Need to help to fight off a cold or flu? Try this delicious immune boosting chicken soup. It’s full of antioxidants and probiotics.
This simple and delicious soup can be made on the stovetop or in a slow cooker. Check out the recipe adaptations below.
Immune Boosting Chicken Soup
The simple soup recipe below is healthy and delicious. However, here are a few ways to adapt the soup to really amp up the immune boosting properties.
- Make a rich bone broth: To make a collagen-rich bone broth, follow the recipe as directed, boiling the chicken carcass to fully cook the chicken. Then once you’ve removed the meat, return the bones to the stockpot, add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and continue to simmer for another 2-12 hours.
- Add probiotics: Not all miso is probiotic. However, you can find live, probiotic miso online (affiliate link) or in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. To make sure that the probiotic properties aren’t killed by the heat, add the miso to each bowl individually after the soup has cooled slightly.
- Fresh turmeric: Turmeric is full of antioxidants, and fresh turmeric has even more than dried turmeric. To use fresh turmeric instead of dried, peel a 1″ piece of turmeric root, then grate it into the soup.
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. Simmering the bones on low in a slow cooker for 20 hours will result in a rich and delicious broth that will also help your boost immune system (see the section above).
Here’s how to adapt the recipe for the slow cooker:
- 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 chicken is finished cooking, remove it from the pot. Strip the meat and return the bones to the slow cooker. Add 2 tbsp of cider vinegar and cook on low for another 6-18 hours.
- When the broth is ready, remove the bones, herbs and spices with a slotted spoon. And try to skim off as much of the fat as possible.
- Saute all the soup vegetables on the side before adding them to the slow cooker.
- Add all the other ingredients. Top it off with more water, as needed, and cook on high for 1 more hour.
Immune Boosting Chicken Soup
Looking for a soup to help you fight off a cold or flu? Try this immune boosting chicken soup with antioxidant rich turmeric and probiotic miso. See the section above for more information about starting this soup with a collagen rich broth.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8–10 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Healthy
Ingredients
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
- 2 carrots
- 3 stalks of celery
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tsp powdered turmeric
- 1 can of white beans (see notes for alternatives)
- 2 cups of frozen green beans and peas (see notes for alternatives)
- 2 tsp salt, to taste
- 1/4 cup of miso
Instructions
Broth
- 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.
- Using a slotted spoon and kitchen tongs, remove the whole chicken from the pot and place it on a cookie sheet.
- Allow the chicken to cool slightly, then pick the meat off the bones.
- Remove the herbs and spices from the soup pot and skim off the fat.
- If time allows, you can let the stock cool, so that the fat can easily be removed from the top.
Soup
- Finely chop the onions, carrots and celery. Dice the garlic.
- Heat 2 tbsp of 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 to a boil.
- Simmer for 10 minutes to cook the vegetables.
- Dice the chicken meat.
- Add the chicken, white beans and green beans and peas to the soup pot. Cook for another 10 minutes to make sure that everything is hot.
- Add in the salt and turn off the soup.
- Remove 1 cup of liquid. Stir the miso paste into the cup of liquid, mixing until it is fully dissolved. See the section above if you want to serve a probiotic soup. Otherwise, stir the dissolved miso into the soup.
- 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 other vegetables. Or 1 cup of uncooked soup noodles, which can be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- I usually add about 2 cups of whatever vegetables I have on hand. I’ve used chopped kale and grated zucchini. However, the mix of green beans and peas is my favourite.
- This makes a huge batch of soup. I usually freeze the leftovers in 2 cup mason jars (affiliate link), which are perfect for individual servings. 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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