Chicken Soup Recipe

Chicken Soup Recipe: Made with hearty and flavorful homemade chicken broth, with added root veggies or noodles for a meal-in-one that boosts health. American Bresse chickens¹ make AMAZING chicken soup!

You've prepared a wonderful chicken dinner, which the family has very much enjoyed. As you clean up the kitchen later:

Don't discard the scraps of chicken, skin, and bones! Those leftovers can be turned into another delicious, immune-system-boosting meal, so don't throw them away!

Pictured: A bowl of delicious homemade chicken soup made with an American Bresse meat chicken.

This page will show you how to take all those chicken leftovers, including the bones, and use them to create a delicious, chicken soup. 

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First the Chicken Dinner, then the Chicken Soup!

The main ingredient of chicken soup is homemade chicken bone broth that results from simmering all the leftover pieces and bones for up to 24 hours. 

Despite the time requirement, making homemade chicken bone broth is incredibly easy. Instead of discarding the bones, chicken scraps, and extra gravy, throw the leftovers from your chicken dinner into a big pot and let it simmer until it has become a hearty homemade chicken bone broth. Easy.

See the directions on our Bone Broth Recipe page.

You can also follow the chicken soup recipes on this page if you plan to use commercially prepared bone broth, or you have on hand a previously canned quart or two of homemade bone broth.

Chicken Soup Recipe

Here is the chicken soup recipe that my family absolutely loves.

If you followed our bone broth recipe, you should now have two cups to a quart of strong savory broth, possibly still in the pot. 

The Rest of the Ingredients for this Chicken Soup Recipe:

• 1 quart homemade chicken bone broth 
• 2-3 Potatoes (optional: You can also substitute or add rice or egg noodles)
• 2-3 Carrots, diced or chopped
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 onion, diced or chopped (optional: substitute or add 1 leek, chopped)
• 3-4 garlic cloves, or to taste, chopped or whole
• Optional²: 1/2 or 1 cup of fresh, frozen, or cooked vegetables already on hand, such as cabbage, green beans, peas, or beet greens. 
• 1-2 cups chicken meat, chopped in 1/2-inch cubes
• Spices: 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp cayenne powder, 1 tsp poultry seasoning (adjust amounts downward and/or to taste if the homemade chicken bone broth has already been seasoned).

Making the Chicken Soup

With the chicken bone broth prepared, you're already almost done making your chicken soup. Gather the remaining ingredients listed above, chop, dice, and spice, add it all to the bone broth in the soup pot. Cover. Bring to a boil, and then let it all simmer until the vegetables are soft, which might take 45 minutes at most.  

If you've opted to substitute or add any noodles or rice, add them separately:

• Add rice 25 minutes before the soup is done.
• Add noodles 10 minutes before the soup is done.

Taste the soup; if needed make adjustments to the seasonings according to your tastes.

Garnish if you like with edible flowers, microgreens, minced parsley, or other favorite garnish.

Serve Hot. Bon appetit!

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Chicken Soup Variations!

Squash Curry Soup

A delicious take on Indian dal soup, minus the legumes. This is one of my all-time favorite soups, so perfect for all but the hottest days of summer. The chicken bone broth base delivers a wonderful depth of flavor, which is enhanced by the Indian spices. (I keep it fairly mild, I know...)

Ingredients:

• 1 quart chicken bone broth
• 2-3 cups cooked squash, such as butternut or pumpkin 
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 carrots, chopped
• 2 potatoes, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, whole or chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp yellow curry powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (or dairy cream)
• Optional: 1/2 - 1 cup chopped cooked chicken

Add ingredients, except the last two, to a large pot. (Add the chopped cooked chicken now if desired; I prefer the smooth textures without the chicken.) Simmer until vegetables are cooked, approximately 40 - 45 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the coconut milk (or dairy cream). Mash the cooked vegetables in the soup with a potato masher and then blend with an electric mixer. 

If necessary, thin the soup with a little more bone broth or with coconut milk until consistency is satisfactory. Adjust the spices to taste. Reheat till hot. Enjoy!

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Chicken Soup Recipe Using Canned Broth

Are you a prepper? Do you like to plan ahead, prepare extra, or simply have jars of canned bone broth on hand for rainy days or gift giving? If so, you can whack hours off of the prep time by not having first to make the chicken broth. You'll be able to crank out this chicken soup recipe in a matter of an hour or so.

Using Home-Canned Chicken Bone Broth: Open a quart jar or two of home-canned chicken bone broth. Jars with meat already in the broth are especially useful for preparing this chicken soup recipe on the fly, but not essential. Add all the spices and vegetable ingredients listed above, simmer for an hour, and voila! 

Pictured below, from left to right: Bresse soup - just heat and serve, American Bresse Broth with around a cup and a half of chopped chicken added, raw-packed American Bresse chicken meat, and a jar of thick and rich Bresse bone broth.

Home-Canned Chicken Soup

Overages of chicken soup can be pressure canned by the pint for 70 minutes at 10 PSI, or by the quart for 90 minutes (those that live higher than 1000 feet altitude will know how to adjust the pressure for their specific altitudes). 

Pictured below are jars of canned chicken soup on the right, and canned golden chicken bone broth on the left. These are not likely to remain too long on the shelf, they are that delicious!

It is easy to take a jar or two of broth or soup to sick friends. There's a reason that chicken soup has a reputation as "poor man's penicillin" - the higher quantities of glyconutrients³ in chicken broth strengthen and modulate the human immune system.

Chicken Soup Recipe Notes

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