Name: Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken (3½ to 4 pounds); 4 quarts water (or chicken stock for a richer stock); 1 leek, white and light-green parts only, roughly chopped; ½ fennel bulb and fronds, roughly chopped; 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped; 2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped; 6 garlic cloves, smashed; 2 sprigs thyme; 2 bay leaves; 5 sprigs parsley; 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter; ½ fennel bulb, finely diced; 3 celery stalks, finely diced; 1 medium leek, finely diced; 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced; 1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced; 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 4 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade; 4 cups wild rice; 2 Tbsp. fine sea salt; 4 cups heavy cream; 4 cups (about 2 pounds) poached chicken meat from making stock; 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper; ¼ cup chopped parsley

A ceramic bowl filled with Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from Gavin Kaysen's cookbook 'At Home' photograph taken by Libby...

Libby Anderson

This chicken and wild rice soup is my brother Sean's most favorite thing to eat. Anytime he'd come home from college, this was his comfort food. Even though my soup base is made with equal parts cream and chicken stock, it's still lighter than most, but you can adjust the amount of cream you use to suit your taste (sometimes I hold way back on the heavy cream and finish the soup with a bit of sour cream instead). I highly recommend making this soup a day or two ahead; it actually gets better after a night in the refrigerator, which allows all of the flavors to better meld together.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘At Home’ by Gavin Kaysen and Nick Fauchald. Buy the full book at GavinKaysen.com. This book was selected as one of the best cookbooks of 2022.

Recipe notes

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Recipe notes

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