This chicken vegetable soup recipe checks all the boxes. Thanks to lots of veggies, this soup is hearty, healthy, and perfect for a cozy night in.
You’ll love how this chicken and vegetable soup is loaded with tender chicken, five different veggies, and just the right amount of pasta to make it really satisfying. I’ve made it so many times, I’ve lost count.
It’s similar to our chicken noodle soup, but with even more vegetables and a few slices of lemon added to brighten the flavor. I can’t wait for you to try it!
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: Use leftover or rotisserie chicken, or cook chicken specifically for this soup. I’ve included instructions for easy roasted chicken thighs in the recipe, which I love chopping up and stirring in.
- Vegetables: I use five veggies in this chicken soup. You’ll find onion, carrots, fennel, zucchini, and kale. Feel free to add more if you have them on hand.
- Herbs and Spices: Garlic, thyme (or rosemary), a bay leaf, and a touch of ground turmeric add flavor and a beautiful golden color to the broth.
- Broth: Use your favorite store-bought chicken or vegetable broth. Bone broth is another great option and adds extra protein. For homemade options, try our chicken broth, bone broth, or vegetable broth recipes.
- Pasta: I love a small amount of pasta. It’s optional, but adding just under a cup of dry pasta to the pot makes the soup hearty and dinner-worthy. Potatoes would do the same!
- Lemon: Just before serving, slide in a few lemon slices. It brightens everything up. I use this trick in our lentil soup and ham and cabbage soup as well.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Chicken Vegetable Soup
Tip 1: Start with flavorful chicken. If you don’t already have leftover cooked chicken, bake a few chicken thighs with herbs in the oven. Roast them at 400°F until cooked through. This method keeps the chicken juicy and adds a lot of flavor. You can even pour a little of the roasting juices into the soup for extra richness.
Tip 2: Cook the hearty veggies first. This soup comes together in two stages. Start by cooking the onion, carrot, and fennel until they’re soft and smell sweet. Then add the garlic, herbs, and broth, and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes.
Tip 3: Add the delicate veggies with the pasta. Zucchini and kale cook quickly, so add them near the end along with the pasta, which only needs about 10 minutes to cook. This is also the perfect time to stir in your chicken and any pan juices, adding a lot of flavor.
More Vegetable Soups
- White Bean Soup with carrots and kale
- Sausage and Potato Soup with extra kale
- Easy Broccoli Cheddar Soup made healthier with potato
- Italian Wedding Soup made with homemade meatballs
- Sauerkraut Soup made with sausage
- Cabbage Soup
Easy Chicken Vegetable Soup
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This chicken vegetable soup recipe has lots of veggies and chicken, making it perfectly hearty. Use about 2 cups of cooked chicken or follow our directions for cooking chicken from scratch. The soup is also delicious without the chicken added.
You Will Need
For the Chicken1 ½ pounds skin-on chicken thighs (680g)
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
For the Soup1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped, about 1 cup
2 medium carrots, chopped, about 1 cup
1 medium fennel bulb, core removed and chopped, about 1 ¼ cups
2 cloves garlic, minced, 2 teaspoons
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 bay leaf
8 cups chicken broth or veggie broth (1.8L)
1 medium zucchini, chopped, about 1 cup
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped, about 4 cups chopped
¾ cup small dried pasta, like orecchiette or orzo
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 to 3 fresh lemon slices with seeds removed, optional
Grated parmesan cheese for serving, optional
Directions
- Cook the Chicken
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, or use a cast-iron pan.
2Make a bed for the chicken by placing a few sprigs of fresh herbs on the pan. Rub the chicken with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, then season lightly with salt and pepper.
3Roast for 25 to 35 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken reads 165°F. Transfer the chicken to a plate and let it cool until it’s easy to handle. Remove the skin and bones, then chop the meat into small pieces. Save any juices from the pan to add to the soup for extra flavor.
- Make the Soup
1About 10 minutes before the chicken is finished roasting, start the soup. Place a large, heavy-bottomed pot (we love using our Dutch oven) over medium heat. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of oil, along with the onions, carrots, fennel, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables smell sweet and almost tender, about 10 minutes.
2Stir in the garlic, herbs, turmeric, and bay leaf, and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
3Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer. Once it reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a gentle bubble. Season with ¼ teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of pepper. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
4Add the zucchini, kale, pasta, chopped chicken, and any juices left in the pan from roasting the chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Taste and adjust the seasoning (we usually add 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons of salt total, depending on the broth).
