How to Make The Best Veggie-Packed Chicken Soup
Lately, when we are out of ideas for what to cook for dinner, this soup (or a variation of it) is where we turn. We love soups to be hearty and satisfying. For this lemon chicken soup, we add five vegetables. There’s onion, carrots, fennel, zucchini, and kale! There’s a small amount of pasta in there, too. It’s optional, but we found that adding just under a cup of dry pasta to the pot adds just enough to make the soup dinner worthy without being hungry after. By the way, if you love pasta in soup, check out our easy chicken noodle soup. The trick to making this soup is to cook the vegetables in two stages. The hearty veggies like onion, carrot, and fennel go in first. When they are soft and sweet, we add garlic, herbs and chicken stock. Then simmer for about 20 minutes. Since the zucchini and kale wilt and soften so quickly, they don’t need as much cooking time. Add them at the end with the pasta, which only needs about 10 minutes. For the chicken, you can use leftover or previously cooked chicken — see our whole roasted chicken recipe. Or if you don’t have any on hand, bake a few chicken thighs in the oven. To do it, slide them into a 400-degree oven and roast until they are cooked through. This keeps the chicken flavorful and juicy. You can even use some of the roasting juices in the soup. Chicken breast work too, here’s a recipe for juicy baked chicken breasts to help you out or you can use our shredded chicken recipe. In that recipe, we gently simmer chicken thighs in water with onion and spices. You could definitely use this method to cook the chicken for this soup! If you do, use the cooking liquid as some or all of the stock called for in our recipe below (it is delicious). Serve this chicken and veggie soup with our Sesame Garlic Flatbreads or a side of Homemade Focaccia Bread. For more hearty soups, take a look at our Sausage and Potato Soup, our Easy Three Ingredient Tomato Soup, this satisfying Lentil Soup, or this Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup from Scratch. 1 teaspoon olive oil Pinch salt and fresh ground pepper 3 to 4 sprigs fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary or sage 1 medium onion, chopped, about 1 cup 2 medium carrots, chopped, about 1 cup 1 medium fennel bulb, core removed and chopped, about 1 1/4 cups 2 cloves garlic, minced, about 2 teaspoons 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, optional 1 bay leaf 7 to 8 cups low-sodium chicken stock or use homemade, see our chicken stock recipe 1 medium zucchini, chopped, about 1 cup 1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped, about 4 to 5 cups chopped 3/4 cup small dried pasta, we love orecchiette Fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper 2 to 3 fresh lemon slices with seeds removed Grated parmesan cheese for serving (optional) 2Cook until a thermometer pierced into the thickest part reads 165 degrees F, 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside until the chicken is cool enough to touch. Remove the chicken from the skin and bones then chop into small pieces. 2Stir in the garlic, herbs and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the stock, turn up the heat and bring to a very low simmer. When the stock comes to a simmer, you will likely need to turn the heat down to medium-low to keep it there. Stir in a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes. 3Add the zucchini, kale, pasta, and the chopped chicken. If you like, add some or all of the cooking juices left at the bottom of the pan the chicken was roasted in. Continue to cook at a low simmer for 10 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. 4Taste the soup and adjust with more salt — we usually end up adding 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons total, but this will vary based on the stock you use. 5Just before serving, drop the lemon slices into the soup. Serve with a little grated parmesan cheese on top (optional).
