Quick White Bean Leftover Chicken Soup is a hearty soup made by repurposing leftover chicken, and can be on the table in under 20-minutes.
Quick White Bean Chicken Soup with Leftover Chicken
Cold, Rainy, Winter Evenings SCREAM for hot & hearty soup and some homemade bread! Wouldn’t you agree?
Why do you suppose it is, that hot soup seems to comfort, when weather conditions are dreary or you feel dreary?
There are both chemical and practical reasons, which is why I always keep Bone Broth, homemade of course, portioned out in small containers, and in the freezer.
With bone broth tucked away in the freezer, a soup using leftovers in the fridge can come together in minutes.
Practical Quick Soups For Short Days
- It’s a fast easy way to make dinner during the short days of winter. Simply warm up the broth you have stored in your freezer and empty out the fridge into the pot and let it cook!
- Homemade Bone Broth has many health benefits hidden in that luscious gelatinous blob of juice that changes from a liquid to almost a solid when it chills or is frozen. That broth gelatin is loaded with collagen (skin, nails and hair magic). Calcium, glucosamine, potassium are all extracted from the bones of animals and fish, when broth is made at home.
- It’s warm on those cold and damp evenings, giving your body a warm blanket from within.
- Don’t feel left out my dear sweet vegans, homemade bean soup packs a powerful punch in the health department too. Loaded with fiber, antioxidant and protein, you can’t go wrong with a hearty, vegetable ladened soup!
White Bean Soup
This white bean chicken soup covers all the bases and benefits you are looking for, but by all means, leave out whatever you prefer not to eat and still enjoy the comfort of this delicious soup.
White beans have a delicate flavor with soft texture, and lend themselves to poultry or simply a heap of vegetables in a luscious soup broth.
Beans can be soaked overnight, simmered for about 45-minutes to make them soft enough to add to the soup recipe here, or simply open a few cans of store bought white beans and soup is ready in minutes.
White Bean Chicken Soup or Black Bean Soup
I suppose you could say that we now live in a world with too many choices, if that’s possible. Some like it hot while others prefer it cold; both climate and food.
And while life can’t always be black or white, soup can!
For any given winter day, or game-day gathering, make a pot of hot soup for a cold day. White bean chicken soup or black bean soup with spicy chilies?
I made both and I’m telling you, all the soup was eaten; some particularly wanted the spicy black soup while others only wanted the chicken white bean soup. Choices!
Of course I had to have bread too, so why not make the bread black and white too! LOL! The Black Olive Bread went fabulous with both of the soups.
Bread and Quick Soup
What is a bowl of hearty soup without a decadent loaf of crusty, loaf of (preferably homemade), bread!
Since the white bean chicken soup was quick to put together, it gave me extra time to make a homemade bread.
My recipe for Homemade Bread, just a plain yet hearty white bread, was the perfect bread to serve with the white bean chicken soup.
Want It Quick Or Freshly Leftover?
While in the throws of raising four children as a single mom, the evening meal was something we all looked forward to.
Sure, it was one more thing I had to fit into my already busy life, but I valued this time to sit with my four favorite people in the world, and feed them healthy home cooked food.
The trick to a quick meal? An hour of meal prep time fit into one day a week.
Boiling bones from leftover meals, made for quick stocks and broth for other meals, and while my cauldron boiled away, I would make a few batches of savory muffins to tuck in the fridge for the busy week.
Because of this experience, many years ago, I found I had collected enough muffin recipe ideas to have a different muffin each day of the week.
Now, yes I did… I published these fabulous recipes in My Muffin Madness, which for sure there are many great savory muffins to serve with your winter soups!
Leftovers In The Fridge For Quick Meals
Once I entered my adult life, I realized that I don’t like eating leftovers.
The same meal a second night, just never feels like a meal I want to look forward to.
However, those leftovers in my fridge have become my ‘day off’ cooking meals, simply by repurposing them into a quick and new soup!
It seems that I always cook too much of everything, and so I have begun portioning out leftovers in airtight containers, label and freeze.
Toss a mirepoix (onions, celery and carrots), into a pot, pour boiled water from the kettle and before you know it, those leftovers will become a delicious soup for tonight’s meal.
Ingredients Needed
- Broth – Homemade bone broth or store bought chicken broth
- White beans
- Leftover chicken or already cooked chicken
- Greens – Spinach, Brussels sprouts or kale
- Onions
- Garlic
- Fresh herbs – your choice
- Celery
- Olive oil
Equipment Needed
- Medium soup pot
- Cutting board
- Chopping knife
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Ladle
- Stovetop or burner
More Soups To Love
Maybe you think similarly as me but I love soups all winter and salads all summer.
For this reason, I have created quite a large collection of soup recipes for every type of food preference.
Here are just a few of many, so by all means snoop around in my soup category and see what you might love to add to your winter soups.
- Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Leftover Soup – makes for the best turkey soup with all the flavors and memories of Thanksgiving dinner.
- Immune Boost Vegetable Onion Soup – is slow simmered in natural medicinal properties from onion, turmeric, ginger, fresh herbs and mushrooms.
- Carrot Ginger Red Lentil Bisque Soup – Let’s boost your body’s immune with this Carrot Ginger Red Lentil Bisque Soup, loaded with antioxidant spices and autumn flavors.
- Greek Turkey or Chicken Avgolemono Soup – flavors of traditional Greek cooking, with the unique avgolemono (lemon and egg), added to the broth.
Quick White Bean Leftover Chicken Soup
Equipment
- medium stock pot
- Cutting board and knife
Ingredients
- 4 cups Broth homemade or store bought
- 2 cups Cooked White beans cannellini or navy
- 1 1/2 cups Cooked Chicken or turkey
- 1 cup Greens – kale spinach or Brussels sprouts rough chopped
- 1 Onion chopped
- 2 Garlic cloves crushed
- Fresh herbs – 1 sprig, rosemary, oregano, chives, thyme or any favorite
- 2 Large Celery stalks chopped
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
Instructions
- In a medium size stock pot, heat the olive oil, add onions, garlic, and celery. Sauté until they become transparent.
- Add the broth, beans, meat (if you are using meat), and bring to a simmer.
- Add the greens of your choice and fresh herbs. Simmer another 10 minutes on low, and your quick, easy and healthy soup is ready!
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.