An easy set-it-and-forget-it recipe for creamy chicken and wild rice soup for the slow cooker. Perfect for cold weather and freezing for on-hand meals.
Place all of the ingredients except the heavy cream in a large 6-7 quart slow cooker. Cook on low about 5 and 1/2 hours (or until chicken is done), then shred the chicken. My favorite way to shred chicken is to remove it from the slow cooker and use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment on the lowest speed. You can also use forks to shred the chicken right in the slow cooker.
Cook for an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour, until vegetables and rice blend are cooked to your liking. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Turn off the slow cooker, add the cream, stir, and serve warm. Add salt and pepper as needed. Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 5 days. Reheat in microwave. Soup freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight and reheat as needed.
Notes
Any chicken will do here: boneless skinless breasts, bone-in thighs, cutlets, etc. I chose boneless skinless thighs because they have more fat and flavor and tend to dry out less quickly than white meat.
I used a quick-cooking blend. If you want this to be more of a stew, use a regular cooking blend, as it will absorb more moisture.
I prefer chicken stock for this soup as it has much more flavor than chicken broth.
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.