Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
Date Completed: 3/24/2025
Book: Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines
Chapter: Soups & Salads
Overall Score: 8/12
Recommended? Yes! This would be great as a weekend meal or meal prep option for lunches. Seasonally, it fits for fall, winter, and spring. I can’t say I will be following Joanna’s lead by making this annually for New Year’s Eve, though!
Process Report:
Process Score: 2 - Quite Involved
I wanted to give this a 3 (Quick & Easy) rating, but there’s just too much chopping involved to warrant that score!
The chop/prep list:
Onion, celery, mushrooms
Dice chicken breast into 1-inch pieces
Mince garlic and fresh parsley
There are time-savers built into the recipe that were helpful! It uses two pouches of Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice that you simply microwave before dumping into the soup.
Once everything is prepped, the soup comes together in a few easy stages. You sauté the veggies and then add the chicken chunks (tossed with seasoned flour) to brown. There are two different simmers: one for 10 minutes right after you add chicken broth. The second for 20 minutes to allow the final ingredients - cooked rice, milk, and cream - to meld with the other flavors. Because of the two simmers, it definitely doesn’t qualify as quick. It is fairly hands-off, though!
Taste Report:
Taste Score: 2 - So Good
This is such a creamy, hearty soup! I loved the bigger chunks of chicken you get from dicing it before cooking rather than shredding later.
Since we’ve made a lot of Magnolia Table recipes, I automatically double the veggie quantities she lists. We were brave and used the mushrooms called for in the recipe this time. However, next time I will replace them with carrots. I just don’t like mushrooms (despite how much I try to convince myself I do)!
Garrett also thought it would be fun to swap out the chicken for a kielbasa-style sausage for a stronger flavor. He also suggested grilling the chicken separately to add at the end could be a fun twist!
Joanna mentions in the recipe notes that she makes this soup every New Year’s Eve. This made me laugh because it caught our eye as a good option for a random Sunday dinner in March. It’s a great soup, but I don’t think it makes the cut for a holiday tradition.
That comment made me think about other NYE traditional food, though! Growing up, my most prominent NYE memory is my mom making a fabulous beef tenderloin with puff pastry stars and a beef gravy/sauce. So fancy! I also strongly associate my mom’s Velveeta and sausage rye bread party pizzas with NYE and Christmas.
We did make this Lemon-Herb Chicken Romano from Seriously Delish by Jessica Merchant a few years ago for Christmas. Garrett has mentioned it every holiday season since then, so we might have to break that out again this year.
Long story short: The title of the traditional NYE meal remains up for grabs for the “KS” family. We’ll see what comes up over the years!
Mess Report:
Mess Score: 2 - Moderate
Lots of chopping means lots of cutting boards and a very full kitchen countertop! Add another cutting board for the raw chicken, and you have quite a mess on your hands.
The good news with this recipe: those two long simmer periods allow plenty of time to get the dishes done while the soup is still cooking. By the time you get to the second simmer, pretty much every dish except the soup pot and a spoon/spatula has finished its job and is ready to be washed.
I can’t downplay how much it helps to have two people cooking: one to tend the soup and the other to transition to dishwashing.
Leftover Report:
Leftover Score: 2 - Flexible
This soup was great reheated in the microwave for lunch throughout the week! I don’t typically freeze soups with milk or cream, so it loses metaphorical leftover points for lack of freeze-ability. Being able to eat it for lunch all week does make it qualify as a great meal prep option!
It might not be our new NYE standard, but we loved this Chicken & Wild Rice Soup on a chilly March evening! Next time, we’ll just stop pretending we like mushrooms and go with carrots instead.