Easy 20 Minute Chicken Soup

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Soup weather is well and truly upon us, especially here in chilly New Zealand with the snow starting to come in for ski season. This soup (like all rich chicken broths) is not only delicious, it’s also incredibly soothing, healing, nourishing, anti-inflammatory and is a wonderful cold and flu remedy - so this is the perfect time of the year to get into it! It freezes well, and you can adjust the vegetables to what you have on hand, and what’s in season, it’s a really versatile recipe.

The key to making this soup extra delicious is making sure your homemade bone broth base is really flavourful. Sometimes store bought liquid broths just don’t compare, and they often contain dubious additives such as extracts, preservatives and flavour enhancers. I often make big batches of homemade bone broth to use as a liquid base in dishes like; curries, butter chicken, slow cooked meats and stews, pumpkin soup, I cook my rice in it, but most often I’ll use it to make quick chicken soups like this. You can also add in some flavour bombs in the last few minutes of cooking too, sometimes I’ll add in a little extra crushed garlic, freshly grated ginger, fresh thyme or oregano, pepper and a good pinch of quality salt for extra nutrients and flavour! The good thing is, you can do it all to taste.

For tips on how to make your bone broth super gelatinous & flavourful, you can read my blog post ‘How To Make Belly Soothing Bone Broth’.

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 carrot, finely diced

  • 2 sticks of celery, finely diced

  • 2 spring onions, sliced

  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

  • 1 tsp turmeric powder

  • Optional: 1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

  • Leftover roast chicken (I used roughly 1/2 of the meat from a whole chicken)

  • 1.5 L homemade chicken bone broth

  • 3-4 kale leaves, stems removed, finely sliced, or use 1 cup baby kale leaves, roughly chopped

  • 1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen organic corn

  • 3/4 cup organic frozen green beans

  • The leaves from 2-3 stems of fresh thyme or oregano

  • Salt and pepper to taste

  • 1-2 Tbsp of ghee for cooking (use coconut oil if dairy free)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat a large saucepan on medium heat. Once the pan is heated, add some ghee, the carrot and celery and sauté until the veggies have some colour on them. Place the lid on top and allow the carrots and celery to partially steam for a few minutes.

  2. Add the spring onion, herbs, garlic, turmeric powder and ginger if adding it in, and stir. Sauté for a few minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant.

  3. Add the homemade bone broth, kale leaves, corn, green beans in and bring to a soft boil.

  4. Once all the veggies are cooked, add the chicken in at the end. Because it’s all ready cooked, you don’t need to cook it again, it just needs to heat up in the liquid.

  5. Taste and adjust as desired. If it needs a little more flavour, add in a little more crushed garlic, salt, pepper, fresh herbs and stir in.

  6. Serve in bowls and enjoy.

If you wanted to add either some pasta or rice to bulk it out a little more, you could try;

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For even more delicious soups and/ or puree recipes, check out these nourishing recipes;