Chicken Soup Recipes

If you came here looking for easy chicken soup recipes, you’ve come to the right place. In my humble opinion, there are few meals quite as satisfying as a good bowl of homemade chicken soup

I’m not alone, either. Nearly every culture around the entire world has its own traditional chicken soup recipe--often more than one. From Asia (Tom Kha Gai, Pho Ga, Chicken Mulligatawny, Sinigang Na Manok), to Europe (Matzo Ball Soup, Canja de Galinha, Avgolomono), to the Americas (Caldo de Pollo, Sancocho, Chicken Tortilla Soup), chicken soup is everywhere!

And the best selling canned soup of all time? Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup.

Clearly, a lot of people think chicken soup is a good thing!

So why don’t people make it as often as previous generations did? It’s not because we’re lazy--it’s because we’re busy! Our grandparents got by on one income, but that’s a luxury that few of us can afford in the modern world. Say what you will about technology, but it sure hasn’t led to less work.

No wonder so many parents fall back on convenient options like canned soup or other packaged meals. But not all change is bad! Modern life has also given us conveniences that our elders never dreamed of, which means that even though we have less free time, we can still enjoy the same benefits of home-cooked chicken soup that they did.

Before I start listing recipes, I want to explore some of these conveniences in the hopes that they might inspire you to try some recipes that you might have thought were out of your reach.

Kitchen Equipment

Instant Pot

I asked my wife for an Instant Pot for my birthday one year, thinking it would be great for cooking rice. As it turns out, I didn’t like the way it cooked rice as much as I thought I would, so I decided to see how it did with soups and stews.

I was hooked from the start. It was easy to use and gave consistent results, both in pressure cooking and slow cooking modes. It does take up a bit of space on the kitchen counter, but if you need a set-it-and-forget-it tool for making soup, look no further than the Instant Pot. Not many gadgets exceed my expectations, but this one certainly did.

Slow Cooker

The Instant Pot’s older cousin, also sometimes called a Crockpot, isn’t quite ready for retirement yet. While the Instant Pot can do everything the Slow Cooker can do, a Slow Cooker holds more volume without taking up quite as much space. If you have one of these, you should definitely be using it.

More Products

Food producers and grocery stores have caught on to the fact that we love convenience. This means we have access to a much greater variety of products today than was dreamed of in our grandparents’ time, and we can use that to our advantage.

Frozen food

It’s tempting to turn your nose up at frozen food, but it’s a fact that freezing is the best way to preserve freshness. It’s also an excellent way to save money, because you can buy in bulk when things are on sale and save them for later. The only significant downside is that freezing tends to alter the texture of food, and rarely for the better. But with soup, texture is rarely a concern!

From chicken breasts to vegetables, your grocer’s freezer aisle is an excellent place to start looking for ingredients for your easy chicken soup recipes.

Prepped Vegetables

My grandmothers would probably roll their eyes in unison at the number of pre-chopped vegetables I buy. Then again, they never had to sit in traffic for ninety minutes coming home from work before starting dinner.

The amount of time I save not having to cut broccoli (a weekly occurrence) is well worth the extra cost--and frankly, it usually doesn’t cost a lot more, especially since I’m not throwing out the stems. Everything I buy gets used.

Just bear in mind that not all vegetables respond well to this treatment. For instance, pre-chopped onions have a much shorter shelf life than whole onions.

If you don’t like the idea of spending more for pre-chopped vegetables, then chop your own ahead of time and store them in the fridge until you need them. And I suggest doing this with veggies that normally don’t sell in pre-chopped form, like onions, carrots, celery, peppers, etc. Having these on hand when you’re ready to start making dinner is such a time saver!

Broths

Making chicken broth from scratch is a satisfying and wholesome experience. But when you’ve got thirty minutes to get dinner on the table before taking the kids to soccer or band practice, that’s the last thing you need to be doing. Save that for a lazy Sunday.

Instead, rely on any of several options for pre-made broths available in any grocery store.

Yes, I know at first glance this goes against the idea of avoiding packaged foods, but using store-bought broth is not the same thing as relying on frozen pizzas and other boxed food. Ready-to-use broths come in all sorts of healthy varieties, such as organic, low-sodium, and fat free.

Broths come in different forms: canned, powder, paste, or my favorite, boxed liquid broth. Some are concentrated, others can be used right out of the container, but they’re all convenient, and usually quite tasty.

On the other hand, if you really do prefer to make your own broth, you can always make it ahead of time and freeze it, so it’s available when you need a quick meal.

Rotisserie Chickens

In the last dozen years or so, it has become commonplace for grocery stores to feature rotisserie chickens at ridiculously low prices as loss-leaders. My local store sells whole chickens for around $18 each, while their fully-cooked rotisserie chickens go for $12.99 (Canadian prices). Yes, it’s a little smaller than its uncooked counterpart, but even when you take size into account, the pre-cooked chicken is still a better deal.

But the real bonus is the time savings when it comes to cooking, especially with soup. By using a rotisserie chicken, you drastically reduce the cooking time because you aren’t cooking from raw--or worse, frozen. That means you can have a tasty, nutritious, and completely food-safe dinner on the table in about half the time.

True, there are some minor health concerns with rotisserie chickens, primarily with sodium, which can come from both the brine the chicken is soaked in before cooking, and the spice rub that goes on the skin. You can cut down on the sodium by not eating the skin (which will also reduce your saturated fat intake), but even with the skin, a rotisserie chicken is a far healthier option for you and your family than, say, a microwaved frozen pizza.

While you don’t have as much free time as great-aunt Matilda had back in the day, these modern advantages are more than enough to allow you to put together a simple chicken soup.

So, which easy chicken soup recipes do you want to try?

How about starting with my basic easy chicken soup recipe? Not only is it delicious, but it’s also extremely versatile, and even forms the basis of many other recipes you’ll find listed on this page. If you’ve never made chicken soup before, I recommend starting with this one.

Is there anything more classic than chicken noodle soup? If you want to make yours in record time, check out my easy chicken noodle soup recipe. It's a real winner with kids!

If you want something a little heartier, look no further than this easy chicken rice soup recipe. Adding rice turns a basic chicken soup into a full meal--super convenient for a quick one-pot dinner.

For an instantly recognizable flavor that your whole family will love, try my easy chicken corn soup recipe, a homemade version of a Chinese restaurant classic.

One of my favorites is this easy chicken taco soup recipe. It's quick to prepare, and it's full of flavors that will remind you of family taco night, but with half the work.

For a slightly thicker, heartier version, look no further than my easy chicken tortilla soup recipe. Just as easy to make, but with a different texture.

What about other poultry?

We don't cook turkey often, but when we do, there are always leftovers. My easy turkey soup recipe will quickly become your favorite way to use them up.