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A rich, thick chicken vegetable soup that is packed with flavor, protein and vegetables! An easy and unique chicken soup recipe that will have you going back for thirds!
Looking to achieve the most soup satisfaction with the least amount of excess effort? This chicken vegetable soup does all that and it’s actually healthy! With a heartiness you can only achieve at home, this soup is packed with enough lean protein, fiber-rich beans, and flavorful veggies to cure any ailment. This rich, easy weeknight dinner is perfect for meal prep—I always freeze leftovers for those winter months!
If you’re looking for more dishes with layers of healthy flavor, my lamb stew is a go-to winter comfort, these quinoa vegetarian meatballs are hearty without any meat, and I never pass up a bowl of this red chili with ground beef!
Table of Contents
Why you will love this easy chicken vegetable soup:
- Easy to prepare, all in one pot! There are no special skills required to make this delicious soup. A little chopping followed by hands-off simmering! The cleanup is super quick, so it’s perfect for busy nights.
- It isn’t overly salted like commercial chicken soups. This easy homemade chicken soup relies on the flavor of the chicken, vegetables, and herbs rather than tons of sodium.
- A healthy, hearty, filling dish. This is a rich, hearty, feed-your-soul type of stew. It is packed with tender chicken, beans, carrots and mushrooms for a soup that is delicious and filling. You want to make sure you serve it with bread so that you can soak up every last drop.
Professional Tips
- The canned bean liquid is the thickener for this soup. It is what makes it nice, rich and thick! It is the secret sauce, if you will.
- Using bone-in chicken really adds to the flavor. If you don’t want to use chicken thighs, use bone-in chicken breasts. You will get the same richness with less fat. You can also use a whole chicken that you have quartered. This will save a little money at the grocery store! Use kitchen shears or a cleaver for super easy quartering. Just be sure to remove the spine or you will spend a year picking tiny bones out of your soup. I made you a video on de-boning a chicken to help!
- Searing the chicken thighs begins the flavor building that makes this soup super special. You can skip it if you are pinched for time. You can also use shredded rotisserie chicken. I would add cooked chicken right before serving so as not to dry it out any further.
Ingredients
- Bone-in Chicken Thighs: Remove the skin on bone-in chicken thighs. You also have the option to use boneless skinless chicken thighs. As a bonus, they will cook in half the time! Bone-in chicken breast would also be delightful and slightly leaner.
- Carrots: Try to choose medium carrots that are relatively straight and fairly thick. This will make them easier to dice.
- Onions: Sweet, white, and yellow onions will work for this recipe, but I most commonly use yellow onions and sweet onions. Those are also my favorite onions to use in my Best French Onion Soup!
- Celery: You’ll need 4 whole celery stalks for this recipe. I also save the tops of my stalks to use in stock!
- Mushrooms: I like to use fresh mushrooms in this soup! Baby Bellas or button mushrooms are both excellent choices.
- Oregano: Oregano is an essential fresh herb for this soup! It provides savory, peppery, pleasantly bitter notes. You could also use parsley or a bay leaf for some added depth.
- Thyme: Fresh thyme adds a wonderful aroma and light, floral taste to the soup. If you aren’t able to find fresh thyme, you can use a tablespoon of dried thyme instead.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Olive oil is used to sauté the aromatics before adding the broth and other ingredients. You could use avocado oil here as well.
- Zucchini: I use 4 small zucchini for this recipe. Be sure to slice the zucchini thinly to avoid too much moisture. Use any zucchini leftover from this recipe in a baked zucchini and ricotta casserole!
- Crushed Tomatoes: I use Amazon’s brand of crushed pomodoro tomatoes but San Marzano tomatoes are epic, if they are in your budget.
- Vegetable Stock
- Great Northern Beans: I add a full can of Great Northern beans without draining them to this soup for creaminess and body. If you can’t find Great Northern beans, opt for cannellini beans. They are very similar in taste and texture.
- Small White Beans
- Red Kidney Beans: I use canned red kidney beans, drained, because I love using a mix of different beans for flavor, texture, protein & fiber.
- Tomato Paste
- Salt and Pepper
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Different Veggies: I have made different variations of this soup using different vegetables such as frozen peas, green beans, and corn. You can swap in parsnips, russet potatoes, or sweet potatoes (add them earlier), and add collard greens, spinach, or kale (wait until the end).
- Slow Cooker: Rather than make this soup on the stovetop, you can use your slow cooker. Sear the chicken on the stovetop, then add all of the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker. Cook on low for about 6 hours or high for 3 hours.
- Add barley or rice. You could add about ½ cup of barley or ⅔ cup of uncooked rice to get some additional grains in there! I would increase the stock by at least a cup so that the soup doesn’t get too dry. I typically add cooked rice or other grains towards the end of cooking or allow people to add their own to their bowl.
- Chicken noodle soup: Put in some pasta, such as orzo or egg noodles towards the end to make a killer chicken noodle soup!
What pairs well with chicken soup?
- Bake some homemade bread! Serve with a thick slice of whole wheat bread, a hunk of French bread or a slice of sourdough bread for the actual perfect meal. It’s also beautiful with some whole wheat Irish brown bread, Irish soda bread, or dinner rolls!
- Pair it with a light salad. Hearty soups like this one are stunning with a lemon rosemary vegetable salad with some light vinaigrette to balance the meal. Shoot for a salad with arugula, fennel or citrus for added freshness. You could also add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to your soup right before serving!
How to Make Chicken Vegetable Soup
Use these instructions to make the perfect chicken vegetable soup every time!
