Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

This creamy chicken soup is something I’ve been making for a LOOOONG time, with minor variations along the way.

It actually started off as a turkey soup - my favourite way to use up a carcass, after Thanksgiving dinner. I’ll still make this delicious soup with turkey when I have some, but chicken happens FAR more often.

Anyway - way back when - it started with regular dumplings, the way my gramma used to make them - very similar to her Baking Powder Biscuits dough, but with some parsley added.

Also? Full gluten. You know, back in the days before my body decided that gluten was evil!

I eventually re-worked it to be an entirely gluten free chicken wild rice soup recipe, and it was first published in my first gluten-free cookbook, Beyond Flour: A Fresh Approach to Gluten-Free Cooking and Baking.

The whole time - in every form - this creamy soup is definitely a favourite at our house. It’s rich, thick, hearty, and basically the ultimate comfort food.

The way I do the thickening - using a browned roux - adds a lovely nutty flavor, that goes PERFECTLY with the savory flavor of the wild rice.

It’s also super customizable, even beyond the choice of poultry (which I’ll get more into, in a minute!).

Sometimes I'll skip the dumplings, sometimes I'll add some parsnip with the carrots, and sometimes I'll toss a couple handfuls of frozen peas in, right near the end.

Whichever way you make it, I hope you enjoy this Gluten-Free Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup & Dumplings recipe! IMHO, it’s among my best soup recipes ever.

Ingredients

This hearty soup has a pretty long list of ingredients, but they’re mostly pretty simple ingredients. You shouldn’t have any difficulty finding what you need in most major grocery stores - for the most part.

As always, I have some ingredient notes for you:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

While the recipe was originally designed to be used with fresh chicken breast - for speed and ease - a great shortcut is to make this with leftover chicken or turkey.

You’ll want to aim for the same amount of meat - 3.5 lbs - but you can really use whatever makes sense - roasted turkey leftovers, Shredded Chicken.

You can even use the meat from a rotisserie chicken... or two.

Whichever way you go, you’ll want to skip the initial browning of the meat, and simply toss in chopped up pre-cooked meat with the wild rice, broth, and potatoes.

All that said... you can swap in chopped up boneless skinless chicken thighs in place of the chicken breast, as another option.

Gluten Free Flours

This recipe uses a few different gluten free flours, to achieve the best results.

First of all, I use Brown Rice Flour in the roux I use to thicken the soup.

White Rice Flour is the best substitute for this use.

Then, we have the flours and starches used in the gluten-free dumplings:

Light Buckwheat Flour, Sorghum Flour, and Tapioca Starch / Tapioca Flour.

Because gluten free flours all have different flavours, properties, and ability to take up moisture, I do NOT recommend substituting anything else for these flours.

As a note, though: The flour mixture I used in the original version of this recipe was:

1 cup Light Buckwheat Flour
¾ cup Millet Flour
¼ cup Potato Flour (NOT Potato Starch!)
2 teaspoon Tapioca Starch / Tapioca Flour

I have since simplified that to swap out the millet and potato flours, in favour of sorghum flour. I just don’t use the other two very often, but sorghum is a staple in my house.

I’m including it here for anyone who loved the original!

Wild Rice

This recipe uses 1 ½ cups uncooked wild rice.

Regular rice and brown rices each have different cooking time and liquid uptake, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to sub them, or something like a wild rice blend.

Check the directions on your choice of rice, and adjust the rice cooking step if necessary.

Chicken Broth

You can store bought chicken stock or homemade stock. If using store bought, I recommend going with a low sodium variety, to give you more control over the flavour.

I’ll usually use cartons of bone broth, for ease... but when I have a few chicken carcasses on hand? You really can’t beat homemade stock.

IMHO it’s the best part of buying rotisserie chickens!

Dairy

This recipe uses a fair bit of heavy cream in the soup, then some milk (or buttermilk!) in the dumplings. There’s also butter in the roux, and some kind of fat in the dumplings.

If you need to cut the fat (and cost!), you can use whole milk - or even skim milk - in the soup and/or dumplings, you’ll just loose some of the richness in the soup.

