Healing Chicken and Rice Soup that is limey, salty, and so fresh! Garlic-ginger-infused broth, shredded chicken thighs, tender jasmine rice, fresh herbs, and peanuts. YUM.
Healing Chicken and Rice Soup
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I had to comment on this soup recipe – it was SO GOOD! We gobbled it up for dinner tonight! So delicious and comforting. Thank you 🙂
Mirella
Things I want you to know about healing chicken and rice soup: it is limey, salty, and so fresh. It’s super satisfying thanks to juicy and garlic-ginger-infused chicken thighs and tender jasmine rice, and it can be (read: should be) loaded with fresh herbs and peanuts and more lime juice.
Knock on wood, but when you have a head cold, this will feel like an extremely delicious medical miracle. (*not a doctor, prone to exaggeration.*) I am convinced that it’s healing and happy for the body, and the soul, and people who like a lot of flavor in their life.
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So Many Fresh and Healing Ingredients
It starts with the standard comforts of chicken and rice, but also includes:
- Ginger. So much ginger.
- Garlic and shallots. Just the right amount of potency.
- A turmeric dusting.
- Salty broth.
- A handful of spinach.
- Excessive amounts of lime juice.
- A lil pile of fresh mint and cilantro.
- Peanuts for crunch.
It’s savory but also bright. Warm and cozy, but refreshing. Super extra healthy, but comfort food. Plus, it’s golden and beautiful-looking.
How To Make This Chicken and Rice Soup Happen
It’s incredibly easy to bring this all together! Here’s what going down…
- Sauté a little garlic, ginger, and shallots in a soup pot.
- Add your chicken and spices to the pot until the chicken thighs brown. Set those aside.
- Add in your spinach until it shrinks down and set that aside.
- Add your rice and broth to the pot. Let that cook until the rice is tender.
- Shred your chicken and add it (along with your spinach) back in with everything.
- Splash a bit of soy sauce, lime juice, and fish sauce, and finish with a lil’ fresh herb treatment on top.
Let’s Get The Rice Texture Just Right
To avoid sad, mushy rice in your soup, jasmine rice is key. Make sure to add that in near the end with the broth and cook just until the rice gets soft, maybe 15-20 minutes. It’s best to not walk away from your stove in this case just so you can keep an eye on things.
How To Store Leftovers
Leftovers? But how?? You didn’t stand over the stove eating this by the ladle-full before it even made its way to the kitchen table? Just us then, okay. You can store any soup leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. The rice will likely absorb a lot of the broth as it sits in your fridge, so you may just need to add a bit more when you go to rewarm it.
Thanks to all its nutrition and big flavor and healing whole food ingredients, it is a cold-weather (and head-cold) essential. Garlic, ginger, and lime juice? These three can make it all right again. ♡
Healing Chicken and Rice Soup: FAQs
Can you freeze this soup?
You can! Details can be found in the recipe notes.
How should I save leftovers of this soup?
Just toss any leftovers in the fridge in a sealed container. Of note, this soup will absorb liquid as it rests (thanks, rice). So your leftovers may need some more water or chicken broth added to soup it all up again.
Can I make this in the Instant Pot?
Yes! Try 6 minutes on high pressure in the Instant Pot and use the quick release function. Top with herbs once the soup finishes cooking!
Can I use leftover chicken or rice?
Yes! Have some pulled rotisserie chicken from earlier this week? Great! Use that in place of chicken thighs here. Have a box of takeout rice in the depths of your fridge? Toss that in the soup! You’ve got options that’ll work great.
Healing Chicken and Rice Soup
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Healing Chicken and Rice Soup that is limey, salty, and so fresh! Garlic-ginger-infused broth, shredded chicken thighs, tender jasmine rice, fresh herbs, and peanuts. YUM.
Ingredients
Units
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- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2-inch knob fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 3–4 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 6–8 cups chicken broth
- juice of 4 limes (about 1/4 cup, plus more to taste)
- a splash of soy sauce or fish sauce (optional)
- fresh herbs for topping (mint, basil, cilantro)
- peanuts or cashews for topping
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and shallots. Sauté for 3-5 minutes.
- Add the chicken thighs. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and turmeric. Cook, undisturbed, for a few minutes. (Add 1/4 cup water to the pan to create a little steam bath if it’s getting too browned on the bottom.) Flip and repeat until cooked through. Remove chicken and set aside.
- Add spinach and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the pan. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until wilted. Remove spinach and set aside.
- Add rice to the pan. Sauté for 1-2 minutes so it picks up all the good pan flavors. Add 6 cups broth and bring to a simmer.
- While the rice is cooking, shred the chicken.
- When the rice is soft, add chicken and spinach back to the pan. Season with lime juice, soy sauce / fish sauce, and fresh herbs. Add extra broth as needed. YUM.
Notes
I like to hold onto the herbs until just before serving, so I kept them separate and arranged a little herb salad atop each bowl of soup.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Sauté
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired
Keywords: soup recipe, chicken and rice soup, turmeric recipe, healthy soup recipe, superfoods soup, detox soup
Make It A Freezer Meal!
Freeze Together:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2-inch knob fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 6 cups chicken broth
- juice of 4 limes (about 1/4 cup, plus more to taste)
To Cook:
INSTANT POT: From frozen, high pressure for 13 mins + 10 mins natural release.
SLOW COOKER: Thaw first, and then cook 6 hours on high.