5Just before serving, drop in the lemon slices. Ladle into bowls and top with grated Parmesan cheese, if you like.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Pasta: If you plan to serve the whole batch of soup straight away, add the pasta according to our directions above. If you plan to enjoy the soup over a few days, it’s best to cook the pasta separately and add it when serving. The pasta will soak up the liquid as the soup sits and become mushy.
- Storing: The soup will keep in the refrigerator for a few days and in the freezer for up to a month. It’s best to keep the pasta and soup separate when storing since the pasta will absorb liquid and become too soft. If it seems dry when you reheat the soup, add a splash of stock or water.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This was so delicious, thank you so much for sharing your recipe! Even my girls that are not the biggest soup fans, thought it was so good! Followed your recipe as written and wouldn’t change a thing, other than I couldn’t find fennel, so I will try to find that next time. This is definitely a repeat and we loved it!! So glad I doubled it and kept the pasta seperate, so we can enjoy over the next couple days!
Made your chickenstock with only feet yesterday and today we made this soup. I just feel on top of the world after eating it! Thank you so much for heartwarming recipes that we need especially this time of year i snowy Norway
This is the BEST. SOUP. EVER. My 13 yo son even thought so! My husband and I are Keto, so we left the orecchiette out and cooked it separately for my son. We used a combo of vegetable and chicken broth since we had a couple cans of veggie broth we needed to use. Next time I’ll add more broth. Plus I used a lot more lemon. I had never cooked with fennel before and the taste was incredible! (You can NOT get fennel at Walmart, we got it at Kroger. And we used chicken thighs. Thank you infinitely for this recipe! We’ll be making this for Xmas eve soup night with our friends!
Hi Adam and Joanne! Love your recipes. I am making this soup tonight and was wondering if I could use lentils in substitution of the orecchiette? If so, will they soak up a lot of broth like pasta? Thanks so much!
Oh my goodness!! 6 stars please?! I made this and loaded with all healthy goodies and topped with Parmesan cheese can’t go wrong! Thank You whoever came up with this recipe! Definitely winter comfort foods and don’t pass up! in love
This came together easily, and has a great rich color. There was not much lemon in it, you might prepare extra lemon wedges to squeeze into it for a better flavor balance. Will make this again!
I am cooking this soup again and again! So tasty and filling
5 stars
I love this soup. Thank u, guys, for sharing this recipe. I cooked pasta separately. Just as much as I thought we would eat. Lemon was so good an addition. I haven’t thought it would make such a difference. Only I have twisted a ring of lemon into a bowl with soup and dropped it in it afterwards. Thank u again!
I looked up fennel bulb online and I since I have never used one can you tell me more about how to prepare it? How much of the core do you cut out?
Hi Sandra, Take a look at our braised fennel recipe. There, we show step photos for removing the core. Here’s the link to the braised fennel recipe.
Thanks that helps so much!
Hi Sandra, Fennel is very common for us living in Cyprus. U cut off only brown marks on it. We cook it, we use it in salads, it makes great sauce for spaghetti combined with canned tuna.
Just wondering where to find fennel bulb? I have never seen it in a store?
Hi Sandra, It’s usually sold near the carrots and celery in our grocery store. I’d ask someone working in the produce section. If you cannot find it, don’t worry, the soup will still be very tasty.
so i just got an instant pot and i’m obsessed with it. do you think there is a way to prepare this soup in an instant pot. like maybe saute the root vegies, throw in the chicken, add broth, then the softer veggies and the pasta? do you think that would work? how long do you think it should cook? like 9 minutes maybe? Let me know if you have any suggestions. and if i try it in the meantime i’ll let you know. I LOVE all the stuff you guys do. always my first “go-to” for recipes and ideas. Best, Nancy
Hi Nancy, Thanks for the kind comments! We have not made this in an instant pot yet, but it is on our list of to-dos. I’d expect this recipe to work similarly to any broth based soup. Once we have a chance to try it out ourselves, we will add additional notes sharing how to do it.
I’ve read the ingredients list several times, don’t see how much or what kind of pasta to use?
Hi Edith, You are correct, we make a mistake and left out the pasta. We add a 3/4 cup of dried pasta — any small shape will do, but we love orecchiette since it holds up a little longer in soups.
This is yummy