredded coconut
Instructions
- Begin by cooking your wild rice. Stir together the wild rice and 4 cups of water in a medium saucepan until combined. Cover and heat over medium-high heat until boiling. Then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer (covered) for 40-45 minutes until the rice is cooked and tender. Strain out any extra water, and remove from heat.
- While the rice is cooking, heat the olive oil in a (separate) large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for 6-7 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock, chicken, curry powder, bay leaf, cumin, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Stir in the coconut milk until combined. Continue to cook until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover partially with a lid, and let the mixture simmer until the rice is ready.
- Once the rice is cooked, stir it into the soup until combined. Remove the bay leaf. Then taste the soup, and season with extra salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve warm, topped with optional garnishes if desired.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
So another great recipe from you! My husband also liked it which is awesome. I just made it in the crockpot instead. Added the rice about 6.5 hrs in, put the rice in and let it cool til the rice was done. So amazingly delicious and I will totally eat this again. I know it’s a little early in our relationship for this, but I love you. Haha!
Thank you Jordan, we’re so happy you and your husband enjoyed this! :D
I am making this tomorrow for dinner and honestly couldn’t be more excited! I have two quick questions though, and if they seem silly I apologize. Firstly, do I cook my rice according to its directions or should I follow your 45 minutes? Secondly, is just white shredded chicken ok or do you suggest both white and dark meat? Thanks SO much and I can’t wait for this meal!
Hi Andria! We’re so happy you’re planning on giving this a try! :) The instructions on your package of rice are probably the same as what the recipe instructs. And for the chicken, it’s really whatever you prefer! We use a store-bought rotisserie chicken sometimes, and other times we’ll poach a chicken breast or slow cook a whole chicken (like in this recipe: ). We hope this helps and that you enjoy the soup! :D
I made this today and it turned out wonderful. Perfect meal for a cold winter’s day when your feeling under the weather. I used a madras curry powder and i threw in a 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric as well. I also added a few tablespoons of lime juice and some tarragon vinegar (probably a few tablespoons). I then added sriracha for a little kick. Perfect! Thanks for the recipe! ( I also used jasmine rice)
We’re happy to hear that Rachael! We bet the tarragon vinegar, lime and sriracha were all tasty additions! :)
Made this last night since winter has finally decided to arrive in Toronto and there was a storm last night. So good! This is definitely going in my rotation.
I used jasmine rice since that’s what I had and I think in the future I’ll double up the rice and add more veggies but what a great base recipe.
Thanks Brent, we’re so happy you enjoyed it! And we love jasmine rice, so we bet that was yummy in this! :)
Since I found this recipe a few months ago, I’ve made it a few times. My husband and I absolutely love it. The curry I use is the Kroger store brand and it reminds me of Japanese curry that I love making, only better! The only differences that I do when making it is adding mushrooms and using Jasmine rice instead of wild rice. This is hands down one of my favorite recipes!
We’re happy to hear you and your husband love this recipe Ann Marie, thanks for sharing with us! We think the mushrooms and jasmine rice sound wonderful! :)
I was craving chicken and wild rice soup, and I love curry, so win-win! I made the recipe as is, but substituted evaporated milk due to an allergy to coconuts. This was very good, but I would add more veggies and chicken as mine was pretty liquidity. I cheated with a Rotisserie chicken, and 3 cups was pretty much the entire chicken. Also my thinking it needs more “stuff” could be because i didn’t exactly measure my carrots and could have thrown in one more. Thanks for sharing!
We’re glad you liked this Laura, although we’re not sure why it came out liquid unless it was the evaporated milk. And cheating with rotisserie chicken is totally fine! :) Thanks for giving the recipe a try.
I made this last night and all I can say is, “WOW!” My entire house smelled amazing, and it tasted even better than it smelled! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. The only change I made was adding mushrooms and green beens, delicious!
Thank you Chelsea, that’s such a nice compliment! We’re happy you liked this so much, and we think the mushrooms and green beans additions sound wonderful!
Ali, I’m trying to work more chicken dishes into my diet and wanted to give this one a go. I tend to trend toward crock pot recipes and was curious if you think this would be OK from a crockpot perspective. I’d probably put the chicken in raw as I normally make shredded chicken this way and just add the coconut milk when I get home in later. I also will probably use four cups water w/chicken bouillon instead of chx broth. I’ve never slow cooked rice before, however. any tips for slow-cookering this recipe up?
I think that this recipe would actually do well in the slow cooker, if you wait to add the coconut milk until the end. And if you use chicken bouillon, just be on the lookout in the ingredient list for MSG — they like to sneak it in there, eek. Enjoy!
This looks really good! But can I use jasmine rice instead of wild rice?
Sure thing!
Eating this right now…uh…YUUMMMM!!!! The husband and I are obsessed!!!
Yay, we’re happy you guys love it! :)