This easy-to-make chicken soup is perfect to cure the winter blues. Packed full of vegetables and herbs that will warm you up and have you feeling refreshed.
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It has been chilly, and rainy and my husband and I have been fighting a very stubborn cold for the last week and a half. Through all of this, I found myself craving a healthy, hearty soup that could kick my winter blues.
In my opinion, a veggie-loaded chicken soup is the best choice for a situation like this. It’s got everything you need to get warmed up and give your body a healthy boost. This recipe is easy to make and you can really play around with it and make it your own.
This made me think about my vintage soup bowl collection that continues to grow. I wrote about my experience making tomato soup from one of the bowls back in January, it was so fun to create a new recipe from an old one. So that settled it, I set out to make a hearty chicken soup from a vintage recipe.
My goal was to put together a soup that was full of good-for-you ingredients, but also flavorful. I knew immediately I wanted to add more vegetables since onion is the only vegetable the recipe calls for. I chose celery, carrots, and mushrooms which create an earthy taste and the herbs give strong flavors that are also refreshing.
You can add any sort of mushroom to this soup, but I would highly recommend baby shiitakes. These mushrooms are good! They soak up all the other flavors in the soup which adds to their smoky, woodsy taste. They were little flavor balls of amazingness!
Hearty Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups mushrooms
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1-2 cups water
- Fresh herbs – I used a few sprigs of thyme and oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 mace blade or 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 small chicken or 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the chicken and shred, set aside.
- Heat oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven on medium-high heat.
- Saute carrots, celery and onion until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and garlic and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Stir in chicken stock and water, herbs, bay leaves, mace blade or nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, add chicken, cover and reduce heat and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Discard herbs, bay leaf, and blade mace.
That looks great — never thought of mace in chicken soup!
Me either! But that’s what the bowl said so I tried it. It added a great warmth to the soup.
Yum. Gotta go shopping at the grocery store.