Delicious and warming Thai flavours add such a nice hint of spice to this easy slow cooker chicken and rice soup. Fantastic slow cooker recipe for busy people.
If you love Thai flavours in soups, take a look at our Thai Noodle Soup.
Thai Chicken Soup
I believe chicken soup and cold weather come hand in hand for many of us. There is something so comforting and satisfying about slurping delicious and warm liquids on chilly days.
I am a fan of classic chicken soup recipes like this Chicken and Dumpling Soup I grew up on but once in a while I love to spice things up. By which I mean, I love adding new flavours to the tried and true classics.
Chicken and rice soup is probably something you remember eating as a child. I know I do but I wanted to breathe a new life into the old favourite.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
In order to reinvent it, I added Thai flavours to the usual ingredients you’d find in a chicken and rice soup like onions, celery, chicken stock, etc.
The first thing I changed is I replaced white rice with wild rice simply because I love the flavour and texture so much!
I wasn’t sure about the specifics but one thing I knew for certain, my chicken and wild rice soup needed to be made in a slow cooker as wild rice takes ages to cook!
To infuse this soup with Thai flavours I added a few spoonfuls of Thai red curry paste, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. These ingredients deliver the usual 4 main flavours of the Thai cuisine. Sweet, salty, spicy and sour.
I don’t love all things that come from a slow cooker but soups and stews are definitely those things that taste better if cooked low and slow.
Also, who is NOT a fan of a “throw everything in, walk away and come hours later to a cooked meal” method?! Easy and convenient.
Recipe Tips
Here are my suggestions for making this soup taste extra delicious.
- Dice the vegetables in equally sized pieces, so they cook at the same speed.
- Feel free to use white rice instead of wild rice and spinach instead of kale if that is your preference.
- Add sliced mushrooms and kale one hour before the soup is done. They don’t benefit from hours in the slow cooker.
- Serve the soup with a slice of lime, sprinkled with chopped peanuts and fresh cilantro for authentic Thai flavours.
This soup is a variation on my regular Thai curry recipe minus coconut milk as I wasn’t sure how it would do in a slow cooker. I also wanted to keep this soup quite lean.
If you prefer a creamy texture, stir in a can of coconut milk at the end and heat until it warmed through.
More Thai Recipes to Explore:
- Vegetarian Thai Green Curry
- Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)
- Thai Roasted Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken with Thai Glaze
This recipe was originally published in 02/2017. Updated and republished in 01.2021
Slow Cooker Thai Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 onion diced
- 2 celery ribs diced
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2-3 tbsp red curry paste
- 250ml/1 cup passata or crushed tomatoes
- 125g/3/4 cup wild rice or white rice
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1.5 litre/6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 6 (1 cup) large mushrooms sliced
- 100g/1 cup black kale/cavolo nero sliced
- ½ lime juice only
- 2 tbsp brown or palm sugar
- 30g/1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 2 tbsp peanuts chopped (optional)
Instructions
- In a slow cooker combine evenly diced onions and celery, minced garlic, Thai red curry paste, fish sauce, crushed tomatoes, wild rice, chicken breasts and low-sodium chicken stock (otherwise the soup might be too salty).
- Cook for 4 hours on hight or 8 hours on low.
- The hour before the soup is done, take the chicken breasts out and shred them with two forks, then return back to the slow cooker.
- Add sliced mushrooms, kale, lime juice, sugar and chopped cilantro (I chopped up cilantro stalks as well as the leaves) and cook for additional hour.
- Serve sprinkled with some chopped peanuts and more cilantro.
Paula says
Cooked this for lunch today. Great recipe, tasty and light!
Julia Frey (Vikalinka) says
So glad you enjoyed it, Paula!
Amber Rogers says
I made this today follow the recipe but added more water, I cooked it in an electric pressure cooker for 20 mins on meat .. took the chicken out and shredded it and put all other ingredients in as you stated then cooked another 20 minutes and boom done .. and it is delicious .. will be making again 😀
vikalinka says
I am so glad you loved it, Amber. Thank you for a wonderful review!
Janet Moon Drawdy says
I’ve been hooked on Campbell’s slow kettle spicy Thai chicken soup. This sounds close. Will send update after I make it..
vikalinka says
I haven’t tasted the Campbell’s one, so can’t be sure if it’s close or not but I hope you like it, Janet.
Karyn says
OK, so another smash hit from your lovely blog! I love slow cooker recipes but so often they do end up tasting kind of the same, not so with this one. I doubled the recipe but not the stock, so it was more stew than soup. I also used a blend of wild and brown rice as it was all I had in the pantry. So glad I made extra so that we have leftovers!
vikalinka says
Oh that is awesome! I think you are the first one to report on the success of this recipe, Karyn! I loved it as well and we did have leftovers for a few days. 😉
Lucy Parissi says
I think ageing is realising everything you *used to* love and you think of as still current is at least 15 years old! Love this soup bet it tastes incredible. I have been all about the soups lately!
vikalinka says
Very true! I love how my kids now tell me what is in, and I do know what those things are, for the record, but they clearly don’t think so!