Copycat Panera Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ahhh Panera. How I love thee! If I had unlimited funds, I’d totally hire a Panera chef to come make me breakfast lunch and dinner. But since I don’t, making a copycat recipe will have to do.
This Copycat Panera cream of chicken and wild rice soup recipe has moved to the number one spot of the best recipes we’ve tried in the past few years. The soup was nice and creamy and insanely good and neither of us would change a thing.
Make it and serve it along with a piece of buttered baguette or a sleeve of Ritz crackers, but MAKE IT soon, you’ll be so glad you did. Trust me.
~Mavis
P.S. If you like Panera’s tomato soup recipe, I’ve got the copy cat version HERE. And you can find my version of their black bean soup recipe HERE.
Copycat Panera Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Recipe
Ingredients
3 cups shredded {or cubed} cooked chicken {a rotisserie chicken from the deli works great}
6 cups chicken broth
1 box long grain and wild rice blend
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup flour
12 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
3 cups half & half
Instructions
In a large stock pot over medium heat, combine chicken and broth. Bring to a boil. Remove seasoning packet from rice; set packet aside and add rice to the pot. Cover and remove from heat.
In a separate pan over medium heat, saute onions, carrots, & celery in melted butter for 5 minutes. Season with contents of seasoning packet and salt and pepper. Continue cooking vegetables until desired softness is reached {we like our veggies soft!}, about 5-10 additional minutes.
Sprinkle in flour gradually while whisking constantly until a roux forms. Saute about 4-5 minutes being careful not to burn the roux.
Slowly pour in half and half, whisking the whole time. Cook about 5 more minutes or until thick. Pour veggie mixture into the large chicken/broth pot.
Simmer over medium heat until rice is done, about 15-20 minutes. Serve with warm baguettes. Enjoy!
Kari says
Making this tonight!! I am feeding 7 people. Would you double it?
Mavis Butterfield says
If you are expecting people to eat more than a 1 cup portion, then yes I would double the recipe. Trust me, you will want to have leftovers of this in the fridge if there is extra.
Kari says
This was amazing! Even my pickiest son loved it. Thanks so much for all the tasty recipes.
Em says
Thanks Mavis!
Lynne says
Would this freeze well? Cooking for one – this looks good, but I’d be eating it for a week if I couldn’t freeze some. Thanks.
Mavis Butterfield says
I would not freeze this soup because of the amount of milk and rice in it. It does make a bunch though, so I think the next time we are going to try and cut the recipe in half.
Mary robinson says
I tried it tonight and it’s delicious
Stacie says
Looks delicious and I’d rather have homemade dupes anytime! Speaking of Panera, did you see the news story about the Panera employee who posted a video online of them “making” their mac ‘n cheese? It was a frozen bag of premade mac ‘n cheese they placed in boiling water and then served. I have a feeling all chain restaurants to do this to maintain consistency of food tastes and appearance across all locations. Locally owned restaurants and homemade copy cat recipes are my jam!
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! And I was not surprised.
Nanci says
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. How many of us make something amazing, freeze servings and reheat later. It’s still the same delicious dish, in my opinion.
jilly says
I was just sitting down for a snack of leftover soup and here you have a post about soup;-) Love Panera’s Autumn Squash soup!!! Have not tried this one. By the way, my husband surprised me last night with my favorite soup…Campbell’s Tomato. He finally used the milk instead of water…gross but added 1/4 t. basil and 1/4 t. oregano and boy was it delicious. I will never have it any other way. Husbands. Sometimes they surprise us in the kitchen.
Deborah says
I never liked tomato soup, but I guess that was because the only kind I had tried was Campbell’s regular Tomato soup. yuck. Now lots of soup bars and places have some good choices.
I really like Campbell’s Tomato Bisque made with milk, they had another kind I liked even better that but they discontinued it.
The chicken soup recipe sounds good, I’m going to try it.
Marcia says
That looks sooo good. I am totally going to try this de-glutenized (basically cornstarch slurry instead of flour). Yum
Kim says
You lost me at 3 cups of half and half. Being lactose intolerant, that’s a no-go! I’ll have to play with the ingredients to come up with a broth based version.
Tracy says
You could probably use any type of nut milk and a little flour or cornstarch to thicken it up. That should give you a similar thickness to using cream. I do it all the time in homemade soups.
Lynda says
Panera doesn’t have chefs, apparently…..they just pop a boil in the bag portion into a microwave or hot water to make your meals! Did you see the video on Mac n cheese on FB that someone took…..?
Mary Dickerson says
Looks delicious but does it really take 12 tablespoons of butter?
Mary
Jen says
I have a tomato soup recipe that calls for three cups of celery/onions and only uses 1/4c (4T) butter, and then 1/4c flour. So in my experience it’s not necessary. But as this is a Panera copy cat recipe, the recipe was meant to taste a specific way.
I was thinking this could be done in one pot, instead of two. Other than saving time, one shouldn’t need to heat the chicken and stock in a separate pot to add to the sautéed veggies/half and half. But it would save hearing time. Looks great!
Liz says
I also went with 4 Tablespoons butter to match the 1/4 cup flour:)
Kristina says
I made this soup this week with the following changes: 6 tablespoons of butter (I started with 4, but my vegetables looked a little dry, so I added more. I think 4 would have been enough though, as I have a slight sheen of butter on the top of the hot soup), whole milk in place of the half & half, and we like our soups thicker so I threw in about 1.5 cups white rice I had languishing in the fridge. It is delicious, and was the perfect thing for dinner during our Virginia snow storm.
HollyG says
Thank you so much for this recipe. I made it last night while my HH was busy outside laying down cedar chips before the rains come next week (so odd to have such a dry fall in the PNW). The soup was a big hit. He had two bowls and I think I’m going to heat up some for a late breakfast. Yum!
Sara says
I made this tonight and it was a huge hit! I couldn’t find the brand of rice Mavis used so I used Zatarains.
Rachel says
I made this last night for dinner. Everyone in my family LOVED it. My husband even asked me to put the leftover soup in his lunch for work (something that he almost never asks). Will definitely be adding to our rotation for fall/winter meals.
Sue R. says
Just made this today. It is so delicious! Perfect for a snowy day! Thank you Mavis!
Mavis Butterfield says
I’m glad you like it Sue. 🙂
Brittany says
Do you have nutrition facts? I made this and loved it. We are counting calories so trying to see how much one cup is. Thank you!
Jim says
BEST. SOUP. EVER. Thanks for posting!
Lizzy says
How much is “one box of wild rice”? What brand is it? I was so confused with this part, as I just bought the only wild rice bag I found at the store, which says 1/4 cup = 10 servings, and there is no seasoning packet. Not sure what to do with this, but I’m planning on adding 1 or 1.5 cups of the rice and I guess I’ll just add a bunch of random seasonings. Any advice is appreciated!
Mavis Butterfield says
If you look at the photo in the post, you’ll see a 6 ounce box of Near East Wild Rice. Most stores carry it. We love their rice.
Machelle Zehner says
Great recipe and very flavorful. I did need to reduce the calories so I only use about 3/4c half and half and rest I use chicken stock in its place. Still very creamy and yummy.