Chicken vegetable soup warms your tummy and your heart with chicken, Italian herbs, and BACON! The hearty, healthy, comfort food…perfect any time of the year.
This chicken vegetable soup recipe is hearty, comforting, and absolutely delicious. We eat a lot of soup in our house. As soon as the weather begins to cool, this goes into my regular dinner rotation. I love that it brings that cozy feeling with traditional tastes and familiar textures.
I’d love you to try more of my favorite chicken soup recipes. You can’t go wrong, I promise, with my old-fashioned chicken noodle soup, chicken and rice soup (my go-to favorite comfort food of all times!), and my velvety cream of chicken soup.
Ingredients For Old Fashioned Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Bacon: No need to feel limited to traditional bacon in this recipe! There are so many delicious varieties that can bring yummy bacon flavor to your soup. I particularly love smoked bacon to give a nice smoky twist to the soup!
- Olive Oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Flour
- Chicken Broth
- Better Than Bouillon
- Italian Seasoning
- Thyme
- Salt
- Black Pepper
- Bay Leaf
- Petite Diced Tomatoes
- Tomato Sauce
- Potatoes: This healthy chicken vegetable soup recipe calls for russet potatoes. What’s the difference between russet potatoes and other kinds? Russet potatoes have some of the highest starch content, which means they break down very well when cooked in soups and help further thicken the broth.
- Mixed Vegetables
- Chicken: I generally use rotisserie chicken for time and convenience. Freshly cooked chicken breast or skinless chicken thighs work great, too, if you have a little extra time.
Tips
- How Do You Thicken Chicken and Vegetable Soup? This soup is a brothy rather than creamy soup. The russet potatoes add just a bit of thickness to the broth. If you’d like it thicker you can make a cornstarch slurry or use leftover mashed potatoes to thicken it further.
- Is Chicken Vegetable Soup Keto? The recipe below is keto if you substitute the russet potatoes with fresh chopped cauliflower and the frozen vegetable with a low-carb option.
Storing + Freezing
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? This one-pot chicken vegetable soup is great for weekday lunch leftovers. This kind of soup was made for Thermos! Portion it in and store your soup in the fridge for up to three to four days.
- Can You Freeze This? Yes! This chicken vegetable soup recipe is made to be a freezer meal. Cool it off, portion it out, and store it safely in your freezer for up to 4-6 months. That’s plenty of time to get you through winter!
- I also love gifting this soup to friends and family during the holidays. It’s so simple to give someone a container of soup with directions as simple as freeze, thaw, reheat, and eat!
- Food Safety: Here’s an article about chicken soup’s food safety.
Recipe Variations
- Add More Veggies: There are so many extra veggies you can add to increase beneficial nutrition.
- You can add chopped carrots and or celery and saute with the onions, step #2 below.
- Sweet potatoes are also great. Add them at step #3 below.
- I love fresh green beans in this soup. Add them, stemmed, and cut them into 1/2 inch slices, at step #4 below.
- Peas, fresh or frozen work well added during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Add Pasta: Add 1 cup of any small-shaped pasta when the potatoes are about halfway cooked through. You’ll likely need to add more chicken broth or water.
- Make It Cheesy: I like to sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top of individual servings.
Serving Recommendations
When there’s soup, there’s bread. And for me, my copycat Olive Garden breadsticks are the perfect accompaniment for this soup.
If you need something faster and super quick Bisquick drop biscuits are the first thing that comes to mind because you can literally make it in just 20 minutes. Another great choice is my crusty beer bread.
More Chicken Soup Recipes
- Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Chicken Potato Soup
- Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Chicken Corn Chowder
- Mexican Chicken Soup
Chicken Vegetable Soup
Chicken vegetable soup warms your tummy and your heart with chicken, Italian herbs, and BACON! The hearty comfort food...perfect any time of the year.
Servings: 6 Servings
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 heaping tablespoon chicken flavor Better Than Bouillon
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, with juices
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
- 1 (16-ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables
- 4 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces, about 1/2 inch cubes
Garnish:
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped herbs such as parsley, thyme, or chives, chopped
Instructions
- Cook bacon pieces (4) in a large soup pot over medium, stirring often until the bacon is cooked. Transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Remove and discard all but 2 generous tablespoonfuls of the drippings in the pot.
- Add onion (1 cup) and garlic (2 cloves) and saute over medium heat until it begins to soften about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour (2 tablespoons) over vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
- Remove pot from the heat and slowly whisk in chicken broth (6 cups) until smooth. Return to heat and stir in Better Than Bouillon (1 heaping tablespoon), Italian seasoning (2 teaspoons), thyme (1 teaspoon), salt (1 teaspoon), pepper (1/2 teaspoon), bay leaf (1), petite diced tomatoes (1 (14.5-ounce) can), tomato sauce (1 (8-ounce) can), potatoes (2), and frozen vegetables (1 (16-ounce) package).
- Bring to a boil then immediately reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes. Adjust seasoning. Add more chicken broth if the soup gets too thick. Stir in chicken (4 cups) and cooked bacon and heat through. Adjust to taste as needed Garnish with fresh herbs of choice (2 tablespoons) and serve.
Fans Also Made:
Notes
- Bacon: No need to feel limited to traditional bacon in this recipe! There are so many delicious varieties that can bring yummy bacon flavor to your soup. I particularly love smoked bacon to give a nice smoky twist to the soup!
- Potatoes: This healthy chicken vegetable soup recipe calls for russet potatoes. What’s the difference between russet potatoes and other kinds? Russet potatoes have some of the highest starch content, which means they break down very well when cooked in soups and help further thicken the broth.
- Chicken: I generally use a rotisserie chicken for time and convenience. Freshly cooked chicken breast or skinless chicken thighs work great, too, if you have a little extra time.
- Add More Veggies: There are so many extra veggies you can add to increase beneficial nutrition. You can add chopped carrots and or celery and saute with the onions, step #2 below. Sweet potatoes are also great. Add them at step #3 below.
- I love fresh green beans in this soup. Add them, stemmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices, at step #4 below. Peas, fresh or frozen work well added the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Add Pasta: Add 1 cup of any small shaped pasta when potatoes are about halfway cooked through. You'll likely need to add more chicken broth or water.
- Make It Cheesy: I like to sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top of individual servings.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/6 of the recipe | Calories: 315kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 1218mg | Potassium: 878mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 124IU | Vitamin C: 28mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 2mg
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Hi! I don’t see where it says to add the bacon back in? I am assuming you can add it back in when you add the chicken? This looks delicious. I’m making it tonight. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jennifer. I add it in step 4 when I add the chicken. <3
This soup was absolutely delicious. We ate it for 2 nights with grilled cheese sandwiches. My family loved it. I had never used Better Than Bouillon before and I think it made a difference. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks!
I am making this now and I don’t see any reference for when you add the cooked bacon!! Do you only use the bacon grease??
HELP!!!
Hi, it’s stirred in together with the chicken in step 4.