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The coziest bowl of Wild Rice and Orzo Chicken Soup to welcome these long, cold December nights. Made with wild rice, herbs, orzo pasta, and chicken. It’s a hearty warming meal to enjoy any night of the week. Just throw everything into the instant pot or slow cooker, set it, and walk away. Add a little browned sage butter just before serving. The browned butter takes just minutes to make but adds a wonderful layer of deliciousness to this creamy soup. Every spoonful is so delicious with a side of bread.
I don’t know how it happened so fast, but winter has officially hit us and all I have to say is brrr. Granted today was just an especially chilly, snowy day, it feels exceptionally cold out as I sit and type this cozied up inside.
Lately, I’ve been doing crazy simple recipes. Sometimes they have a mix of flavors going on. Hearty dishes from Asian cuisine, to creamy spiced Indian curries. I’m all over the place flavor-wise, but the one thing each recipe has in common? They’re all cozy.
Short cold days just put me in a cozy state of mind. I want to spend zero time on cooking dinner and all my time baking cookies. What can I say, tis’ the season!
Anyway, both my mom and I love wild rice. We would make the Uncle Ben’s wild rice blends all the time when I was growing up. And while I don’t use those ingredients when cooking now, I still love wild rice. Especially with herbs and butter. Such a cozy yet still wholesome combination.
I’ve made a few wild rice soups in the past, but never one like this. Today’s is special. It’s made with orzo pasta and golden sage butter.
Two simple additions that make all the difference.
Here is how I make this soup
Whenever I’m cooking wild rice, I almost always use the instant pot or crockpot. But usually just the instant pot since it works so fast. For whatever reason, I have a hard time with wild rice, but using the instant pot or crockpot always works so perfectly.
If you’re in a hurry though, stick with the instant pot!
Simply add almost all the ingredients – the chicken, onion, garlic, wild rice, poultry seasoning, paprika, and broth, right to the bowl of the instant pot or crockpot. You can make this on the stove too. Use the method that works for you!
Now lock the lid and set it for 12 minutes. I find this to be the perfect amount of time to cook the rice and chicken. If making this in the crockpot, cook low and slow, all day long.
Once the rice is cooked, I mix in the orzo and cook for a few minutes to allow time for the orzo to cook.
Add cream for extra creaminess.
While that’s cooking, I like to take the cloves of garlic and mix them together with the butter and sage on the stove. What happens is that the garlic gets crispy and the butter browns around both the garlic and sage.
This is so delicious and really adds a layer of freshness to a very creamy soup.
Finish the bowls of soup off with the sage butter, then parmesan, and fresh thyme.
I recommend serving this soup with a side of crusty bread. If you own the HBH Super Simple cookbook, there’s an easy, no-knead bread recipe that’s perfect to pair with this soup.
If you’re planning to enjoy this soup leftover, the rice and orzo will soak up all the broth. The taste is still incredible, but you will no longer have soup, you’ll have super creamy rice. You can either warm the rice and enjoy it as is or just add a little broth to make the rice and chicken soupy again.
Hope you all enjoy!
Looking for other winter meals? Here are a few ideas:
Crockpot Herb Butter Chicken and Wild Rice
Sweet Potato Cheddar Pierogi with Bacon Bits
Mustard Herb Chicken and Creamy Orzo
Crockpot Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch
Lastly, if you make this Cozy Wild Rice and Orzo Chicken Soup, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Cozy Wild Rice and Orzo Chicken Soup
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 528 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 cup dry wild rice blend
- 1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 rounded tablespoon poultry seasoning (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach or kale
- 3/4 cup dry orzo pasta
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 cup heavy cream or whole milk
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 8 fresh sage leaves
- shaved parmesan, for serving
Instructions
Instant Pot
- 1. In the bowl of your instant pot, combine the chicken, onion, garlic, wild rice, carrots, celery, poultry seasoning, paprika, salt, and pepper. Pour over the broth and add 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Quick release the steam.2. Switch the instant pot to sauté. Remove the garlic cloves and set aside. Shred the chicken with 2 forks. Stir in the spinach and orzo. Cover and cook 6-8 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. Stir in the cream and parsley. If the soup needs more liquid, add additional water. 3. Add the butter, garlic, and sage to a skillet set over medium heat. Mash the garlic into the butter, allowing the butter to brown and some of the garlic to get crispy. Remove from the heat.4. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon over the sage butter. Top with parmesan and parsley. Enjoy!
Crockpot
- 1. In the bowl of your slow cooker, combine the chicken, onion, garlic, wild rice, carrots, celery, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Pour over the broth and add 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 2-3 hours. 2. Crank the heat on the slow cooker to high. Remove the garlic cloves and set aside. Shred the chicken with 2 forks. Stir in the spinach and orzo. Cover and cook 20-30 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. Stir in the cream and parsley. If the soup needs more liquid, add additional water. 3. Add the butter, garlic, and sage to a skillet set over medium heat. Mash the garlic into the butter, allowing the butter to brown and some of the garlic to get crispy. Remove from the heat.4. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon over the sage butter. Top with parmesan and parsley. Enjoy!
Stove
- 1. In a large soup pot, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook until fragrant and softened, about 5 minutes. Pour over the broth. Add the chicken and wild rice, and season with salt and pepper. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to low, cook 35-45 minutes, until the rice is tender.2. Remove the garlic cloves and set aside. Shred the chicken with 2 forks. Stir in the spinach and orzo. Cook another 6-8 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. Stir in the cream and parsley. If the soup needs more liquid, add additional water. 3. Add the butter, garlic, and sage to a skillet set over medium heat. Mash the garlic into the butter, allowing the butter to brown and some of the garlic to get crispy. Remove from the heat.4. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon over the sage butter. Top with parmesan and parsley. Enjoy!
