Slow Cooker French Chicken Soup

Serves 6-8 Cook Time 6 hours   Rated: Print

A comforting French-inspired chicken soup with tender rice—slow-cooked for rich flavour and minimal effort.

There’s something undeniably comforting about a pot of soup gently simmering away, especially when it’s made with a whole chicken and fragrant tarragon. This French-inspired chicken and rice soup uses a whole bird—bones and all—for deep, authentic flavour that can’t be rushed. Slow cooking allows the meat to become fall-apart tender while infusing the broth with rich, nourishing goodness. Fresh tarragon adds that unmistakable French flair—subtly sweet, slightly aniseed, and beautifully aromatic. It’s rustic, simple, and just what your winter menu needs.

Add as much or as little spinach as you want, I wished I had added more mushrooms, but it really will depend on the size of your slow cooker. It is great the next day, reheated with crusty bread for dipping. It thickens up because of the rice (and the roux) so becomes more stew consistency. You can easily add more liquid chicken stock, water, or milk/cream to make it more liquid. It easily fed 7 of us for dinner and then some leftovers for lunch the following day. 

Our long term Souper Bowl book is still available in print and of course is part of the Insider Club for free as an ebook.

This book is packed with great wintery soup ideas as well as bits to serve with soup and some summer and dessert options as well.

 

 

Need

Do

1  

Preheat your slow cooker on a sautéing function if you have it available. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

2  

Prep the vegetables, chop the leek, dice the carrots and slice the celery. If you wish to chop all this in the Thermomix you can put it all in (chopped into large pieces) and chop 5 sec/speed 6. I don't like chopping celery in the Thermomix as you end up with stringy bits, but you do you!

3  

Place all of these into the slow cooker with the butter and sauté for a few minutes until fragrant and softened.

4  

Add all the other soup ingredients (including the whole chicken) and cook on low for up to 6 hours or until the chicken is falling off the bones and the house smells amazing! You can add up to another 2 cups of water as you see it is needed, but this will depend a lot on the volume of your slow cooker.

5  

When the chicken is cooked, remove as many of the bones as you can, but it is not essential. I like to do this for aesthetics more than anything. You could also use chicken thigh fillets instead of a whole chicken if you wish.

6  

Shred the chicken with a fork as much as you can.

7  

Make the roux: Place all ingredients into the Thermomix bowl and cook 5 min/Varoma/speed 3. It will not be thick at this stage. Pour this into the slow cooker and stir quickly to combine.

8  

Cook for a further 30 minutes.

9  

Serve with fresh tarragon and spinach leaves stirred through until it softens.

10  

You can also serve with a swirl of cream if you wish.

Served with

Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of eight, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.

Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once! 

More Mains

See all Mains in Collection