Soup, chicken and rice is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 16 recipes to get you started.

What is soup, chicken and rice?

Canned chicken and rice soup is the familiar bowl of clear chicken broth with bits of chicken and soft cooked rice. Unlike the thick condensed cream soups, most chicken and rice soup is sold ready-to-serve, so it pours out thin and brothy rather than as a paste.

It is comfort in a can, the soup people reach for with a cold. But it also pulls a second shift in the kitchen as a quick cooking base, where its broth and rice melt into a dish and do part of the work for you.

That is why it lands in so many easy casseroles and one-pot dinners.

How to Use It

As soup, it just needs heating, maybe with a squeeze of lemon or a handful of fresh herbs to cut the flat canned taste.

As a base, it carries seasoned broth and tender rice in one pour. It binds the layers in Wonderful Wild Rice Casserole (Dad's) and Chow Mein Casserole, and it is one of the cans that builds the sauce in Five Soup Hot Dish.

Its most famous trick is pork chops. Poured over chops and baked, it makes the gravy and seasons the meat in the much-loved Chicken Lickin' Good Pork Chops, where a single can replaces broth, thickener, and rice.

Because the rice keeps drinking up liquid, dishes that sit or reheat can turn stodgy, so add a splash of broth or water when you warm up leftovers.

Flavor and Pairings

The flavor is mild and homey, leaning on chicken with a little celery and onion. That gentleness is what makes it such a willing base; it seasons a dish without taking it over.

It pairs naturally with chicken and pork and with mild vegetables like carrots and peas, and it folds easily into rice and noodle dishes. A squeeze of lemon or a few dashes of hot sauce lifts the canned dullness when you eat it as soup.

The thing to watch is sodium. Canned soup carries a lot of salt, so taste before you add more, especially when you are also using salty ingredients like soy sauce or other canned soups in the same dish.

The rice is the other variable. Long cook times and reheats can leave it either pleasantly soft or mushy, so go easy on extra simmering.

Substitutes

The simplest swap is plain canned or boxed chicken broth plus a scoop of cooked rice, which gives you the same broth-and-rice backbone with less sodium and no seasoning of its own.

Chicken noodle soup stands in one for one if you do not mind noodles instead of rice, keeping the same chicken-broth character. Chicken with wild rice soup works the same way with a nuttier, earthier flavor.

For a casserole that wants body rather than broth, condensed cream of chicken soup thinned with a little water plus a handful of cooked rice gives a thicker, richer result than the brothy canned version.

Buying and Storing

Most chicken and rice soup is sold ready-to-serve in cans around 18 to 19 ounces, while condensed versions come in the smaller 10.5-ounce (roughly 298 gram) can and need a can of water added. Check the label so you know which one a recipe expects.

Skip any can that bulges or leaks or is dented along a seam.

Unopened, it keeps in the pantry a year or more, usually past the printed date. Once opened, move leftovers to a sealed container and refrigerate, then use within three to four days; expect the rice to soak up broth and swell as it sits.

Quick facts

Where to find soup, chicken and rice: Soup, chicken and rice is usually found in the canned goods section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

汤，鸡肉和米饭

British (UK) term

Soup, chicken and rice

en français

poulet et la soupe de riz, conserve, condensée

en español

sopa de pollo y el arroz, en lata, condensada

Recipes using soup, chicken and rice

There are 16 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 16 recipes