Oh, chicken soup… they call it food for the soul, and it certainly hits the spot on a cold winter day or when I’m under the weather. I also just love making this chicken soup (and other soups) during the winter to get some extra homemade bone broth into my diet.
It seems like even healthier canned soup brands include less and less meat these days. If you’ve never made chicken soup from scratch before, I encourage you to try this simple recipe and savor the difference.
It’s a must-try!
Chicken Vegetable Soup: A Time-Tested Recipe for Wellness
There’s a good reason why we think of chicken noodle soup when fighting a cold. True, we probably grew up being offered a steaming bowl at the first sign of sniffles, as our parents did before us. But there are practical reasons too for why soup is considered an elixir for good health.
Immune Boosting
With herbal ingredients like parsley, turmeric, basil, and oregano, this chicken vegetable soup recipe helps fight the colds and flu we are all prone to especially in the winter months. I’ve also made sure to add a heartier helping of veggies than found in traditional recipes to really boost the nutritional content.
I can’t go without mentioning the real star of this dish: homemade chicken broth, chock full of immune-boosting minerals and protein. Homemade bone broth (made from grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, or wild fish) offers so many health benefits.
Bone broth from grass-fed sources is:
- high in calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous
- rich in collagen for healthy hair, skin, and nails
- soothing to the digestion
- high in gelatin and a good source of protein and the important amino acids proline and glycine.
To make real bone broth, the animal bones need to be simmered for 20+ hours to extract all the nutrients. The Instant Pot shortens this job considerably. But don’t worry, there is a shortcut when there’s no time for homemade broth! I use this pre-made option when I need bone broth in a pinch. It’s grass-fed, organic, long-simmered, and avoids the hidden harmful ingredients in many other store-bought broths
If you want to know more about broth as a superfood, check out my podcast interviews with Chef Lance Roll and Justin Mares where we discuss the benefits of broth and the many ways it can be used to improve your health!
Low Glycemic
This chicken vegetable soup is a great low glycemic and high protein meal. It fits the profile of my Wellness Mama recipe requirements and for anyone trying to lose weight. It’s also gluten and dairy-free for those needing to avoid those ingredients.
Simple Prep
I’m opposed to extra dishes and like to keep as many meals as I can to one pot. This recipe calls for boiling a whole chicken right in the stockpot. Everything else can be given a rough chop and thrown in. In fact, this recipe takes only 15 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to simmer.
Freezable
It sounds simple and cliché, but the secret to successful meal planning is planning ahead. Consider making a big batch ahead of time and freeze it to have on hand if the sniffles hit.
Delicious Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipe
It sounds so good… let’s get simmering!
Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipe
Servings
Ingredients
- 2 qt water
- 1 whole chicken (or a few chicken legs or breasts)
- 4 stalks celery
- 3 large carrots
- 2 medium onions
- 5 cloves garlic
- 6 eggs (optional)
- 2 TBSP cumin
- 1 TBSP curry powder
- 2 TBSP oregano
- 2 TBSP basil
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 TBSP parsley
- 1 TBSP salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 TBSP garlic powder
- 1 head broccoli (or 1 bag frozen broccoli)
- 1 pkg fresh mushrooms
- 1 pkg frozen spinach (or 1 bag fresh spinach)
Instructions
- Pour the water into a large stock pot.
- Add the chicken, bring to a boil, and boil until cooked. If using chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, chicken broth can be used in place of water.
- While the chicken is cooking, chop the celery, carrots, onions, amd garlic.
- Crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat.
- When the chicken is cooked, remove it from water and set it aside to cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, add the chopped celery, carrots, onions, and garlic cloves to the boiling water.
- Add all the herbs and spices.
- Boil until the vegetables are cooked, but not mushy.
- Meanwhile, chop the chicken into small pieces.
- Dice the broccoli and mushrooms.
- Add the broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, and chicken to the pot.
- While stirring, add the beaten eggs slowly (it will look similar to egg drop soup).
- Boil 2 minutes until eggs are cooked, remove from heat and serve.
Nutrition
Notes
Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!
Other Chicken Vegetable Soup Variations:
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup – This creamy soup featured in the Wellness Mama cookbook uses arrowroot and coconut milk to thicken up the broth (and skips the need for a pie crust!)
- Soothing Garlic Soup – A favorite for immune-boosting soup with a chicken broth base
- Egg Drop Soup – Soothing soup in 10 minutes (and with the added benefits of ginger!)
- Of course, substitute freely with seasonal vegetables or simply with what you have on hand!
- Kettle & Fire Bone Broth — For when you’re short on time, and want pre-made bone broth that’s pretty gelatinous and made with organic ingredients.
- Leftover Turkey Soup – A healthy soup variation I love to make after Thanksgiving or when turkey is on sale
- Tomato Cabbage Soup – My favorite way to add extra veggies to seasonal tomato soup
What’s in your go-to chicken soup recipe? Please share!
I just made this and it’s amazing! I used a whole chicken and followed the recipe exactly except I used 5 quarts of water. So I added 1 TBS of chicken base. It’s hearty and delicious! Maybe my chicken was extra large! Definitely saving this one
Did it with chicken breasts and was great. Had no breasts at the store today so I bought a whole chicken. How long will it take to boil a 3lb chicken? And in my stock pot I don’t know that 2 quarts is enough to cover the whole thing by an inch, as google suggests.
any tips?
This soup was so disgusting. The amount of spices it calls for is outrageous. I flushed it down the toilet. Beware of this one. I had 2 other people try it and they both gagged. Waste of time and money.
I did the same thing! I am sick and had been chopping vegetables for what seemed like forever, so by the time I started putting the spices in, I was over it. It seemed like too much spice, but I wanted it to be over with. I couldn’t even get a spoonful to taste it because there was so much spice floating on the top, so I put it in a bowl and was immediately furious. It is the worst soup I’ve ever tasted. I was going to throw it all away, but figured I’d dump it through a colander and try water and chicken base first. The soup still tastes terrible and my white colander is now permanently yellow.
I re read the recipe a dozen times wondering what I did wrong. I followed it pretty closely but……… WAY too much turmeric, curry and oregano…. actually the worst soup Ive ever made. I am a good cook, i don’t typically measure or follow recipe but because this had both Turmeric and Curry I thought I better. used two quarts of good broth and used chicken breast…ended up skimming all that oregano and basil off the top that was floating and ladling out most of the stock and dumping it down the sink as it was not edible, then added 2 more quarts of fresh broth and everyone loved it. Again…i dont understand how only a couple comments mentioned this and everyone else raved. I think the negative comments just chose not to comment?… Tell me what I did wrong. I used dried spices………did you intend for it to be fresh? My Advice……….stick with your gut if it seems wrong, likely it is (; thank you anyways!
I was very excited to try the recipe to try something different. I found that the turmeric and curry overpowered all other flavors and wound up wondering why I even added the vegetables. Couldn’t really taste the chicken either. If you love curry this is the recipe for you! BUT glad I tried it as it was a learning experience in using spices I don’t use very often! Might try it by cutting the curry and turmeric in half.
Easy soup to make, however I added a few fresh herbs from my garden that I felt complemented this soup. You can’t beat how easy the recipe is and it leaves the door open to do whatever you want with it.
2 TBS of oregano was too much, 1 TBS would have been plenty.
Made the soup with a few alterations and it turned out great. I substituted kale for spinach, added cumin, fresh ginger and juice of a lemon.
This was amazing. My 1.5 year old ate 2 helpings. perfect amount of spice and flavoring. Thank you for sharing!
Not sure if this was already asked, but do you use fresh herbs or dried?