Our delicious chicken vegetable soup checks all the boxes! It’s hearty and healthy, perfect for a cozy night. You’ll love how it’s loaded with tender chicken, lots of vegetables, and just the right amount of pasta.
This hearty chicken vegetable soup is a family favorite, for sure! We pack five different vegetables into this soup and we love it! Then, to make sure it is very satisfying and hearty, we add a little pasta.
It’s similar to our famous chicken noodle soup but with more vegetables, and I add a few slices of lemon to spice up the soup. Lemon adds a bright, fresh flavor, making our soup even more delicious. That little touch of lemon works wonders in our lentil soup, too. It really lights up the flavors! If you’re on the hunt for some veggie-heavy soup recipes, I highly recommend our easy veggie soup!
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: You can use leftover or rotisserie chicken or cook the chicken separately for this soup. I shared instructions for easy fried chicken thighs in the recipe, which I like to chop up and add to this soup. Another option is roasted chicken or these juicy skillet chicken breasts.
- Vegetables: I use five vegetables in this chicken soup. You’ll find onions, carrots, fennel, zucchini, and kale. Feel free to add more if you have them on hand.
- Herbs and spices: I like garlic, thyme or rosemary, bay leaf, and ground turmeric to add a rich yellow color.
- Broth: Use your favorite store-bought chicken or vegetable broth. Bone broth is great, too, and will add a lot of protein to your dish. For homemade, I like this chicken broth or this vegetable broth.
- Pasta: I always stir in a little pasta. It’s optional, but just adding less than a cup of dry pasta to the pot makes the soup hearty and perfect for dinner. Potatoes can do the same!
- Lemon: I like to slide in a few lemon wedges just before serving. I make this for lentil soup and meat and cabbage soup. Very nice!
How to Make Chicken Vegetable Soup
If you don’t have cooked chicken, I highly recommend baking a few chicken thighs with a few herbs in the oven. To make it, slide them into a 400°F oven and roast until cooked through. This method makes the chicken very tasty and juicy. You can even use some of the roasting juices in the soup.
We will cook vegetables in two stages of soup. Vegetables like onion, carrot, and fennel go in first. If they are soft and sweet, we add garlic, herbs, and broth. Then cook for about 20 minutes.
Since zucchini and kale are tender and soft quickly, they don’t need much cooking time. Therefore, add them at the end with pasta, which only needs 10 minutes. This is also where I mix my chicken with any juices left in the pan from cooking.
I absolutely love this chicken vegetable soup, especially with homemade focaccia or garlic bread on the side for dunking! I can’t wait for you to succeed!
Easy Chicken Vegetable Soup
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PREP
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COOK
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TOTAL
This easy vegetable chicken soup recipe has lots of vegetables and chicken, making it hearty. Use about 2 cups of cooked chicken or follow our directions for cooking chicken from scratch. The soup is also delicious without the addition of chicken.
6 Services
You will need it
Chicken
1 ½ pounds (680g) skinless chicken thighs, see notes
1 teaspoon of olive oil
Salt and fresh pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
For the Soup
1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped, about 1 cup
2 medium carrots, chopped, about 1 cup
A medium fennel bulb, core removed and chopped, about 1 ¼ cups
2 clove garlic, and pork, 2 spoons
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1 bay leaf
8 cups (1.8L) chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 medium zucchini, chopped, about 1 cup
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped, about 4 cups chopped
3/4 cup small dry pasta, such as orecchiette or orzo
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 fresh lemon slices with seeds removed, optional
Grated Parmesan cheese for serving, optional
Directions
- Cook the Chicken
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2Make a bed of chicken with a few sprigs of fresh herbs. Drizzle the chicken with a teaspoon of olive oil, then season lightly with salt and pepper.
3Cook until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165°F, 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside until the chicken is cool enough to touch. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and cut into small pieces. Reserve the juices on the baking sheet to add to the soup.
- Make the Soup
1About 10 minutes before the chicken is ready, make the soup. Place a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat (we use our Dutch oven). Add 1 ½ tablespoons of oil, onion, carrot, fennel, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and translucent, about 10 minutes.
2Add the garlic, herbs, turmeric, and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. When the stock boils, you will probably need to reduce the heat to medium-low to keep it there. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and a generous amount of pepper. Bake for 20 minutes.
3Add the zucchini, kale, pasta, and chopped chicken, and all the cooking juices left at the bottom of the roasting pan.
4Cook on low heat for 10 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. Taste the soup and adjust with more salt (we usually add a total of 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons, but this will vary depending on the broth you use).
5Just before serving, toss the lemon wedges into the soup. Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top (optional).
Tips from Adam and Joanne
- Pasta: If you plan to serve a large batch of soup quickly, add the pasta according to our instructions above. If you plan to enjoy the soup in a few days, it is better to cook the pasta separately and add it when serving. The pasta will absorb the liquid as the soup settles and becomes mushy.
- To save: The soup will keep in the refrigerator for several days and in the freezer for up to a month. It is best to keep the pasta and soup separate when storing since the pasta will absorb the liquid and become very soft. If it seems dry when you reheat the soup, add a splash of stock or water – there should be enough flavor.
- The nutrition facts given below are estimates.
Food Per Serving
Serving Size
1/6 of the recipe
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Calories
240
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Perfect Oils
9 g
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Saturated Fats
2g
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Cholesterol
34 mg
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Sodium
875 mg
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Carbohydrate
it’s 25g
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Dietary fiber
4g
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Total Sugar
5g
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Proteins
18g
