Hearty Chicken Vegetable Soup
October 23, 2019
While we can eat soup all year long, my favorite time of year for soup is the fall and winter. Learn how to make my hearty and healthy chicken vegetable soup for your family.
I’ve been in a cooking rut lately. I’m not really sure why, because I like to cook. And I really like good, tasty food.
As a way to get myself back on track with cooking, I’ve been giving myself mini-challenges. One week I challenged myself to use recipes from the Barefoot Contessa all week. Another week, I challenged myself to try one new recipe.
Lately, I’ve been on the soup challenge. I’ve been challenging myself to make soup each week. Sometimes it’s a new recipe I’ve created on my own. Other times it may be a tried and true soup my family loves like Potato Leek Soup in the Slow Cooker.
The Benefits of Eating Soup
The reason I like soup so much is that it’s easy to pack in lots of nutrition. Whether you add vegetables, lean protein or grains, you can cram in a lot of nutrition in a soup recipe.
I also like soup because there are almost always leftovers. For me, that means I don’t have to think about what I will eat for lunch. Soup is easy, fast and yummy.
[Try Chicken Soup for the Family for a lighter vegetable option.]
Chicken and Vegetable Soup Recipe
When I created this recipe, I was looking for a vegetable soup recipe to make. I typically make a beef vegetable with barley soup, but I was looking to use chicken as my main protein source.
I figured I could change a few ingredients, but keep the same general approach to making vegetable soup I’ve used in the past.
I kept it economical by using vegetables in season, as well.
It turned out great! I used chicken instead of beef, and macaroni pasta instead of barley. And, I used my secret ingredient for the broth (you’ll have to check out the recipe to see what that is!).
I hope you like this hearty chicken soup! It was a winner in my house. 🙂
Hearty Chicken Vegetable Soup
A hearty chicken vegetable soup with macaroni.
Ingredients
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- fresh rosemary and thyme, or dried Herbs de Provence
- 3 cups of water (for poaching)
- 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 medium shallot, diced
- 46 ounces of Original V8 juice
- 32 ounces College Inn Chicken broth
- 1, 14 ounce bag of frozen "vegetables for soup"
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1, 14.5 ounce can of fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1 - 1.5 cup dry macaroni noodles
Instructions
Place herbs and water in a large soup pot
Add raw chicken breasts and cook over medium-low heat until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove and cool. Cut into cubes.
Meanwhile, clean that soup pot; add the EVOO.
Chop onions and shallots and add to the pot; cook over medium heat until translucent.
Add V8 juice, chicken broth, vegetables, corn, tomatoes and bring to a boil.
Add the macaroni and cook for ~10 minutes until soft.
Add the cubed chicken.
Notes
Serve with corn bread or croissants. I sprinkle fresh parmesan cheese on top.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 177Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 28mgSodium: 661mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 4gSugar: 8gProtein: 14g
This is an estimation of nutritional content.
Need More Family Food Inspiration?
Check out my recipe booklets – they are full of well-balanced, nutritious recipes for families.
Jill Castle, MS, RD
I like empowering parents to help their children and teens thrive at every size with realistic advice centered on healthful habits around food, feeding, nutrition and health behaviors. As a pediatric dietitian and author, my goal is to share strategies and realistic advice to help you raise a healthy and happy child through my articles and podcast.