Notes
Leftovers: If eating this leftover, the rice will soak up a good amount of liquid. It will still taste great, but if you’d like for it to be soup again, you will need to add broth. Or just eat this as deliciously flavored rice!
Poultry Seasoning: 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, 2 teaspoons dried sage, 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon pepper. Mix to combine.
Slow Cooker: slow cookers can vary. I recommend to start checking for doneness at around 5 hours on low. If the soup gets too thick, add water to thin.
In the Crock Pot and Stove Top directions you forget to mention the paprika.
Thank you for letting me know Michael! xT
I’m in the progress of making the soup and I accidentally added the heavy whipping cream with the orzo and spinach in the second step. Can I still sauté this for six minutes or is the heavy whipping cream going to burn?
Hi Eileen! So sorry I’m just seeing this comment! Did the soup turn out okay for you? 🙂 xT
We’ve literally just taken our first bites…. It’s absolutely INCREDIBLE. The sage garlic butter is EVERYTHING. it’s going to be a fall/winter mainstay for years to come! Off to inhale the rest. Thank you!
Wow thank you SO much Kristie! xT
This was a great recipe, the sage butter at the end was the perfect topping to add a nice mouthfeel. I strained the butter to get the sage and garlic extracted and got a nice smooth butter. I used the stove top method but found the recipe instructions were missing a few steps for this method. I added in the paprika with the seasonings and chicken (it didn’t say this in the recipe instructions). I also used a dutch oven. After shredding the chicken and adding it back in with the orzo and kale, I also added in some grated parm. It came out delicious. I also added lemon zest. Next time I’ll add in mushrooms.
Hey Lisa! I am so glad you enjoyed this soup! Thank you for giving this recipe a try! xT
This was sooo delicious! My daughters raved about it. I used chicken thighs and did it in the crockpot. The meat was so tender. Definitely going into the rotation.
Thank you so much Amanda! xT
Delicious soup!
I used the stove top directions. I only had one of those 90 second microwaveable packets of Long Grain & Wild Rice blend that is already seasoned and cooked so I added that in with the orzo instead of earlier in the process. Turned out great!
Thanks sooo much! Love to hear that this recipe was a success! xT
Soup was very good. I used the Instant Pot method, and my question is when you select sauté mode and add the spinach and orzo the directions say to cover, which I hesitantly followed. After 6 minutes it’s almost as if the lid resealed (even in the unsealed mode/vented) and took a few minutes for me to get the lid off after turning the pot off. Is the cover supposed to be on in sauté mode?
This is hands down the best soup ever! I make this soup 2-3 times a month, it’s our favorite. Do not skip the sage butter. The only change I make is I use the entire poultry seasoning blend. The spices and seasoning in the soup are amazing!
Hi there! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for trying out the recipe! xT
This soup came out so good! I want to make a batch of this soup to freeze for postpartum. Would you say that once it is done that it would be okay to portion out to freeze?
Hi Jourdan,
Amazing!! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it:) The issue with freezing this soup is that the rice and orzo could become mushy. Here is my freezer friendly section that should help:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/category/recipes/type-of-meal/freezer-friendly/
xT
Made some modifications but this was a freaking DELICIOUS meal. You know its good when you’re putting it away and keep sneaking bites.
The mods I made:
– Chicken: Seasoned with the poultry seasoning and seared it in the pot then removed and added vegetables, added it back in about halfway through the cook time
– Omitted the orzo and added a bit more rice
– Added frozen peas along with the spinach
– Added a little bit of white wine in with the broth
Do NOT skip the browned butter and parmesan at the end people, it adds an extra oomph to an already decadent dish.
10/10 would recommend.
forgot: also skipped the celery because I personally hate it but I’m sure it would be good in the dish for those that like celery
Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! Have a great Halloween 🙂 xT
I made the soup last year, and I subbed the orzo for cut Bucatini noodles, omitted the parsley, cream and Parmesan cheese.
I absolutely loved it. I loved the brown butter, sage, garlic, oil on top, gave us such an elegant touch. I made it again tonight but with no pasta… still turned out excellent 🙂 thank you for this wonderful recipe. Ox with love from San Francisco.
Hi! So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for trying it out! xT
I just made this for dinner and it’s definitely one of the best chicken soup recipes I’ve ever tried! In case it’s helpful to anyone wanting to try this recipe, I’ll note a few things I did 🙂 I used a pretty thick homemade cashew milk in place of dairy, as I’m lactose intolerant, and it was still great. I also didn’t add the orzo and I like how it turned out more brothy than porridgey. Lastly, I added the juice of a full lemon at the end to brighten everything up. I’ll be making this again! Thanks for the great recipe!
This is, without a doubt, the best chicken and rice soup I’ve ever eaten. So much flavor!
Thank you so much Barbara! xT
This is INCREDIBLE!!! The sage garlic butter added such a great flavor. My husband said this is his new favorite soup recipe. Thanks Tieghan!
Thank you so so much for trying out this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT
This is my go-to soup recipe now. My husband HATES soup but he love this one because it’s so hearty and healthy and just delicious. I’ve done all three methods and although the slow cooker one is a bit more robust, they all come out with great flavor!
I’ve done it with all kinds of different vegetables also, it’s super flexible! Just be sure to add water if the veggie volume is more than what the recipe calls for 🤌🏼
10/10
Thank you so much Rosalie! xT