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#Whole30 Chicken Vegetable Soup #Recipe

This chicken vegetable soup from scratch is one of my favourite things about roasting a chicken. Hearty and flavourful, it’s paleo-friendly, Whole30 compliant, and a full meal in a soup bowl. You could make chicken vegetable soup from store-bought chicken stock, but why would you? This is so much tastier, and you control everything that goes in. All you need is a chicken carcass, veggies, and spices. We recycle all our roasted chickens to make the next day’s dinner, so it’s economical as well as delicious!

Chicken Vegetable Soup #recipe from scratch - #paleo and #Whole30

Keep all the bones and the carcass from your roasted chicken. Dump the bones, skin, and any scraps of chicken meat into an 8 quart stockpot. Pour all the drippings from your roasting pan in here too. Add a chopped up onion and enough water to cover the bones, about halfway up the pot. Then bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and leave the pot to gently simmer along for 4 hours, skimming any foam off the top every once in a while.

Once all the flavour has been cooked out of the carcass, strain out the bones through a colander INTO ANOTHER POT. I can’t stress this enough! I’ve heard several stories (and actually witnessed it once) when somebody drained the precious stock down the drain. Ouch!

I only have one pot large enough to make this soup in, so I pour the stock back into my original pot and return it to the stove. At this point, allow the bones to cool then go through them picking out all the remaining chicken meat and adding it back to the prepared stock. You can add extra chopped chicken meat if you like your soup meatier. Once you’ve cleaned the bones, throw them out along with the boiled up onion.

Here’s where you add the spices – this is the fun part! I’ve shared the spices that I use, but of course feel free to change up the spice profile to suit your tastes. I like to add bay leaves, basil, rosemary, ground ginger, garlic powder, chipotle chili powder, cumin, tarragon, chili powder, garam masala, thyme, pepper, and salt to taste. Next, add the chopped vegetables according to how long they take to cook. Add an onion, a small head of cauliflower, and 4 or 5 carrots first.

Let the soup simmer for about an hour then add 3 cubed sweet potatoes and half a chopped up zucchini and simmer another hour or so before serving. Enjoy!

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
  

  • Roasted chicken carcass and bones
  • 2 onions divided
  • 3 sweet potatoes cubed
  • 5 carrots sliced
  • 1 small head cauliflower chopped
  • 1/2 zucchini chopped
  • 4-5 bay leaves
  • 4-5 fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
  • 2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs or 1 teaspoon dried
  • 2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger or 2 teaspoons ground ginger powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • Sea salt to taste

Instructions
 

  • After roasting a chicken, add the chicken bones, scraps, and drippings from the roasting pan into an 8 quart stockpot. Add one chopped onion and enough water to cover the bones, about halfway full.
  • Bring the contents to a boil then turn the heat down to low and allow to simmer for 4 hours, skimming any foam off the top as needed.
  • Strain the liquid into a second pot, retaining the bones.
  • Allow bones to cool then pick out any remaining chicken meat and add back to prepared stock. Discard cleaned bones and boiled onion.
  • Add spices and salt to taste.
  • Add the second onion, cauliflower, and carrots and bring pot back to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for one hour.
  • Add sweet potato and zucchini and bring pot back to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer one hour more before serving.
This post is linked up to some fantastic recipe link parties. Check out my Link Parties page to see where I’m linking up and to find some wonderful blogs and more amazing recipes!

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28 Comments

  • Whenever we are in town, I buy a couple of BBQ chickens, and remove all the chicken and package for fridge and freezer later, and boil up the bones/skin etc with onion, carrot, ginger root and let it simmer a few hours, then I can the broth for later. I do this so I can easily remove the fat that lays on top after my jars of broth have cooled. Then I make my chicken soup as I need it, or sometimes a chicken pot pie, using this broth. I love your idea of throwing isweet potatoes into the soup. We tried adding mashed sweet potatoes to the top of our chicken pot pie, and loved it, (I don’t use pastry at all)

  • This makes me smile. It’s exactly how we start our gumbos here–making a stock with the chicken carcass, using every bit!
    I don’t think I’ve ever seen sweet potatoes in a chicken soup before, but I definitely am on board with that.
    Thank you for sharing this week, Olivia.

    • Thanks, Michelle! We don’t eat potatoes much because of the high glycemic index. I tried sweet potatoes and they were really tasty so we kept with it.

  • My mom always swears that the bones are the best part of the bird. Especially for making soups. This looks like a great recipe for the freezing cold days lately. Pinned and shared.

  • We also try to get as many meals as possible from our whole chickens! I like to make my stock in my crockpot. I used to make it on the stovetop, but it’s so much easier in the crock pot and I can usually get 2-3 rounds of stock out of the same bones.

  • This is the perfect soup for the recent cold weather! Looks good. Thanks for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. Hope to see you next week.

  • I never would have thought to add all those spices or the vegetable combo you used. I refuse to use store bought stock and only make my own! When we are sick there is nothing better than homemade chicken soup. We have sick kiddos now so this is on our recipe short list. Thank you so much for sharing with Delicious Dish Tuesday, I am featuring you on Coping with Frugality this week! Feel free to add the “Featured Favorite” button that can be found here: http://copingwithfrugality.com/2013/09/delicious-dish-tuesday-recipe-link-new-look-new-features.html

  • This looks so delicious! Have to make some homemade good stuff for my little one! She is a huge soup lover!

  • I love making a soup with the picked off deli chicken. I would have never thought to use Garam masala, I am sure that gives it so much more flavor than what I usually do

  • Can i Ask roughly how much stock to use? i made some the other day in a really big slow cooker using about 31/2 carcasses (no legs or wings). So just wondering how much to pop into the pot?

  • My daughter and I are doing the Whole30 eating plan and found your recipe. Made it tonight and it was Wonderful!! Even my 16 yr old son who I had to talk into trying just “one bite”….cleaned his bowl! Thank you for sharing!

  • This is a great recipe and I love the vegetables you use but I’d probably put more in there