BEST Chicken Soup Recipe (aka Sunday Afternoon Roasted Chicken Soup) – The ultimate comfort food, elevated! This chicken soup recipe has become a Wooden Skillet classic and I am so excited that you all love it as much as I do! Feel free to add noodles (gluten-free or regular) if you want or leave them out!
Best Ever Homemade Chicken Soup Recipe
So I am beyond excited to share this Sunday Afternoon Roasted Chicken Soup recipe with you guys – promise me you will make it sometime soon!! Especially if anyone you know is fighting a cold! It combines two of my favorite recipes: roasted chicken and chicken soup!
So you are essentially roasting a chicken in your dutch oven first and then in that same pot and using that same roasted chicken, you are making some wickedly flavorful broth that will be the base of your soup! The depth of flavor is unreal! Comfort food at its finest :). Can’t wait for you to make some!!
Why This Recipe Works
- Roasted Chicken: the first step in this process is to roast a whole chicken – that just results in the most delicious chicken flavor ever!
- Broth: after we roast a whole chicken we then add in some chicken broth. Now, you CAN make your own, homemade broth through this process OR you can simply add in store-bought broth (or some of your own frozen homemade chicken broth) – totally up to you. But the flavor is just out of this world!
- Love: not to get too mushy .. but this recipe does require some love and attention. I know a lot of my recipes are pretty quick and easy, but I also have a place in my heart for “weekend recipes” or recipes that take a little bit more time and are meant for a cozy weekend in. This is one of them. It is also the perfect recipe to bring to a sick friend or relative that needs a little bowl of love!
What You Will Need
- whole roasting chicken (fresh or thawed): this is the base of our soup – we will be roasting it and then letting it sit in the broth before shredding and adding back into the soup.
- salt + pepper: to season the chicken before roasting.
- soft ghee or butter: this is also added on the chicken before roasting – feel free to just use olive oil if you can’t do dairy.
- yellow onion + celery + carrots: we will be using some of these to roast with the chicken and we will be using another batch to actually chop up and add in with the soup.
- garlic: for flavor!
- fresh rosemary + thyme + sage leaves + bay leaf + oregano + black peppercorn: some delicious fresh herbs to up that amazing flavor!
- chicken broth: this is added in after the chicken roasts.
Can you Freeze Homemade Chicken Soup
Yes! You can definitely freeze it – simply place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. Note: if you are wanting to add noodles I wouldn’t recommend adding those in before freezing!
Leftovers
It makes the best leftovers! I love having this for leftover lunches during the week! Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (store your noodles separately, if using) for up to 3 days.
How to Make Chicken Soup
Pat your chicken dry with a clean paper towel. Rub with butter and salt + pepper. Roast with veggies and garlic. Then remove from oven and place on stove top. Add broth and let simmer.
Remove chicken and let cool. Strain the broth.
Add the shredded chicken back in along with fresh, chopped veggies and let those cook until firm but soft.
Serve and enjoy!
If you want to add in noodles I HIGHLY recommend cooking those separately because otherwise they will soak up the broth in the soup!
Feel free to add noodles if you want, but make sure and cook them separately so they don’t soak up all the broth!
Other Recipes You Might Like:
- Homemade Marinara Sauce
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
- Salsa Verde Chicken (IP + Slow Cooker)
- Healthy Meatloaf
- Simple Seared Ahi Tuna
- Fried Zucchini
Feel free to add some noodles if you want – I love the Jovial brand if you are gluten-free!
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Made this recipe and loved it?! We would love it if you would take a minute and leave a star rating and review – it is also helpful if you made any substitutions or changes to the recipe to share that as well. THANK YOU!
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BEST Chicken Soup Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: Approx. 15 cups
- Category: Soup
- Method: Oven, Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Description
Best Chicken Soup – The perfect recipe to make on a relaxing, cozy Sunday afternoon – it is seriously the BEST chicken soup recipe! Feel free to add noodles if you want!
