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Chicken rice soup with shredded chicken, white rice, carrots, and celery in a cream-colored bowl.

Chicken Rice Soup

Brothy chicken rice soup with tender shredded chicken, carrots, celery, garlic, and dried herbs. Cook the white rice separately in chicken broth, then ladle the soup over rice in each bowl.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Soup
Cuisine American
Servings 6 servings (estimated)

Equipment

  • Large soup pot
  • Small saucepan with lid
  • Food thermometer
  • Ladle

Ingredients
  

Dried seasonings

  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon dried parsley
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ½ teaspoon mustard powder
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Chicken soup

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • ½ cup diced carrots
  • 2 ribs celery diced
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 5 cups chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 ¼ pounds bone-in chicken breast
  • Fresh parsley for garnish, optional

Rice cooked separately

  • 1 ½ cups chicken broth
  • ¾ cup uncooked white long-grain rice

Instructions
 

Start the soup

  • Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium heat.
  • Add onion, carrots, and celery. Sauté for 4 minutes.
    Diced onion, carrots, and celery softening in butter in a soup pot.
  • Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
    Minced garlic added to the softened onion, carrots, and celery.
  • Stir in basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, mustard powder, black pepper, soy sauce, hot sauce, chicken broth, and chicken breast.
  • Bring to a gentle simmer. Partially cover and begin checking the chicken after 15 to 20 minutes. A large bone-in breast may need longer. Continue cooking until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C), measured away from the bone.
    Bone-in chicken breast cooking in seasoned broth with carrots and celery.

Cook the rice while the chicken simmers

  • While the chicken simmers, bring 1 ½ cups chicken broth to a boil in a separate saucepan.
  • Stir in rice, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until tender and the broth is absorbed.
  • Turn off the heat and let rice sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
    Fluffy long-grain white rice cooked separately in chicken broth.

Finish and serve

  • Remove the chicken, shred the meat, discard the bones, and return the shredded chicken to the pot.
    Cooked chicken breast shredded into small pieces before returning it to the soup.
  • Spoon rice into bowls and ladle soup over the top.
    Cooked rice in a serving bowl with chicken soup ladled around it.
  • Serve warm, with fresh parsley for garnish if desired.
    A spoonful of chicken rice soup with tender shredded chicken, rice, and carrot.

Notes

  • The soup needs 5 cups chicken broth; the rice needs a separate 1½ cups.
  • Use regular uncooked long-grain white rice. Instant rice and brown rice need their own cooking directions.
  • The timing is an estimate. Bone-in chicken breast size affects the simmering time; use the thermometer reading to judge doneness.
  • Start the rice while the chicken simmers so the two pots cook alongside each other.
  • Let the rice rest, covered and off the heat, for 10 minutes before serving.
  • Yield is approximately 6 servings and depends on bowl size.
  • Fresh parsley is an optional garnish.