Best Homemade Chicken Soup Ever

Homemade chicken soup is hard to beat. This recipe is packed with anti-inflammatory veggies like onions, carrots, and celery, plus lots of escarole. I like to make soups in large batches to portion and freeze for future. I’m not gonna lie – While making homemade stock doesn’t take too long to get into a pot, it needs to cook for four hours to extract the flavors from the vegetables and the bones of the chicken. You can feel free to swap homemade stock for your favorite chicken or vegetable broth. But, considering this is a large batch, it’s worth the time investment because the quality is superior to any boxed product on the market.

Since this is a batch cook recipe with the intent of lots of leftovers, I make my chicken soup without adding any starches like potatoes, rice, or pasta. These are best cooked separately, and added at the point of serving. Otherwise, they become a broken down mush. If you follow a low carb diet, or are just ratcheting back on carbs, then just leave them out completely. There’s so much going on, you’ll never miss the carbs! I personally prefer my soup with crusty garlic bread for the contrast of flavors and textures.

Does Chicken Soup Cure Colds?

This has been debated since the 12^th Century. Jewish scholars prescribed chicken soup as a medicinal remedy for the common cold, and other conditions. When chicken broth is made from boiling chicken bones, you get the added benefits of all of the minerals that support immune health, like zinc and magnesium. The veggies support immune health also due to the antioxidant activity. While the evidence of chicken soup curing colds is scant, there is some support for zinc and shortening duration of colds. Certainly, drinking something hot can make your throat feel good, help break up sniffles, and having soups provides fluids when you may be dehydrated while feeling unwell. Then there is just something so comforting about soup!

What Goes Into Chicken Stock for Soup?

I start with a large stock pot, and essentially add many of the elements that will wind up in the finished chicken soup. The veggies can be very roughly cut or chopped and then strained out and discarded. The stock pot contents will simmer for four hours, so all of the flavors of the chicken, the bones, and the vegetables will be pulled into the chicken stock. Into a pot, I drop a whole chicken, about three pounds, and add dried shitake mushrooms, garlic, kombu* (a sea vegetable that provides a lot of minerality and umami flavor), whole peppercorns, tamari*, celery, onions, carrots, bay leaf, and any herbs I have around. For this batch I had fresh oregano and basil, but parsley and sage would be wonderful also. Then I add 20 cups of filtered water, bring it to a boil, then lower to a simmer for four hours. While the stock is cooking, I start to clean, chop, and sauté the veggies that will go into my final pot of soup in a new pot. That way, when the stock pot is done in four hours, I can strain the stock pot directly into the soup pot with my sauteed veggies. The stock pot contents after straining are going to be screaming hot for some time. Once the stock pot contents cool enough to be handled, discard everything except the reconstituted mushrooms, the kombu if you used it, and the whole chicken. Dice the kombu, and slice the mushrooms to add to your soup pot. The chicken will be so tender it will be falling off the bones. Carefully remove the chicken from the bones and shred it before adding it to your soup.

*If you do not want to use kombu and tamari, add one tablespoon of fine sea salt. This may sound like a lot, but it is not a lot of sodium at all for the volume, and is a fraction of boxed varieties which are way too salty for my taste.

What is the Difference Between Stock and Broth?

Generally, stock includes bones of the protein, where broth is the flesh of the protein. Both stock and broth include aromatics like herbs, other seasonings, and vegetables.

What if I Do Not Want to Make My Own Stock?

I do not use boxed broths, so I am not a good judge of which ones are good to buy. Best advice is to read your labels, and that means the back panel with nutrition and ingredients. Many brands will write Organic, Gluten Free, Keto, and other descriptions on the front of the box or can to make it look healthy. Then, the ingredient label will reveal there is added sugar, yeast, corn syrup, way too much salt, “natural flavorings,” and very little in the way of chicken and chicken flavor, so you are paying for salt water. Some brands have common allergens like soy, dairy, and/or gluten which you would never know without reading the ingredients.

Bouillon pastes and cubes are no better, from what I have seen. The brand Better Than Bouillon, which is ranked well for taste lists this on the ingredient panel:

ROASTED CHICKEN, SALT, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, DRIED WHEY (MILK), FLAVORING, FOOD STARCH, DISODIUM INOSINATE AND DISODIUM GUANYLATE, TURMERIC. ALLERGENS: MILK, SOYBEANS

One teaspoon of this product has 680 mg sodium.

Meanwhile the front of the label boasts “Made with Seasoned Roasted Chicken”

So, whatever product you choose, read your labels to make an informed decision!

Chicken Stock Ingredients

• 3# chicken organic, preferably organic
• 4 medium carrots, rough cut
• 4 celery stalks, rough cut
• 2 large sweet onions rough chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, whole
• 6 inch piece kombu, plus ¼ cup tamari (OR 1 tbsp fine sea salt)
• 2 cups loosely packed fresh herbs e.g. oregano, parsley, thyme, basil
• 1 cup dried mushrooms, e.g. shitake
• 20 cups water

Place all ingredients in a large stock pot, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for four hours

Once cool enough to handle, strain and discard all but kombu (if used), mushrooms, and chicken

Slice mushrooms and kombu, and reserve to add to soup

Shred chicken off bone, and reserve for soup

Chicken Soup Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Celery Carrots Onion Garlic
• Chicken
• Salt, Pepper, and Bay Leaves
• Lots of greens – I like escarole!
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)

Can I Freeze Chicken Soup?

Chicken soup freezes beautifully if you add the starches (if you use a starch) as you go instead. Adding pasta, rice, or potatoes to the main pot can wind up being mushy or even dissolving into the soup. Portion off chicken soup for freezing and label with the date.

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