Ingredients
Broth
- (1) 5-6 pound whole roasting chicken (fresh or thawed)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons soft ghee (grass-fed butter, olive oil or vegan butter would work as well)
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- 1 stalk celery, cut into 4–5 pieces
- 2 medium carrots, cut into 4 pieces each
- 1 head of garlic, cut of the top (or smash approx. 5–6 cloves)
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3–4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1–2 fresh sage leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1–2 fresh sprig oregano
- 1 Tablespoon black peppercorn
Soup
- 8 cups chicken broth (you can also use 8 cups of water to make broth completely from scratch OR you could do 4 cups broth + 4 cups water. If you use broth your soup will only turn out that much richer. Just check your ingredients on the broth if concerned with Whole30)
- Shredded chicken
- 4 stalks of celery, sliced
- 6 medium-large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 sweet yellow onion, diced
- 1 bay leaf
- Optional: gluten-free noodles, diced parsnip, diced sweet potato, diced turnip
Instructions
Broth:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place chicken in 5 1/2 qt. Le Creuset Dutch Oven and rub all over with softened ghee
- Sprinkle with generous amounts of salt and pepper to coat.
- Place onion, carrots, celery and garlic around the chicken.
- Roast, uncovered, for 1.5 hours.
- Remove from oven and place on burner.
- Add broth (and/or water) and turn heat up to high.
- Add rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaf, oregano and peppercorn.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover.
- Simmer (covered) as long as possible – if you used chicken broth I would suggest 2 hours – if you used water and broth I would suggest 3-4 hours – if you used all water I would suggest 4-6 hours.
Soup:
- Remove chicken and set aside to cool slightly.
- Strain broth and discard the cooked vegetables (they will be very soggy and not good for much after cooking for so long).
- Place strained broth back in your dutch oven.
- Once chicken is cooled enough, remove all the meat and place it in the broth (Note: depending on how big your chicken is, feel free not use all the chicken if you feel the chicken-broth ratio is off. If you want a thicker, chunkier soup then use it all, but if you want more of a broth-based soup then reserve some of the chicken for another purpose.)
- Also feel free to keep the chicken bones to make bone broth!
- Once the chicken meat is back in the broth, add your onion, celery, carrots and bay leaf.
- Taste and add salt and pepper, to taste, a pinch at a time.
- This would also be the time to add any other ingredients you want (sweet potato, turnip, parsnip or noodles).
- Let simmer approx. 8-10 minutes or until your vegetables are cooked, but still firm.
Notes
- Adaptable: This is one of those recipes that you can adapt very easily to fit what you like! My preferred method is to roast with ghee, use broth, simmer on low 2 hours (but I have also only simmered for 30 minutes – 1 hour and it is still amazing!).
- Time Saver: Since the chicken is already fully cooked you can reduce the cooking time in Step 10 of the Broth Instructions to whatever works for you!
- Bone Broth: you could add bone broth in Step 7 of Broth Instructions to make it extra gut-healing!
- Noodles: If you are adding noodles I would recommend cooking them separately beforehand and then adding to the soup – otherwise as they are cooking they will soak up all of the broth.
- Homemade Broth Version: I touched on this in the recipe card instructions, but wanted to highlight again – feel free to use water instead of broth in Instruction #7. It will need to cook much longer and you will need to add additional salt, but you will end up with some delicious homemade broth! If you have the time I highly recommend!
- Whole30/Paleo: If you are concerned with Whole30/Paleo just check those ingredients in your broth!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Approx. 1 cup
- Calories: 160
- Sugar: 7.1 g
- Sodium: 1352.7 mg
- Fat: 5.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 20.3 g
- Protein: 9.7 g
- Cholesterol: 28.3 mg
Elizabeth McConnell says
I think keeping the Chicken in the pot to cook the second batch of vegetables is too long. Put the vegetables in and when cooked add the shredded cooked chicken.
Erin says
You can definitely change it up to suit your preference!
Stephenie says
Delicious. Made the basic 8 cups of water version. Roasted exactly to recipe. Transferred to crock pot and cooked on low overnight. I omitted only the oregano. Removed chicken from crock pot and set aside. Strained broth and poured broth back into Dutch oven. Finished on stove top exactly to recipe. Absolutely satisfied with the broth richness. The chicken meat just fell away from the bone and practically shredded itself from my hands to the Dutch oven. Added cooked jovial pasta to the serving bowls as suggested. Absolutely yummy. Thank you!