Step 1: Finely dice the carrots (I did not peel mine because they were super skinny!), onions, and celery. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
Step 2: In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Season both sides of the chicken thighs with kosher salt and then brown in the stock pot. You will need to work in 2 batches.
Step 3: Once brown, remove from the pot to a rimmed plate or dish. Repeat the searing with remaining chicken thighs. I did not need to add oil because there was a little untrimmed fat that rendered it into the pot.
Step 4: Remove all chicken from the pot. Add a little more oil, approximately 1 tablespoon more, and pour in all the chopped carrots, onions, and celery. Continue cooking over medium or medium-low to sweat out the moisture.
Step 5: While the mire-poix (carrot mixture) is cooking, finish chopping the zucchini and mushrooms.
I don’t like waiting for the zucchini to be done when I am ready to eat, so I cut mine fairly small. For small zucchinis like mine, I cut in half longways then in half longways again (so quarters), then I dice. I remove the mushroom stems and cut a similar size.
Step 6: Once the onions are translucent in the carrot mixture, add the zucchini, mushrooms, thyme sprigs, chopped oregano, canned crushed tomatoes, great northern beans and their juices, small white beans and their juices, drained kidney beans and tomato paste.
Step 7: Add the browned chicken thighs and their accumulated juices along with the vegetable stock to the pot, stir.
Step 8: Cook, covered, over medium-low heat. I taste for seasoning once everything has come to a simmer. Add salt and pepper as desired.
The amount of salt will greatly depend on the salt content of your stock and the beans. I typically purchase low sodium canned beans as well as low sodium vegetable stock or I make my own unsalted veggie stock. This gives me the greatest control over flavor.
Step 9: I skim the foam off the top of the soup after about 30 minutes. Using a small ladle or large metal spoon is best. A large ladle will not skim the foam as efficiently and you will lose more good soup.
For easier fat removal, refrigerate overnight, then skim solidified fat from the surface. This is easier and more effective than degreasing while it is hot. If you do not have time to refrigerate, simply use a 2 oz ladle or large spoon to skim the fat off the surface.
Step 10: Continue cooking until the zucchini and chicken thighs are cooked through. Using tongs, a fork or kitchen tweezers, remove the chicken thighs to a cutting board. I also remove the spent thyme sprigs while I’m in there digging around.
Step 11: Shred your chicken off the bone using two forks and then cut any large chunks into bite-size pieces. Throw away the bones and then scrape the pulled chicken back into the soup. Taste for seasoning one last time. Add salt or pepper as desired.
Step 12: My soup cooked for about 45 minutes total. Serve hot. I served mine with Irish brown bread, which is like whole wheat Irish soda bread!
Start to finish mine took about 1 ½ hours but I was taking my sweet time because my son was napping 😊
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
Freeze your chicken parts. Rather than tossing the bones from your chicken thighs and drumsticks, you can save them in a bag in the freezer and use the bones for your next batch of homemade chicken broth!
Frequently Asked Questions
This soup is absolutely delicious the next day. Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 10 days. You can freeze this soup as well. Cool the soup completely, transfer it to a freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months.
You can reheat individual servings of this soup in the microwave at 30-second intervals until it is heated through.
Yes! You can cook this recipe 3-4 days before you intend to serve it. When ready to serve, remove it from the fridge, place it in a Dutch oven or stock pot, and reheat over medium heat on the stove.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Chicken Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken thighs bone-in, skin removed
- 5 medium carrots
- 2 medium onions
- 4 celery stalks
- 12 ounces mushrooms I used baby Bella’s
- 4 small oregano stalks leaves removed & roughly chopped
- 6 fresh thyme sprigs
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 small zucchini
- 14 ounces crushed tomatoes canned
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 15 ounces canned great northern beans not drained
- 15 ounces canned small white beans not drained
- 15 ounces canned kidney beans drained
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- kosher salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Finely dice the carrots (I did not peel mine because they were super skinny!), onions, and celery. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Season both sides of the chicken thighs with kosher salt and then brown in the stock pot. You will need to work in 2 batches.
- Once brown, remove from the pot to a rimmed plate or dish. Repeat the searing with remaining chicken thighs. I did not need to add oil because there was a little untrimmed fat that rendered it into the pot.
- Remove all chicken from the pot. Add a little more oil, approximately 1 tablespoon more, and pour in all the chopped carrots, onions, and celery. Continue cooking over medium or medium-low to sweat out the moisture.
- While the mire-poix (carrot mixture) is cooking, finish chopping the zucchini and mushrooms.
- Once the onions are translucent in the carrot mixture, add the zucchini, mushrooms, thyme sprigs, chopped oregano, canned crushed tomatoes, great northern beans and their juices, small white beans and their juices, drained kidney beans and tomato paste.
- Add the browned chicken thighs and their accumulated juices along with the vegetable stock to the pot, stir.
- Cook, covered, over medium-low heat. I taste for seasoning once everything has come to a simmer. Add salt and pepper as desired.
- I skim the foam off the top of the soup after about 30 minutes. Using a small ladle or large metal spoon is best. A large ladle will not skim the foam as efficiently and you will lose more good soup.
- Continue cooking until the zucchini and chicken thighs are cooked through. Using tongs, a fork or kitchen tweezers, remove the chicken thighs to a cutting board. I also remove the spent thyme sprigs while I’m in there digging around.
- Shred your chicken off the bone using two forks and then cut any large chunks into bite-size pieces. Throw away the bones and then scrape the pulled chicken back into the soup. Taste for seasoning one last time. Add salt or pepper as desired.
- My soup cooked for about 45 minutes total. Serve hot. I served mine with Irish brown bread, which is like whole wheat Irish soda bread!
Notes
Nutrition
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other heart-warming, chef-developed soup recipes!
