This Creamy Chicken Soup recipe is a total meal in a bowl packed with healthy vegetables and wild rice. Rich, decadent and totally delicious. 
Looking for a super delicious healthy soup? This would be it. It’s the kind of soup you need when you’ve had a hard day and you just need to be calm, take a deep breath and have a big hug.
With the first bite of this fabulous chicken soup, you’ll know that the world is back in perspective again.
And the thing is, it’s so easy to make! Yes, there’s some prep time. But think of it this way: all that chopping is totally therapeutic. In the 10-12 minutes it takes to prep the vegetables, all tensions will be behind you.
Then all you have to do is let this delicious soup happily simmer for 30 minutes – while you sit down, relax and, if you’re into that sort of thing, pour yourself a glass of wine.
Ingredients of Creamy Chicken Soup
- Olive oil: For health especially for heart health
- Shallots: For flavor and helps build your immune system
- Garlic: For health – it helps to lower blood pressure, among other things
- Carrots: Super high in vitamin C and it’s great for your skin and hair
- Celery: Calming and lowers blood pressure
- Mushrooms: For absolute flavor and they relieve tension
- Sweet Potato: High in vitamin C and so good for your heart
- Chicken: For flavor and substance
- Wild rice/Brown rice mixture: For flavor, plus it helps fight diabetes
- Chicken broth: Manischewitz Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- Salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaf: For perfect flavor
- Flour: Wondra, to bind the cream sauce
- Milk: Low fat milk for a healthier sauce
- Spinach: For color, taste and another winner with high vitamin C
How to Make Creamy Chicken Soup
To begin, add the olive oil, shallots and garlic to a soup pot over medium high heat. Stir and let it cook for a moment before you add the rest of the vegetables, then let them cook 2-3 minutes more to caramelize them a bit. It makes a big difference. You’ll get a richer taste with this step.
Then add in the chicken, the uncooked rice, chicken broth and the spices. Salt and pepper go without saying, but the thyme and the bay leaf really add to the flavor.
Now, turn the heat to low and let it simmer a bit, about 30 minutes.
Then, in a sauce pan over medium high heat, add butter and stir until it begins to foam. Add the flour. Keep stirring to be sure the flour doesn’t burn, then add in the milk. As you stir, the cream sauce will thicken.
At this point, remove the bay leaf from the simmering soup and stir in the cream sauce.
The final step is to add in the spinach and stir it just until it wilts. It will be beautifully bright green and the perfect texture.
After ladling it into serving bowls, I like to finish this soup with a little chopped parsley and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
A Note About the Ingredients
Great soups almost always start with a Mirepoix – a wonderful combination of onions, celery and carrots that combine for perfect flavor.
I’ve tasted a lot of different of packaged chicken broths and I have to say Manischewitz Low Sodium Chicken Broth stands out as the closest I’ve found to homemade taste.
Finally, the health information on these ingredients comes from my book Natural Healing Foods. This was a 2 year research project from universities throughout the world and it was truly eye-opening on how food and herbs are beneficial to fight various illnesses
Creamy Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- 2 Med Shallots Diced
- 2 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 2 Medium Carrots Peeled and diced
- 3 Celery stalks Diced
- 8 Large Mushrooms Sliced
- 1 Medium Sweet Potato Peeled and diced
- 1 Cup Cooked chicken Diced
- 1/2 Cup Wild rice brown rice mixture
- 4 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth Prefer Manischewitz
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1/2 Tsp Pepper
- 1/2 Tsp Thyme, dried
- 1 Bay leaf
- 2 Tbsp Flour Prefer Wondra
- 3/4 Cup Milk Low fat
- 2 Cups Baby spinach
Instructions
- In a large soup pot over medium high heat add olive oil, onions and garlic. Allow to cook 1-2 minutes.
- Then add celery, carrots, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, chicken and rice. Add in chicken broth, salt, pepper, thyme and the whole bay leaf.
- Reduce heat, cover and allow to simmer 30 minutes.
- Add butter to a saute pan over medium heat. Stir in flour and allow to cook 1-2 minutes. Then add milk and continue to stir until sauce thickens. At this point, this will be a thick white sauce.
- Remove bay leaf from soup and add the white sauce. Stir until incorporated.
- Finally add the spinach and stir until wilted.
- Serve immediately. Optional top with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
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For Similar Recipes:
Mediterranean Lemon Chicken Soup
Chicken Udon Soup with Vegetables
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