Creamy Chicken with Wild Rice Soup

This is our favorite cold weather soup.
The wild rice can be made before-hand.  Don't get a blend, get the 100% wild rice.
Make the whole bag of rice (it's small) then freeze the leftovers. One bag made 2 batches of soup and it is so easy to make with the pre-prepared rice. 

½ cup butter
1 finely chopped onion
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup carrots, diced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
8 cups chicken broth (I use Swanson's low-sodium)
2 cups COOKED wild rice
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (I use the white meat from a Rotisserie chicken from the supermarket
½ teaspoon mustard powder
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 cups of milk (I have used 1 cup light cream/1 cup 1.5%, alternately I have used 2 cups whole milk) 
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, corn, chicken and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add flour and stir well. Transfer mixture to large pot. Over medium heat, gradually pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly until all has been added. Bring just to a boil and then reduce heat to low and let simmer.

Next, add the rice, mustard powder, parsley, ground black pepper and almonds. Allow to heat through and then pour in the half-and-half. Let simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours. Be careful not to let the soup come to a boil or it won't thicken properly - let it simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.