This easy Homemade Chicken Soup recipe is guaranteed to boost your immune system! A healing chicken soup filled with veggies, turmeric, herbs, chicken and lentils. It’s the best chicken soup for flu season or to fight off that cold!
The Best Homemade Chicken Soup
After a week like last week, this healing soup was definitely needed.
I can’t remember the last time I felt that bad or that a sickness went through our family that quickly. Once Maddie was diagnosed with RSV (on January 1st) the next day I was stuffed and started that same deep cough. A couple days later, Mike had it. Thankfully, as I write this our little man still is healthy. (I’ve been pumping him with probiotics, elderberry syrup and vitamins.)
I make Chicken Soup maybe about 1 time a year. Honestly, we don’t get sick too often so there’s not a need. I’d rather have tomato basil soup or french onion soup.
Chicken Soup is good, but doesn’t scream comfort food to me. But today I’m giving myself a pat on the back for this one. Not only it is healthy, it’s filled with ingredients that have healing properties, super flavorful and dare I say comforting.
Don’t believe me? Try it.
The lentils thicken the soup up a bit to give it that comfort-y texture. 🙂
How to Make Homemade Chicken Soup:
- Heat a large stock pot to medium high heat. Saute onions, garlic, celery and carrots in grape seed oil until translucent.
- Add in chicken breast and cover with chicken broth, fresh thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 15 minutes. Until the chicken is cooked.
- Shred the chicken and serve.
Is Chicken Soup Good for a Cold? Why is it Healing?
- There are healing properties in the onions, garlic and chicken that are said to reduce inflammation for nasal congestion and upper respiratory issues.
- Carrots produce vitamin A which helps create white blood cells which in turn help fight off infection.
- Turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties and is a very strong antioxidant. All great for when you have a cold.
- Ginger also helps with inflammation, can help reduce pain and helps with nausea.
The turmeric in this soup, while small, adds a punch. Not only in the color with the golden hue it leaves but also with the healing properties it has. All the flavors combined in this soup make it….
“Not your momma’s chicken soup recipe”
This baby is amped up .. it’s like the Superhero of Chicken Soup.
And I can’t wait for you to try it! Bon Appetit friends and happy Monday!
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This easy Homemade Chicken Soup recipe is guaranteed to boost your immune system! A healing chicken soup filled with veggies, turmeric, herbs, chicken and lentils. It’s the best chicken soup for flu season or to fight off that cold!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoons grape seed oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
- 5 large carrots, sliced
- 2 cups diced celery
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 cup lentils
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 9 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 cups kale, torn into smaller pieces
- juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Heat a large dutch oven to medium high heat.
- Add grape seed oil and onion. Saute for 2-3 minutes, until the onions are translucent.
- Next, add in garlic cloves, fresh ginger, carrots, celery and turmeric. Saute for 3 minutes, stirring the entire time.
- Then add in lentils, stir to mix everything together and place the raw chicken breast on top of the veggies. Pour chicken broth over top and add in fresh thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until chicken in no longer pink.
- Once chicken is cooked, remove from from the pot. Shred using a fork and add chicken back to the pot along with torn kale.
- Simmer soup for another 5 minutes. Remove stems of thyme and rosemary from the soup. Finish with juice from one lemon.
- Serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
- Calories: 223
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 320 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 24 g
- Cholesterol: 50 mg
Keywords: homemade chicken soup, best chicken soup recipe, soup for colds, healthy chicken soup
Want More Healthy Soup Recipes?
- Low Carb Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
- Easy Hearty Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Roasted Fennel Cauliflower Soup with Crispy Bacon
- Light Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
30 Min
Paleo
Low Carb
Vegetarian
Vegan
This was delicious. The only thing I will change next time is less onion and more lentils.
★★★★★
Thank you! I am thrilled you loved this recipe!
Great recipe…even if it wasn’t medicinal I’d still whip it up, it’s delicious. The only change I made was using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I put them in a cheesecloth pouch so it was easy to pull them out, debone and skin them, then shred them. A bit more work, but I got a bone broth and an easier touch on my wallet!
★★★★★
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe!!
I’m not one to typically leave reviews, but after making this soup I could not pass up the opportunity to thank you for this recipe! I was looking for a healing chicken soup to make for a friend and came across this post. I have heard about the healing properties of ginger and turmeric, but have never cooked with them. I was concerned the flavors were going to be overpowering. The flavors were wonderful and I love the addition of the lentils and kale. It was so delicious, so simple and so quick to prepare, it is now my “go to” chicken soup recipe. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
★★★★★
Thank you so much, Stacey! This is my go-to soup to drop off when a friend is under the weather! I am so glad you loved the flavors!
This was delicious!! I had a request to make something like this for a vegan family member. Do you think it would still be delicious with vegetable broth instead of chicken stock?
★★★★★
Yes, Absolutely!
Made it for my hubby last night coz he wasn’t feeling well…he had 2 servings! Tasty, comforting, definitely a keeper.
★★★★★
Homemade Chicken Soup is always the best when you aren’t feeling well! I am so glad it was a hit, and I hope everyone is feeling better!
I have made this recipe twice. The first time very close to precisely the recipe. The second time I added Portabella mushrooms and spinach. My husband and I loved it and shared it with our neighbor and she also loved it! Thank you for sharing it!
★★★★★
OH so glad to hear that Ruth. Thank you!
Krista, the first time I made this, I did it in my electric pressure pot, modifying the steps & timing for the ingredients based on how quickly they cook in the Pressure pot. I have shared your recipe a number of times on the Facebook pressure pot groups I am in. I just shared it for a young woman who is pregnant and has Covid with the sore throat so she’s having trouble getting food down. Would you consider creating this recipe with the instant pot steps so a beginner could make it. I could suggest collaboration with someone who does a great job with step-by-step for the pressure pot but won’t do it here on your page. If you would like that suggestion, let me know Via email. The second time I made it, I did it in my large cast-iron Dutch oven because it’s a lot bigger than my instant pot, I like the idea that the cast-iron leeches some iron into the soup, and I always share! 😃
OH thank you so much! I will definitely work on creating an instant pot version!
Two of my kiddos have flu and your recipe came up in my google search. Wow! It is seriously delish!! Thank you!
★★★★★
Oh I’m so sorry to hear that. Flu is no fun! But glad you found this to warm your tummy up 🙂
Was feeling under the weather and this caught my eye. So delicious and comforting! Made it in my instant pot. So easy! A keeper.
★★★★★
ohhh hurray! So glad to hear that!