FINAL STEP: Shred chicken. If using Instant Pot, add 1 cup rice to soup and use sauté function with lid off, cooking for 15 minutes. If using slow cooker, cook rice separately and add to soup. Stir in 3 cups spinach and a splash of soy sauce or fish sauce. Serve with fresh herbs (mint, cilantro, basil) and crushed peanuts.
View more healthy freezer meals here!
More Healthy Soups We Love
- Best Detox Crockpot Lentil Soup (so good with some warm, crusty bread for dunking)
- Spicy Instant Pot Carrot Soup (just a little bit of zing!)
- Clean Eating Instant Pot Summer Soup (so comforting and fresh)
Time To Show You Off!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy fall recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Fall Gluten-Free Healthy Lime Lunch Main Dishes Meat and Chicken Quick and Easy Rice Soups Spinach Sugar-Free
October 15, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Hi! I’d like to make this for a friend going through chemo. Do you think I could make it, then divide and freeze so there are individual portions they can pull out and heat up when needed?
Definitely!
Loved this!
This might be the best soup I’ve ever had. I made this for lunch today because I can feel a cold coming on. Let me tell you, this is loaded with flavor and made me feel warm and comforted as well. I couldn’t get enough. Extremely flexible recipe, too. I used chicken breast because that’s what I had. I ended up simmering the chicken in the pot with everything and shredded it when it was done. Turned out great. I didn’t have any spinach, so I chopped a couple carrots and 1/2 an onion and tossed those in instead. I didn’t have any whole limes but I had some leftover lime wedges (6 total maybe?) so I used those. Topped with some leftover chopped cilantro I had in the fridge. Incredible. Super easy and quick, too. Thanks for the delicious recipe! This is definitely a keeper.
I tried this soup tonight and it turned out quite good, added a bit too much lime juice, 4 limes somehow gave me over 1/2 cup and I added a bit more than 1/4 cup. But with some extra water it mellowed out and the cashews are amazing with it! Will definitely be making again.
Your videos never load–in the section where it says “Prefer to watch instead of read” it just rotates through endless ads and never loads your video. I’ve tried on multiple recipes and get the same issue.
Is the rice added uncooked or already cooked?
Sounds delicious. I want to make it for my son who is sick.
It is added uncooked.
Delicious! So easy and comforting and absolutely perfect when feeling under the weather. I used rotisserie chicken and frozen spinach in a pinch and it was still amazing.
Back for the third year in a row to make this! I love this recipe, we freeze it in 1/3 cup portions and rehydrate it with bone broth that I freeze separately so all we have to add is the fresh peanuts and spinach.
It’s always good, but it’s especially comforting if you feel a little something coming on on a weeknight!
I have been making this for years now, whenever I feel a cold coming on. It helps me feel better faster, it tastes amazing and is one of my favorite recipes. Thank you so much!
I love this soup so much. I woke up with a terrible sore throat and achy and knew I needed to make this recipe. Even in my sickness addled brain it was easy to throw together. I let the chicken just simmer in the broth until done and used microwaved rice this time. I had TJs miso ginger broth along with some bone broth, which made this soup just sing! Can’t wait to eat again for dinner. Also can’t wait for it to heal me!
Made the soup for my husband who was sick, he loved it
Made this tonight in the instant pot! Comes out perfectly if you pressure cooker 6 min and then quick let it release after 10 minutes have lapsed after the timer. It’s SO yummy and a new favorite going into the rotation thanks for sharing!!
This might be the best soup I have ever had. The health qualities, the flavor, the love. My college age daughter and her boyfriend call it “crack” and beg me to make it on the regular. I follow the recipe exactly – no need for alterations.
Thank you for sharing your recipe. This is a staple in our house and I make it almost once per week. So good!
Just wanted to let you know that since I found this recipe a few years ago it has become my go to sick or cozy soup!! I’ve probably made it close to 100 times! I absolutely love it. Thank you so much for sharing.
I made this last night and loved it. I did add lemongrass to the soup since I had it on hand and I love the garlic-ginger-lemongrass flavor combo. I think next time I will make the rice separately to add into the soup so that it doesn’t soak up majority of the liquid and add a little less lime juice. I liked that this is a nourishing take on chicken and rice soup. Thanks for the recipe!
This soup is absolutely delicious! Tried it with kale. Love the sour notes from the lime and fresh hit of the herbs at the end!
I used basmati too and it worked out perfectly..
Perfect soup for anytime in winter, but I made it for my family with colds and they LOVED it! Love the immune-boosting ingredients it’s made with. THANK YOU!
Hi, I’m
Hoping to try this tomorrow. Is the freezer instant pot instruction to cook in the IP from frozen or do you need to defrost first? Thanks.
Hi Demi! You can cook from frozen!
This soup was ridiculous good. This will be in our soup rotation! Thanks a bunch!
Fantastic recipe! I’ve made it on the stove and as a freezer meal and worked great both ways. The only thing I do differently is cook the rice separately (and use basmati rice, it’s so flavorful!) and then each person just puts a dollop of rice on the own soup when serving. Thanks for an awesome, simple recipe!
This was delicious!! I didn’t have limes so I used lemon instead and absolutely loved it. Highly recommend.
Made this yesterday for friends who were ill. It was a hit. Thank you.
This is a staple in our family. However — we do like heat – anyone add crushed red peppers?? Or jalapenos??
Either would be great! Or some chili crisp on top to finish it off. 🙂
I liked this, but I should have realized that it’s like congee. I can’t eat that much, by myself, so I would have added less rice, if I’d been paying attention as I cooked. If I’m making soup, I like it brothy.