Years in the making, I’m bringing to you my recipe for the best chicken soup. Tips how to get rich flavorful broth with tender chicken and vegetables that will soothe the soul.
To write the word ‘best’ in front of any recipe is tooting your own horn a little bit, but this chicken soup didn’t happen overnight. Chicken soup is my favorite thing to eat. Not just in the cold weather months, I can eat this soup all year long. I make it a lot and it’s taken years of tweaking, experiments, tips and secret ingredients to finally get it to the ‘best’ stage.
Firstly, lets address the health benefits. There’s a reason why they say to eat chicken soup when you have a cold. When you make your own chicken stock, there is a natural amino acid in the chicken bones called cysteine that can thin mucus (sorry that’s not the best word) the same can’t be said for canned chicken soup. There are also valuable minerals like calcium, magnesium that have anti-inflammatory properties so make your own chicken soup. It’s not difficult, I promise and tastes so much better than anything you could buy.
The soup starts with good stock. Homemade is best and you can find my recipe here. If there is a store bought stock that you like, by all means use that and just skip the making
Now it’s time to add the vegetables. I like celery, carrots, parsnip and sweet potato. You can, of course any vegetables you choose. This soup is also without noodles so you can add any cooked noodles you prefer at the end.
The soup is even better the next day. I like to make a huge batch on a Sunday then I have lunches all week. When the soup is in a container with a lid and refrigerated it can last 3-4 days.
The best chicken soup
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
35 mins
Course: Entree
Servings: 4 -6
Ingredients
- 3 quarts store bought or homemade chicken stock 12 cups, link
- 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 5 large carrots peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 large parsnips or 1 butternut squash cut 1 1/2 into bite-size pieces and grate the rest
- 1 head celery cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon salt * see note
Instructions
- Add the chicken stock, chicken, vegetables and seasoning to a large saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed.
- You can add cooked rice or noodles if you choose.
Recipe Notes
*This is to taste. There was salt added when cooking the broth, but taste the broth first for saltiness.
Soup is one of those things that I could eat and eat and eat…no matter what. Yours sounds and look fantastic. I have my Jewish Penicillin chicken soup that I cook for hours as well… and it’s always devoured by everyone in the family 🙂 And somehow you always feel better after eating that soup dont you 🙂
I totally agree Mila, I eat a lot of soup.
I love homemade chicken soup! Thanks for the tips Janette!!!
Thank you Mira 🙂
Janette, your recipe is so good. I have a fat separator as well and love it and it’s so important in soup making or gravy making. Your photos in this post are really well done.
Thank you for your support Patty.
G’day I could so go for a bowl of this soup now
Cheers! Joanne
This is like the ultimate comfort food, there’s nothing better than homemade chicken soup! I love that you made your own stock – it really makes such a wonderful difference.
Goodness! This chicken soup is such a delicious looking bowl of comfort. Your stock sounds so flavorful. I’m craving chicken soup right now.
I love your tips for the best soup! I prefer to buy dark meat as well when it comes to chicken so thank you for endorsing that. I love the parsnips added to both the broth and the soup. So yummy!
You don’t really tell us how to make the chicken broth. How much chicken, water, etc?
Natasha, you are correct. I’ve added a link to my recipe for the stock, thank you for letting me know 🙂