If you need to cut the dairy out entirely, you can use unsweetened almond milk in both soup and dumplings. The only thing to keep in mind is that - once again - you’ll lose a bit of the thickness/richness. It’s still an awesome soup - we’ve made it with almond milk often.

Then in terms of that butter in the roux, I’ll usually use unsalted, to give more control over the salt level. If you need a non-dairy alternative, you can use lard, vegetable oil, or even rendered bacon fat.

Finally, the fat in the dumplings can either be butter, shortening, lard, or rendered bacon fat.

Dry White Wine

I use a cup of dry white wine in this recipe, to bring a bit of complexity. The alcohol itself cooks off, but if you want to skip the wine altogether, that’s fine too.

In that case, use an extra cup of chicken broth, plus a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Dried Herbs

I use 1 tablespoon Dried Summer Savoury in the soup itself (sometimes I’ll add more - I tend to measure by the handful at times!), and then another tablespoon of parsley flakes in the dumplings.

If you want to use fresh herbs in either usage, use ¼ cup chopped, instead of 1 Tbsp.

If summer savoury isn’t your thing, you can season with whatever herbs you like with roasted chicken, to taste. A little sage or poultry seasoning, maybe a little fresh thyme - the soup is a great canvass for whatever herb profile you like!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Ground Black Pepper
Unsalted Butter
Baking Powder
Garlic Cloves
Red Potatoes
Large Onion
Olive Oil
Carrots
Celery
Salt

... I just don’t have anything else to add, as far as these last few ingredients go. Pretty basic stuff!

How to Make Gluten Free Chicken Wild Rice Soup

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

In a large, heavy pot, cook onions in olive oil until just starting to go translucent.

Add chicken breast, cook until outside browns slightly. .

Add garlic, carrots, and celery, cook for one minute. Add wild rice, broth, and potatoes, bring to a boil. Set a timer for 35 minutes

While soup is boiling, make your roux:

Melt butter in a medium sized pot. Stir in flour until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to turn slightly golden.

Add wine, whisk until smooth.

Add cream, continue whisking until smooth.

Turn heat down to lowest setting, keep warm, while making the dumplings:

Gluten Free Soup Dumplings

In a medium sized bowl, mix together flours, parsley or savoury flakes, tapioca starch, baking powder, and salt.

Measure shortening/butter into the flour mixture, and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or fork(s). The idea is to work it in until it’s evenly distributed throughout, in very small pieces.

Add milk/buttermilk, stir just until dough comes together. Don’t over stir or beat it. If dough is too crumbly, add a small amount of extra milk. If the dough is sticky, add a small amount of flour.

When the timer goes off, add the roux mixture to the main soup pot, stirring to combine well.

Add savoury, season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Drop rounded tablespoons worth of dough into boiling soup.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes WITHOUT LIFTING THE LID.

Once the 15 minutes are up, remove the lid and serve your soup!

Leftovers

Once soup has cooled to almost room temperature, you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

We like to portion the soup and dumplings out into individual storage bowls, for easier reheating and serving.

More Gluten Free Soups, Stews, and Chilis.

Looking for some more comforting gluten free recipes for colder days? Here are a bunch of hearty recipes that are sure to satisfy!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup [Low Carb]
Beef & Root Vegetable Stew
Beef Stew [Low Carb]
Cabbage Roll Soup Mix [Low Carb]
Campfire Beef Stew
Campfire Chili
Cheeseburger Soup
Chicken & Cabbage Soup [Low Carb]
Chicken Pot Pie Soup [Low Carb]
Chili Verde
Clam Chowder [Low Carb]
Corn and Black Bean Soup
Creamy Creole Soup
Creamy Taco Soup [Low Carb]
Doro Wat [Low Carb]
Easy Keto Ramen [Low Carb]
Egg Roll Soup Mix [Low Carb]
Elk Bourguignon
Fennel Chicken Soup [Low Carb]
French Canadian Pea Soup
Italian Wedding Soup [Low Carb]
Loaded Pierogi Soup [Low Carb]
One Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Soup [Low Carb]
Southwest Chicken Chili
Steak and Kidney Stew [Low Carb]
Venison Chili
Venison Stew