Need help fighting a cold or flu? Try this deliciously healthy chicken soup. It’s packed with flavor and antioxidants! Make it on the stovetop or in a slow cooker.
Immune-Boosting Chicken Soup
This simple soup is packed with nutrition. However, there are a few ways to adapt the soup to really amp up the immune-boosting properties. Perfect if you are fighting a cold or flu.
- Make a rich bone broth: Using a slow cooker for the chicken stock will result in a collagen-rich bone broth that is gut healing and delicious.
- Add probiotics: Not all miso is probiotic. However, you can find live, probiotic miso online or in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. To make sure that the probiotic properties aren’t killed by the heat, add 1 Tbsp of miso to each bowl individually rather than stirring into the pot.
- Fresh turmeric: Turmeric is packed with antioxidants, and fresh turmeric has even more than powdered turmeric. To use fresh turmeric instead, peel a 1-inch piece of turmeric root, then finely grate it into the soup.
- Veggie-packed: Feel free to add a lot more vegetables. Skip the frozen veg and add a few cups of washed and ripped-up kale instead. Then top the soup with diced colored peppers for a boost of vitamin C.
How to Make Chicken Soup in a Slow Cooker
Making this chicken soup in a slow cooker is the easiest way to make a rich bone broth. I usually do a combination, making the stock in my slow cooker. (Either overnight, the night before, or during the day while I’m at work). Then cooking the final soup on the stove.
Here’s how to adapt the recipe for the slow cooker.
Slow Cooker Chicken Stock:
- For the initial poaching of the chicken, place the whole chicken in the slow cooker with stock seasonings and enough water to cover it. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours.
- When the broth is ready, remove chicken, herbs, and spices with a slotted spoon. And try to skim off as much of the fat as possible.
- At this point, you could strain the stock and make the rest of the soup in a pot on the stove. Or follow the instructions to make a slow cooker chicken soup.
Slow Cooker Chicken Soup:
- Saute the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic on the side. Toss with the turmeric, then add them to the slow cooker with the stock. Cook on high for 45 minutes.
- Then add the chicken, beans, frozen vegetables, salt to the slow cooker. Allow them to warm up and cook for 15 minutes.
- Mix in the miso right before serving.
Healthy Chicken Soup
Looking for a soup to help you fight off a cold or flu? Try this healthy chicken soup is packed with antioxidants. See the section above for advice on how to add more immune-boosting properties to this soup.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8–10 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Healthy
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Broth
- 1 whole chicken (organic is best)
- 14 cups of water
- 2 bay leaves
- 12 black peppercorns
- 3 springs each of parsley, sage, and thyme
Soup
- 2 medium onions
- 3 medium carrots
- 3 stalks of celery
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 2 Tbsp of olive oil
- 2 tsp powdered turmeric
- 1 can of white beans (see notes for alternatives)
- 2–4 cups of frozen green beans and peas (see notes for alternatives)
- 6 Tbsp of miso (I like shiro miso in chicken soup)
- 2 tsp salt, to taste
Instructions
Stock
- See the section above for how to make the stock in a slow cooker.
- For a stove-top stock, put the whole chicken, the water, the black pepper, and herbs in a large stockpot. The chicken should be completely submerged below the water. Include the neck, if it was included with your chicken.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours, until the chicken is completely cooked.
- Remove the whole chicken from the pot and place it on a cookie sheet to cool slightly before you pick the meat off the bones. Store the meat in the fridge until you’re ready to make your soup.
- Strain the stock, and rinse the pot before using it to make soup.
- If you have time, let the stock cool, so that the fat can easily be removed.
Soup
- Finely chop the onions, carrots, and celery. Dice the garlic.
- Heat the olive oil in a soup pot. Lightly saute the vegetables until they are softening but not browning (about 5 minutes).
- Add the turmeric, and toss to coat the vegetables.
- Next, add the chicken broth, and bring the soup to a boil.
- Simmer for 10 minutes to cook the vegetables.
- Meanwhile, dice the chicken, and prep the other ingredients.
- Add the chicken, white beans, and frozen vegetables to the soup pot. Simmer for another 10 minutes to make sure that everything is hot.
- Turn off the soup. Remove 1 cup of liquid. Stir the miso paste into the cup of liquid, mixing until it is fully dissolved. Then, stir the dissolved miso into the soup.
- Add salt, taste, and season with more salt, as needed.
Notes
- The white beans are used as a replacement for noodles or potatoes that are traditional for chicken soups. They provide a source of protein and fiber. However, feel free to replace it with 2 peeled and chopped potatoes, which can be added with the onions and carrots. Or add 1 cup of uncooked soup noodles, which can be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- This makes a huge batch of soup. I usually freeze the leftovers in 2 cup mason jars, the perfect serving size for lunch. It’s so much healthier than canned soup!
- Thanks to Alive for the inspiration for this recipe.
Keywords: whole chicken, slow cooker, probiotic, turmeric, garlic, immune boosting, cold and flu fighting, fall, winter
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