Pressure Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Pressure cooker chicken and wild rice soup is a cream-based soup loaded with chicken, long grain and wild rice, carrots, onion and celery. A warm, hearty soup recipe for cold, snowy days. It’s one of the best chicken recipes for your pressure cooker or Instant Pot!
Last week I spent two days at the Salt Lake City courthouse. I was a juror in a two day trial. The weather was snowy, and I didn’t want to venture outside for lunch. So I ate at the courthouse cafeteria. The food was pretty good for a courthouse cafeteria, and on the second day, chicken and wild rice soup was on the menu. It was pretty tasty, and I decided I should make it one night for dinner for my family.
Making Chicken and Wild Rice Soup in an Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this Chicken and Wild Rice Soup!
I used Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice mix, which is par boiled rice for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve purchased large containers of wild rice before, cooked it once, and then it just sat in the pantry until I finally got rid of it.
The second reason is because the stove top cook time is 20 minutes, so I knew it would cook quickly in the pressure cooker and I wouldn’t have to cook the chicken and rice separately.
While I was at the grocery store, I also planned to buy some bread sticks to serve with my soup. When I was in the bakery aisle, I saw bread bowls. So, I decided this pressure cooker chicken and wild rice soup was so thick and creamy, it would be perfect served in a bread bowl. And it was! If you would like to bake your own bread bowls, here is a bread bowls recipe that you can use.
Pressure cooker chicken and wild rice soup is a quick, easy and delicious pressure cooker soup recipe. However you serve it, your family will be glad you did.
Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 2 14 oz. cans chicken broth
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, uncooked and diced
- 6 oz. package Uncle Bens Long Grain & wild Rice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- dash red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 4 oz. cream cheese, cut into cubes
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup half and half
Directions:
Select Saute and add butter to the pressure cooker pot. When butter is melted, add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Add chicken broth, chicken, wild rice (discard seasoning packet) salt, pepper, and parsley to the pressure cooking pot.
Lock lid in place, select High Pressure and 5 minutes cook time and start. When timer beeps, turn off pressure cooker, wait 5 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.
In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water. Select Simmer (Saute on low on the Instant Pot) and add cornstarch mixture to the pot stirring constantly. Add cubed cream cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Add milk and half and half and heat through but do not bring to a boil.
More soup recipes you might like:
Pressure Cooker Potato Cheese Soup, Pressure Cooking Today
Pressure Cooker Vegetable Beef and Rice Soup, Pressure Cooking Today
Instant Pot (or Stovetop) Low-Carb Loaded Cauliflower Soup, Kalyn’s Kitchen
Instant Pot Lentil Soup with Sweet Potato, Cookin’ Canuck
Instant Pot Corn Chowder with Bacon Recipe, Crunchy Cream Sweet
I’m curious if you have ever included the seasoning packet (I know the original recipe doesn’t call for it)? I love the flavor of it, but it may be super overwhelming in the soup.
Hi Angel – if you like the flavor, sure go ahead and use the seasoning packet, but I would omit the salt.
Will low fat half and half work in this recipe?
Hi Cheryl – yes, that should work fine.
If i don’t want to use cream cheese could i just leave it out or add more half and half?
Hi Janelle – the cream cheese helps thicken up the soup so you may want to use more corn starch. Enjoy!
I love this soup and want to know if it is okay to freeze? Thanks!
Thanks Donna 🙂 I like to freeze the soup in individual portions for quick lunches. It reheats pretty well.
Just an FYI, for any of your readers who have celiac disease, or gluten intolerance. The rice mix mentioned in this recipe is not gluten-free. Your readers might want to come up with their own white rice and wild rice combination that would work for this recipe. Not sure about the seasonings in the mix, or how big a part they play in flavoring this soup. However, among the listed ingredients are hydolyzed yeast protein and autolyzed yeast extract, neither of which provide the source, and “Hydrolyzed SOY/CORN/WHEAT protein”.
The recipe says not to use the season pack so that shouldn’t be a factor as just the rice is used, correct?
That’s what I would assume as well.
Wondering if this can be made ahead and then reheated? Have you tried that?
Hi Heidi – yes, it will reheat very well. I often freeze it in individual portions and reheat it for lunches later.
This turned out great! It was easy and 4 out of 5 of my kids loved it, so I call that a success! Thanks!
Thanks Aubri! If you can please 4 out of 5, that’s definitely a win 🙂
I just got all the ingredients to make this very excited; however, my pressure cooker doesn’t have a sauté setting. Should I hit brown/sear instead??
Hi Madison – yes, brown and sear will work. Enjoy!
