Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

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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.

A spoonful of easy chicken and rice soup.

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 cornbread, garlic bread, or a soft buttermilk biscuit 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.

Labeled ingredients for my easy chicken and rice soup.

Recipe Ingredients

  • Chicken broth
  • Rice
  • Heavy cream
  • Italian dressing mix
  • Rotisserie chicken
  • Dried parsley flakes
  • Instant potato flakes

Helpful Kitchen Tools

How to Make My Easy Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe

Add chicken broth to stockpot.

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 Italian dressing mix to stockpot.

Add in your packet of dry Italian dressing mix.

Add dried parsley to stockpot.

And the dried parsley.

Whisk ingredients together.

Give those ingredients a good stir together.

Add shredded chicken to stockpot.

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 to stockpot.

Add cream.

Add instant potato flakes to stockpot.

If you like, you can also add instant potato flakes at this point. 

Creamy soup ingredients all mixed together.

Stir that all up well until your chicken soup looks a little bit like this.

Place 1/2 cup of cooked rice into a bowl.

Place about 1/2 cup of cooked rice in a bowl.

Ladle soup over rice in bowl.

Ladle servings of soup over the rice and stir.

Bowl of easy chicken and rice soup.

Serve with warm crusty bread or whatever you’re in the mood to serve it with.

Spoonful of easy chicken and rice soup.

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:

Southwest Chicken Soup

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe

How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup

Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Spoonful of easy chicken and rice soup.

Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

This flavorful and easy chicken and rice soup recipe includes tender chicken cooked in creamy broth with Italian seasoning.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chicken, rice, soup
Servings: 8
Calories: 332kcal

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

Serving: 6g | Calories: 332kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

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on the bright side of things.”

~Unknown

Submitted by Jenny. 

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124 Comments

  1. Hahaha!!!! I absolutely LOVED this post for so many reasons, with the “icing on the cake” being the delicious recipe!!! I cracked up when you posted “Meet my winter wardrobe!” under your Bass Pro finds!! I was sure your purchases were going to your hubby!! lol Oh, and then your precious Katy Rose!! Soooo adorable!! She is definitely blessed with so many wonderful attributes!! I am so proud of her, so I can’t even imagine the pride you and your family have!!! I must say, I was totally buying your Spirit Outfit though!! 😉 Just wait until she actually IS a teen, and she will be completely on board with…well….at least some of it!! 😉 I am a HUGE fan of comfy clothing, especially on cold winter days, so I am glad you found some to keep you warm and toasty, as well as comfy cozy! No matter what the outfit, you are always dressed to bless!! Thanks for not only counting your blessings, but for sharing them with us as well!! Have a GREAT day!!! 😀

  2. Christy, I’m so glad to have found you and your blog via Robin. You are truly an inspiration…with your postive attitude and refreshing sense of humor, you brought smiles to our faces when life was so tough for you. I baked up some appetizers for your virtual potluck…and wish I had a cup of your chicken and rice soup to go with them. It sounds amazing (and easy!).

    PS…I have a fashionista daughter, too, and it’s nice (now that she’s older) to run my wardrobe choices by her 🙂

  3. My mom and sister, now they can put together an outfit. Me? Not so much. I’m perfectly happy grabbing a sweatshirt and jeans in the winter and jeans and a t-shirt in the summer! I was shaking my head in agreement up until I saw Katy Rose’s expression in that last picture! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her not have her usual sparkle in her eyes! Made me laugh! 🙂

  4. Oh Christy “THANK YOU,” so much for such a PERFECTLY Eloquently spoken response to DEB!! I found her comment not only rather RUDE, but equally annoying. . . my theory, “if ya don’t like the heat. . . stay out of the kitchen,” as my Mama would have said to Deb!!

    I LOVE every single “detail,” MOST all of us enjoy those. . . it’s what keeps the “human interaction, which again, MOST folks enjoy and can RELATE too,” keep doing what you’re doing . . . great rewards, await!!

    Blessings~

    KAYE

  5. This soup sounds delightful, and I do not even remotely like rice!! I’m wondering if perhaps Christy or anyone else may have a substitute suggestion? I’m thinking maybe a small pasta, wondering if that would work, as well as the rice?

    So thankful you are on the mend, Christy!!

    Glad to be Blessed by Him,

    Kaye : )

    1. Okay, they make this stuff that I think you’ll love as a substitute for rice. It is a pasta and it comes in tiny bags, like, one to two cups worth in a bag. I get it in the Mexican foods section at the grocery store. It is teeny tiny pasta shapes: stars, alphabets, some even little rice like tiny strips..and I just love to use it in soups and such. You may have walked right by it but never saw it unless you know to look. I hope you can find it! If not, any pasta will do. I just love that teeny tiny stuff 🙂
      Hope this helps and thanks Kaye!
      Gratefully,
      Christy

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