Hearty Italian Chicken Soup, from homemade chicken stock, large chunks of chicken and favored Italian flavors, simmered into a hearty soup with pasta.
Hearty Italian Soup
What does Pasta Fagioli, Italian Wedding Soup and Minestrone Soup all have in common?
The marriage of bright, fresh herbal flavors often found in Italian cooking, and tomatoes, of course!
Who doesn’t love a good ole Chicken Soup!
Soup is always a good idea for a one-pot meal. Everything needed for a complete meal is tossed into a soup.
For this Italian Chicken Soup recipe, I have served it with grated cheese and a loaf of Homemade Bread.
Italian Food Never Leaves You Hungry!
What a perfect hearty soup, simply because it is loaded with flavor and won’t leave you hungry! Nearly every Italian chicken soup recipe I’ve ever seen has some sort of pasta in it.
You can choose the pasta cut you prefer, have on hand, or perhaps make your own egg pasta or Garganelli pasta; made fast with a pasta roller.
Italian Chicken Soup
There must be enough recipes for chicken soup from around the globe to fill a huge cookbook.
Every cuisine has its own rendition of a hearty chicken soup.
The best chicken soup, however, starts with a chicken broth that has been layered in flavors.
Prepping Chicken For Chicken Soup
For this, we will rely on herbs and spices, heavily doused with onions and garlic and left to simmer with a big fat chicken inside, for hours.
Chicken 3 Ways is an easy approach to obtaining a fabulous chicken soup broth. The chicken is simmered in lots of flavors and there is plenty broth and chicken for other recipes as well, some of which I would highly recommend:
- Moroccan Chicken Rolls – a quick tapas recipe taken from an old traditional Moroccan celebration entree known as Bastilla
- Greek Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps – a hearty chicken in Greek salad recipe, wrapped in lettuce leaves
A Quick Hearty Italian Soup
The quickest homemade soup comes together when each of the components have been precooked.
Using leftovers is a great way to make a quick soup, but make sure to allow time to make a really good, slow simmered homemade chicken broth.
When a whole chicken has been simmered with lots of herbs and spices, cooled and frozen into portioned containers, a richly flavored broth is always waiting for you in the freezer for a quick, yet delicious soup!
Once the broth is on hand, the pasta is cooked and ready to add to the soup, you will need only a quick chop of veggies.
For my favorite veggies in an Italian soup, I love the freshness of tomatoes and peppers (Calabrian Chilies by all means), and a substantial crunch from green beans.
Once the pasta is gently stirred into the soup, a shave of some Pecorino, and you’ve got the perfect hearty Italian chicken soup!
Ingredients Needed
- Cooked chicken
- Cooked pasta
- Green beans
- Mini Tomatoes
- Garlic
- Fresh basil
- Fresh parsley
- Salt/pepper
- Grated cheese
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Chicken broth
Equipment Needed
- Stock pot – my kitchen would never be without this heavy cast iron pot for so many of my soups, stews and homemade broth recipes.
- Cutting board
- Chopping knife
- Ladle
- Citrus press
- Stovetop or burner
Hearty Italian Chicken Soup
Equipment
- Large Dutch Oven or Soup pot with lid
- Small saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Cooked Chicken homemade
- 2 cups Cooked Pasta, bitesize homemade or store bought
- 2 cups Green beans chopped
- 1 1/2 cups Heirloom mini tomatoes or cherry tomatoes cubed
- 2 Garlic cloves crushed
- 2 tbsp Fresh Basil chopped
- 2 tbsp Fresh Parsley chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup Grated cheese
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbap Lemon juice
- 6-8 cups Chicken Broth homemade or store bought
Instructions
- If you are here because you've read my 1-Whole Chicken 3-Meals, then the chicken broth has already been prepared and loaded with flavor. If not, you can use a store bought chicken broth to make this soup fast and easy.
- The chicken has already been prepared and cut into bite-size pieces.
- The pasta has already been cooked. Let’s prep the veggies and assemble!
- In a saucepan or saute pan, add olive oil, lemon juice, green beans, and tomatoes. Sauté high and fast. As soon as the green beans begin to take on a brighter green, take it off the heat, toss and leave opened to cool. We want the veggies briefly cooked but to retain their color and crunch.
- In a large Dutch oven or soup pot with a lid, heat the broth. Add the cooked chicken and pasta. Add the remaining ingredients, saving the grated cheese for serving. Stir and serve with grated cheese.
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Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.