Thanks so much! Also mine does not have a high pressure setting I just have
Slow cook, soup/stew, rice, fish steam, steak/meat, chicken, vegetable steam, beans, and brown/sear
Which would you recommend for step #3
All your pressure cooking settings probably work the same and just have different pre-set times, so it doesn’t matter which pressure cooking setting you use. Just use the one that has the closest cooking time and adjust the time to match the time in the recipe. 🙂
Thank you for a wonderful, easy to follow recipe. I just bought my first pressure cooker. I made this soup as my first recipe. It was delicious! I look forward to trying more of your recipes. So happy to have discovered this website.
Thanks Georges! Definitely a great choice for a first recipe. Have fun with your new pressure cooker.
Love this soup. Would the cook time be the same if I used boneless skinless thighs?
Thanks Jean! Yes, as long as the thighs are cut into bite size pieces, I would use the same cook time.
Thank you 🙂
Any thoughts on how to use this recipe for the crock pot??
Hi Steph – I haven’t tried it, but this recipe looks similar http://iowagirleats.com/2015/10/07/crock-pot-chicken-and-wild-rice-soup/
Oh, this was so good! Thanks so much for the recipe! Looking forward to making some of your other recipes this week!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how much your liked it Lindsay! Hope you love the others as well. 🙂
I just now unboxed my IPLux. I pretty much know nothing about it. This recipe looks great. I have frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in the freezer. Can I use them frozen, or at least maybe thawed but uncut (cut them up after they’ve cooked)?? Also, I have a bag of cracked wild rice (it’s all brown) and a bag of some jasmine rice. Can I kind of mix the two and use this instead of a box of Uncle Bens? If so, how much rice? Or is this a recipe for disaster? LOL. And sorry if these are repeat questions, I haven’t had time to read all the replies.
Hi Tracy – looks like I missed your question earlier – sorry. Using frozen whole chicken breast will change the timing of this recipe. What I would recommend instead is pressure cooking the frozen chicken breasts for 1 minute on a rack over 1 cup of water. Then you can dice the chicken and proceed with the recipe as written. People have substitute regular wild rice and white rice, but you may not be able to do it with the brown wild rice. I’d use about 3/4 cup of rice.
Hi! Just found your site & love the recipes and info on using my new IP. For the above recipe, I need a substitute for Uncle Ben’s or the orzo mentioned in this thread. I’m gluten free. What would you recommend? I’d prefer a more “plain” rice over packaged mix with additives. Thanks in advance!
Hi Terri – welcome! If you prefer to use a cup of regular long grain white rice, that should work fine. I’d just reduce the cook time 1 minute.
Any advice on how to do this on the stove top? I don’t have my pressure cooker with me 😞
Hi Sarah – I haven’t tried it, but I think you could cook it as described, just for 20 minutes instead. You might have to stir it to avoid sticking.
What happens if you eliminate the cream cheese? I didn’t realize the cream cheese I bought had flavoring to it!
Hi Diane – the cream cheese adds a nice flavor and creaminess to the soup, but you could substitute some cream or half and half and add more thickener.
We made this recipe with one replacement : Having no “uncle Ben’s”, we used ORZO instead, which came out very well. Great recipe, excellent instructions. Who’d have thought you could make an awesome creamy chicken soup in 35 minutes (from cutting vegetables to table)??? It was also a really easy “reheat” the next day. Thanks.
Thanks Dave! Great idea to use Orzo. I’ll have to give that a try soon.
I’m so glad I found your website! I just got my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker and I’m a little overwhelmed, but excited. Your recipes really help keep it simple and practical. I can’t wait to get started now! Thank you for devoting your time to this wonderful page & recipes!
Thanks so much Sara! I’m glad you found me too. This recipe is a great choice for a beginner. Everyone seems to love it. Enjoy!
Barbara, I just made this soup today and it is wonderful! I am so amazed how easy it was. Your recipes are the perfect step by step instructions! You have really opened a whole new world to easy, healthy cooking for my family and I. I wish they would put your recipes with the Instant Pot when they box them up. I can’t wait to try more recipes of yours. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much Sara! Glad you’re loving my recipes. Actually I do have a couple of recipes in the Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Recipes cookbook that should have come with your IP 🙂 The Kalua Pork and the Colorado Burritos are from my site.
Just curious. Have you tried your recipe “with” the seasoning packet from the Uncle Ben’s? Why did you chose to discard the packet?
Thanks.
Hi Betsy – I didn’t use it because a lot of the packet is chicken bouillon.
Thanks!
This was my first recipe in the IP. I was nervous, but my 17 y.o. took over and said, “Mom, I got this – Happy Birthday”. It turned out fabulous!! Since then I have made some other things and my fears are conquered. Thanks so much for a great first recipe. We all love it! We’re making it again tonight – it’s a teen-friendly recipe.
That’s so nice Kathie – thanks for sharing your story. So glad you’re enjoying pressure cooking now and that I could be a part of that. Have fun!