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The Best Nourishing chicken soup

I’ve always had a soft spot for a good chicken soup. Not the rushed kind, but the kind that simmers away gently and fills the house with that quiet, reassuring smell that everything is going to be okay. This is one I come back to often. It starts with a whole chicken, slowly poached to create a beautiful, clear stock, and turns into something that feels generous and deeply nourishing. The spices are subtle but important, adding warmth without taking over, and the greens bring a freshness that lifts the whole pot. There was a time when this soup was on near constant rotation in our kitchen — made between school runs, late nights and the inevitable rounds of coughs and colds. These days, life looks a little different, but I still find myself reaching for it in much the same way. It’s the kind of soup that doesn’t ask much of you, but gives plenty back. A pot on the stove, a bowl when you need it, and often a little extra for the next day. And if you ask me, that’s exactly the kind of cooking worth holding onto. I strongly encourage you to poach a whole chicken on the weekend. You will then be enjoying dishes like this and many others during the week.
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Chicken soup
The Best Nourishing Chicken soup

Hello from my desk where I am supposed to be recipe creating and cooking class scheduling but instead….. I am eating. Slurping actually. It is all getting too hard so I am taking a breather to think, slurp my soup and write to you. Who says multi tasking is dead !

I think about soups a lot. A good bowl of soup nourishes me from the boots up and it just so happens that I am in boots today so there’s a stroke of luck! I have made this soup on reasonably fast rotation lately as my tribe have all fought their coughs and colds. I am an avid believer that a good chicken soup really does have the power to heal.

Over the past few weeks I have loved more (always a beautiful thing), rubbed backs more, stroked eyebrows when their cough has been keeping them awake at night as well as prodding bodies up on pillows and doing my damnedest to remember to stroke those said eyebrows and DO….. NOT….. FALL….. ASLEEP….. NELLIE!!! If anyone is ever so kind as to give me just a little pillow space …. it’s all over for me. Night-y night folks.

My tribe is thankfully back to fabulous good health. I celebrate this sincerely. Today I slurp on the best nourishing chicken soup though & I cannot help but feel just a little bit  jaded. I love so many things about being a Mum. It has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me BUT….. it does kind-a suck (kind-a big time) when the inevitable germs finally catch up with you after all that back rubbing and pillow propping and soup making and you find yourself not only with no luxury of ‘a sick day’ but salt is rubbed further into the wound (not as nice as Vicks  vapor rub rubbed on the feet, let me tell you) as you make your very own pot of ‘get well’ chicken soup ! Told you it kind-a sucked right!

So for all other parents out there whose children are back at school with a pep in their step thanks to your good love and good soup and yet fate seems to have it that you are now yourself feeling a little heady and snotty…..well…..here is my recipe for the best nourishing chicken soup recipe …..just for you (and also for me) as I can sadly almost guarantee it that the kids aint going to cook it for us my friends! They have too many other things to catch up on now their energy is back.

The sun has been out of late. It was glorious here so I am thinking the cold will be very short-lived, especially loaded up with this here soup. It may however just take a little bit more blogging and ……for my family to actually read it to understand that every now and then a Mum needs a little soup, a little eyebrow stroking and a little propping up. Here’s to stroked eyebrows my friends.

Big love , Nellie  x


The Best Nourishing chicken and vegetable soup

The best Nourishing chicken soup

The Best Nourishing chicken soup

I’ve always had a soft spot for a good chicken soup. Not the rushed kind, but the kind that simmers away gently and fills the house with that quiet, reassuring smell that everything is going to be okay. This is one I come back to often. It starts with a whole chicken, slowly poached to create a beautiful, clear stock, and turns into something that feels generous and deeply nourishing. The spices are subtle but important, adding warmth without taking over, and the greens bring a freshness that lifts the whole pot. There was a time when this soup was on near constant rotation in our kitchen — made between school runs, late nights and the inevitable rounds of coughs and colds. These days, life looks a little different, but I still find myself reaching for it in much the same way. It’s the kind of soup that doesn’t ask much of you, but gives plenty back. A pot on the stove, a bowl when you need it, and often a little extra for the next day. And if you ask me, that’s exactly the kind of cooking worth holding onto. I strongly encourage you to poach a whole chicken on the weekend. You will then be enjoying dishes like this and many others during the week.
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Course: chicken, Dinner, Lunch, Soup
Cuisine: Australian fusion, Autralian, modern australian
Diet: Gluten Free
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 583kcal
Author: Nellie Kerrison | Relish Mama
Cost: 30

Equipment

  • Large heavy-based stock pot or Dutch oven
  • Fine sieve or strainer
  • Chopping board
  • Sharp knife
  • Wooden spoon
  • Ladle

Ingredients

For the poached chicken and stock

  • 1 whole chicken free-range
  • 3 carrots peeled and diced
  • 3 sticks of celery diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • 1 garlic clove peeled and halved
  • 1 fresh bay leaf
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 2.5 litres water

For the soup

  • 40 ml olive oil
  • 20 g unsalted butter
  • 1 brown onion diced
  • 2 carrots peeled and diced
  • 3 celery stalks finely sliced on an angle
  • 3 cloves garlic crushed or diced
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon ground fennel
  • 2 litres chicken stock from the stock you have just made
  • 2 cups poached chicken roughly pulled and shredded
  • ½ bunch silverbeet (or Tuscan Kale) washed, spines removed and roughly chopped
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 lemon juiced

To serve

  • Fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped
  • Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

  • Place the whole chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
  • Carefully remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to rest. Strain the poaching liquid through a sieve and discard the vegetables and aromatics. Set the stock aside.
  • Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat into generous pieces and set aside.
  • Place a large pot on the stove over a low–medium heat and add the olive oil and butter. Cook the onion, carrot and celery for 6–8 minutes, until softened and fragrant.
  • Add the garlic and fresh thyme and stir for a minute or two, being mindful not to let the garlic burn.
  • Add the cumin, ginger and fennel and cook for a further 1–2 minutes to release their aroma.
  • Pour in the chicken stock and increase the heat to medium–high. Bring to the boil and allow it to cook for 10 minutes to deepen the flavour.
  • Add the shredded chicken and silverbeet or kale and simmer for 5 minutes. Season well with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
  • Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Remove the thyme sprigs.
  • Serve with parsley leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Notes

Tips and variations
Adding 100 g of cooked pearl barley to the soup when you add the chicken turns this into a beautiful, nourishing meal in a bowl.

Nutrition

Calories: 583kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 45g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 145mg | Sodium: 684mg | Potassium: 1128mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 11053IU | Vitamin C: 36mg | Calcium: 126mg | Iron: 3mg

I’m Nellie, cooking teacher, recipe developer and founder of Relish Mama.

Since 2009, I’ve been bringing people together around real food, recipes made to cook, share, and enjoy.

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