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A dutch oven filled with a homemade chicken soup.

BEST Chicken Soup Recipe

  • Author: Erin Jensen
  • 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

Scale

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 45 pieces
  • 2 medium carrots, cut into 4 pieces each
  • 1 head of garlic, cut of the top (or smash approx. 56 cloves)
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 34 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 12 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 12 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:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Place chicken in 5 1/2 qt. Le Creuset Dutch Oven and rub all over with softened ghee
  3. Sprinkle with generous amounts of salt and pepper to coat.
  4. Place onion, carrots, celery and garlic around the chicken.
  5. Roast, uncovered, for 1.5 hours.
  6. Remove from oven and place on burner.
  7. Add broth (and/or water) and turn heat up to high.
  8. Add rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaf, oregano and peppercorn.
  9. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover.
  10. 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:

  1. Remove chicken and set aside to cool slightly.
  2. Strain broth and discard the cooked vegetables (they will be very soggy and not good for much after cooking for so long).
  3. Place strained broth back in your dutch oven.
  4. 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.)
  5. Also feel free to keep the chicken bones to make bone broth!
  6. Once the chicken meat is back in the broth, add your onion, celery, carrots and bay leaf.
  7. Taste and add salt and pepper, to taste, a pinch at a time.
  8. This would also be the time to add any other ingredients you want (sweet potato, turnip, parsnip or noodles).
  9. 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

Keywords: homemade chicken soup, Roasted Chicken Soup