Michelle says
Wow!!! This is the best chicken soup ever! I made this on Sunday for the family. I doubled the recipe so it could go for two nights. I used six chicken thighs and legs instead of a whole chicken. Following the recipe except after shredding chicken, keeping it to the side, one daughter likes it with out chicken. Then added two heads of roasted garlic after sautéing the veggies and deglazing with 1 cup dry sherry. Cooked wide egg noodles separate and also kept to the side to save the broth. That way family can add the amount of chicken/ noodles they prefer and then covering with the broth. Holy Moly…..the broth. Best broth ever in my family’s opinion. They would have just poured cups of this and drank it. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
Lisa says
Made this soup today and it was so rich and full of flavors. I will keep this recipe as my favorite.
Thank-you Erin 👍🏻
Jane D says
I have made a lot of chicken soup recipes & I must say this is by far the best soup! The only addition I made was some frozen peas roasting the chicken made it so tender. Loved it and Thank you for sharing.
Susan M Judy says
I’ve made this several times this year…and it’s always delicious. This is the best chicken soup that I have ever made. Guests have told me it’s the best chicken soup they have ever eaten. I’ve been a serious cook for 25 years, but this is one of those recipes that makes me feel like I really CAN cook! So glad to have this, Erin, thank you!
Erin says
So happy to hear this, Susan!!!
Kim says
While it may seem overwhelming at first – the ingredients, the time, making a soup that didn’t come from a can – it’s really pretty easy!
My husband regularly asks when I’m going to make my world-famous chicken soup. He is, of course, asking for this!
Erin says
Aw thank you, Kim! I appreciate that and am so glad you two are enjoying the recipe!
Ginny says
I am a long time home cook who loves chicken soup, and my grandmother made a great chicken soup too. This is by far the best soup I have ever made. I think the secret is in the roasting, where the browning of the skin brings a ton of flavor to the broth. Traditional chicken soup calls for just simmering on the stove top, which is fine, but you get more depth of flavor in roasting (which goes for anything-beef, chicken, pork, veggies). Am planning on making it again next weekend. I froze the last batch in individual servings, and blasted through them in no time! Thanks for this great recipe!
Karen says
I have made this soup at least 4 times and love it! It’s also a favorite of my teenage son and my friend’s son who is a very picky eater. This soup is delicious and versatile, and in a season with so much sickness going around, a must have.
Rose Marie Davidson says
The house smells like Sundays of long ago! I will never make chicken soup any other way…this takes a long time, but it is worth it!
Erin says
This is my FAVORITE homemade chicken soup recipe.🥣 I’ve got a batch simmering on my stove at the moment! I’ve made it for family + friends and it always gets rave reviews. I’ve shared the recipe with several people also! Thank you! ❤️
Genevera says
This truly is the best chicken soup ever! I love to add Japanese yam and zucchini to it. Also, I squish out the now roasted garlic that was cooked in the broth into the final soup. A little bit of red chili flakes and/or lemon make great additions. I have now made this several times and could eat it every day! Thank you!
Sharon says
Love the idea of this but what I really don’t agree with is cooking chicken meat for up to 6 hours. I want to be able to appreciate the taste of the chicken – this would render it inedible! What I will do is strip the carcass and all bones after baking then add them to the pot for a few hours – longer the better and then add the meat when adding the vegetables toward the end. This way the meat can still be appreciated and the bones will make the basis of the stock.
Erin says
Hi Sharon – I definitely haven’t found a reduction in chicken flavor with this method. The roasting of the chicken, if anything, seems to boost the flavor – this one of my all-time favorite recipes! But do whatever works best for you and make whatever modifications you need to – everyone is different!
Carolyn Gardner says
I have made chicken soup all my life, and I make a great chicken soup. My daughter can attest to that she now makes exact same soup as I do. But I am now making this soup and I am so excited to try it. Love cooking love the intricacies of this, and I know it’s going to be delicious because it smells awesome. Fun day cooking, thanks!
Monica says
Absolutely delicious! Takes a little time and TLC, but so worth it! My family loved it and said it was the best chicken soup they ever had! Thank you for sharing this recipe. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Madeline Spiker says
This was honestly so fantastic. I have never had chicken soup that is this rich and intricate.I will be dreaming of this for months.
Erin says
So happy to hear that!! This is one of my all-time favorite recipes – so, so glad you loved it!