Nourishing chicken soup recipe. The basic healing chicken soup recipe our family uses regularly and loves, full of gut healing nutrients!
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Jump to RecipeCall me simple, I don’t care.
But chicken soup is one of my favorite meals.
Just a good ol’ basic soup.
Something about it truly does nourish deeply. There’s a reason chicken soup is the one you whip up for sicknesses, it’s so healing.
Most people think soup is only for rainy, cold days. But I think every day is a soup day. They’re such an overlooked simple part of healing your gut and your health. It’s been a huge piece of my own journey with recovering from disease and healing myself.
I personally don’t eat grains very much either, occasionally rice, but I am pretty strict animal-based. So this is my recipe I use that does not include pasta. But feel free to add pasta or rice at the end if you want!
Nourishing chicken soup recipe
- A whole organic pasture raised chicken
- 2 to 4 chicken feet
- 6 to 8 carrots
- 4 to 6 stalks of celery
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 large onions
- salt
- pepper
- a splash of raw ACV
- filtered water
Instructions:
I use my large cast iron dutch oven for this usually. You just need something big enough for a whole chicken to sit inside with enough room for all the veggies and water.
Place the whole chicken in the pot.
Chop up the carrots, celery, and garlic and add them in with the chicken. Add the chicken feet.
Put in some salt, pepper and a splash of ACV and then cover the chicken with filtered water. I personally like a lot of pepper, I like it to have a tiny bit of spice to it. You can add more salt and pepper after cooking though once you’ve tasted it, but I like to at least add most of it for the cooking because it makes a big difference. Place on the stovetop and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiled you can turn it way down to keep it on a low simmer.
I like to have it go for up to 6 hours so that it makes a really nice stock and pulls out lots of nutrients from the bones and feet.
Chop up the onions and put them in a pan with some oil to caramelize. I don’t put them in the pot right away with the other veggies because, man, these are so much better caramelized first. It would be a crime to not.
Once the chicken is cooked through and falling off the bone tender, pull it all out of the pot to de-bone. Carefully separate all the meat from the bones and put the meat back in the pot. Add the caramelized onions to the pot.
You can taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.
At this point you can throw in some pasta and cook for a little longer if you wish, but I don’t add any. Since not using pasta in this soup I just added a little more quantity of vegetables.
Serve it up and enjoy!
Why do I add chicken feet?
Y’all already know that stock is one of the most nourishing things you can consume. Full of vitamins, minerals, collagen, and calcium. When you make stock it’s pulling all those amazing nutrients right out of the bones, cartilage, tendons, etc and putting it right in the broth in a way that your body is going to be able to absorb and utilize very easily.
“In most every culture throughout history has used bone broth for its nutritional significance, versatility and overall deliciousness. Chinese medicine practitioners use bone broth to strengthen the kidney, support digestive systems and build blood. The term “Jewish penicillin” is used for chicken soup, known to inhibit cell inflammation and mitigate cold symptoms. And the English sip beef tea, or beef broth, used since the Victorian era.”
Adding chicken feet, which are entirely made of tendons, bone, cartilage, all the good stuff, is like stock on steroids. They might sound gross, but they’re nutritional powerhouses. They only sound gross to us because our culture is so far removed from our food. No one knows how their food is made, no one knows how their meat is processed, and we are so wasteful to not use the whole animal anymore. When using the feet in stock used to be the norm.
I mean, is it really even stock if it doesn’t have some sort of animal foot in it?
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Nourishing chicken soup recipe – with no grains
Course: DinnerDifficulty: Easy9
servings15
minutes6
hoursIngredients
A whole organic pasture raised chicken
2 to 4 chicken feet
6 to 8 carrots
4 to 6 stalks of celery
6 cloves of garlic
2 large onions
salt
pepper
a splash of raw ACV
filtered water
Directions
- Place the whole chicken in the pot.
- Chop up the carrots, celery, and garlic and add them in with the chicken. Add the chicken feet.
- Put in some salt, pepper and a splash of ACV and then cover the chicken with filtered water.
- Place on the stovetop and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiled you can turn it way down to keep it on a low simmer.
- Keep it at a low simmer for up to 6 hours for a nice nourishing brothy soup.
- Take the chicken out with tongs and let it start cooling off.
- Chop up the onions and put them in a pan with some oil to caramelize.
- Strip all the meat off the chicken and return to the pot.
- Add the caramelized onions to the pot.
- Taste for salt and pepper and add more as needed.
- If you wish to add pasta add some at this point and cook a little longer.
- Serve and enjoy!
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