Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Creamy Wild Rice, Chicken & Mushroom Soup (Instant Pot recipe!)

This creamy soup with wild rice, chicken, and mushrooms is comfy, cozy, homeyness in a bowl. 

One of my favorite dishes from childhood was wild rice with a cream of chicken and mushroom. It was my dad's signature, and was super satisfying. This soup is the "grown up" version of that dish: it's made using whole, raw ingredients (no soup mix here!), which I think gives it even more flavor than the version I grew up with. And while most wild rice soups ask you to make a roux with flour, this recipes skips that step all together. I don't think you'll miss the roux... made in a slow cooker (I use the slow cooker setting on my Instant Pot), the rice in this soup gives it an extra creamy texture, and the addition of half-and-half at the end makes it stick-to-your-bones good. 

Soup season is something I look forward to because soup is just the right sort of creative playground for trying different flavors. Specifically, creamy flavors. Yes, I have been on a bit of creamy soup kick: first this homestyle sausage & potato soup, and now this. Adding a little bit of cream to soups makes them infinitely more cozy... try coconut milk, like in this Lemongrass Chicken Soup, or cheese, like this artichoke provolone soup, or even puréed cauliflower, like this cauliflower & parsnip soup. And of course, make this wild rice concoction. This soup, I think, is one you need to make before the end of the month. Your Instant Pot is begging you. 

Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Creamy Wild Rice, Chicken & Mushroom Soup

Published February 6, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Total Time: 30 active minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 
• 2 bay leaves 
• 1 pound chicken thighs OR breasts - boneless, skinless 
• 1 cup wild rice, uncooked
• 1/2 c white wine
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced - (crimini, baby bella, and white mushrooms all work well)
• 1 cup half-and-half 
• To serve: 1/4 cup minced parlsey

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in the bottom of your Instant Pot on the Sauté setting. Add diced onions, celery, carrots and garlic.
2. Sauté until the onion is transparent, and then add the salt, black pepper, thyme, bay leaves, chicken, rice, white wine, and 4 cups of broth to the pot. Turn pot to “Slow Cooker” setting and cook on high for 8 hours with the vent in the sealed position.
3. After 8 hours, release any steam and open the pot. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, remove chicken from soup and set in a large bowl. Use two forks to shred chicken. Then, return chicken to pot and stir.
4. Cook the mushrooms: heat remaining 1 teaspoon coconut oil in a skillet until it glistens. Then, sauté the mushrooms until they are softened through and seared on both sides. Add cooked mushrooms to soup, along with 2 remaining cups of broth and 1 cup of half-and-half. Stir.
5. Serve hot in bowls, topped with minced parsley.

White Wine Cream Sauce Chicken & Thyme

In France we saw endless fields of lavender, ornately designed royal gardens, and vending machines stocked by local farmers with the crop of the day. In France, we missed lunch almost every afternoon because in Bourgueil, shops close up after 2 and if you're just strolling into town for a bite to eat, you're fresh out of luck. 

We saw at least one Château a day, traveled almost exclusively by bike, and learned that a map really does you no good when roads have no signs or names. It flooded, and we drank plenty of wine.

In France, we cooked coq au vin in our little apartment, when all of the restaurants were closed. We tried to eat like the French, even when we couldn't figure out their schedule! 

It's almost impossible to tell which parts of this dish are inspired by French cooking and which are just habits learned from my mom. This coq au vin-inspired dish has home cooking written all over it:

• It starts with shallots: French shallots are French, aren't they?! Despite the fact that my mom virtually always has a shallot or two laying around, cooking with them always just feels a bit fancier to me than cooking with onions

• After you sauté the shallots, pour on the wine (in this case, white). It sizzles and pops, and in true chef fashion you should probably take a sip or two from the bottle between stirs. Get a French wine if you want to feel extra French

• Stir in the cream, and watch the sauce go from brothy to rich and creamy. Many a person has added cream to sauce... but is it very French? Maybe, or maybe not. But who cares! It's cream! And it tastes amazing. Just do it.

• Finish with thyme, fresh and herbaceous. Any even if your thyme wasn't grown in France, you can pretend it was. Top off you glass of wine before you sit down to eat.

White Wine Cream Sauce Chicken & Thyme

Published October 12, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 35 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken breast 
• 1 shallot
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (for dairy-free, try canned full-fat coconut milk)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 springs fresh thyme
• Optional: 1 cup fresh baby spinach

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. When the oil is hot, add the chicken breasts to the pan, and brown on each side until golden (about 5 minutes each side). Move chicken to a plate and set aside.
3. Dice the shallot, and add to the pan. Sauté until soft. Add the garlic. Sauté for another minute. Pour wine into pan, and scrape bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula to deglaze.
4. Pour cream into pan, and stir gently until incorporated. Add spinach, and stir in until wilted.
5. Place chicken back in pan. Bring sauce to a slow simmer (if you turn it too hot, the cream may curdle). Add salt & black pepper, and leaves from 2 springs of thyme. Allow to simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Garnish with thyme leaves from remaining sprig of thyme, and serve hot.

Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

When there is Tortilla Soup on the menu, I'm the first person to notice and there's a pretty high chance I will order it, no matter the weather. I've been in love with Tortilla Soup for as long as I can remember. 

Despite my appreciation for what is a really simple soup, I've never mastered making it at home — I always over think it, adding something extra or missing some key ingredient.

But I’ve done lots to try to learn the magic sauce, and each experiment gets closer and closer. What I’ve learned: simple poblano chilis, sautéed with the onions and garlic, and freshly made chicken broth. Oh, and not over thinking it. Tortilla Soup should be simple, like a tortilla.

It’s comfort in a bowl for me — this cozy bowl of broth-y goodness and full of Mexican flavor.

And the best part of any tortilla soup? The toppings! Cheese, avocado, crispy tortilla strips (or tortilla chips, which is much faster and less labor intensive), cilantro, and on and on.

Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Published September 24, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4   |    Active Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 poblano chili pepper, diced and seeds removed

1 yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound boneless chicken breasts

1 28-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes

2 tablespoons minced cilantro, plus more for garnish

6 cups bone broth

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

Optional: 1 16-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

Optional, for serving: avocado, cheddar cheese, corn toasted tortilla strips or chips, lime wedges

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil in the bottom of an Instant Pot on Sauté setting. Add diced onion, minced garlic, and poblano pepper.
2. Add chicken, tomatoes, broth, cumin, lime juice, cilantro and optional black beans to pot and stir. Place lid on Instant Pot and turn to slow cooker setting (to use soup setting instead, see step 4). Set timer for 10 hours with vent turned to the sealed position.
3. When soup is done, open Instant Pot. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove chicken from soup and place in a bowl. Use a fork to shred chicken, and then return to soup and stir. Season with additionl salt to taste, and serve hot with toppings of choice.
4. To make this soup more quickly, use the soup setting instead of the slow cooker setting: In step 2, set Instant Pot to “soup” setting and set timer to 10 minutes with the vent in the sealed position. When timer goes off, release pressure, and the move on to step 3.