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Sharing a cozy, warming recipe today, Slow Cooker Hearty Chicken Soup.
Say hello to the warmest, coziest most perfect home cooked bowl of chicken soup. It’s full of colorful veggies, good for us protein, and is sure to take care of just about any cold that winter throws your way.
You’ll LOVE it.
If you couldn’t tell, I am so exited about today’s recipe, and not just because it’s delicious, but also because it comes from a really cool cookbook, the Share Cookbook. If you guys remember, I’ve been teaming up with my friends over at The Little Market a lot this year (did you see my Valentine’s Day post?). The Little Market is one of my favorite nonprofit brands that’s helping to empower women. They carry home goods from female artisans around the world. They recently added a few new cookbooks to their list of gorgeous products and I cannot wait to tell you guys about them and help to spread the word.
The coolest talking point about these cookbooks is the fact that each cookbook helps to support a different cause. The Share Cookbook supports Women for Women International, The Immigrant Cookbook supports the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, and the Soup for Syria Cookbook helps fund food relief efforts through the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR. Pretty amazing, right?
Aside from the incredible causes these cookbooks help to support, they are also incredible in the fact that each book is filled to the brim with delicious recipes. It’s safe to say that I had a very hard time picking just one recipe to share with you guys. I went back and forth for days about what to make because so many of the recipes sounded so delicious, but in the end, the cold snowy weather got the best of me, and I went with a cozy bowl of chicken soup from the Share Cookbook. All I have to say is that is was a really good decision.
This soup is beyond good.
What caught my eye about this particular soup recipe was its use of vegetables and herbs. Unlike a lot of chicken soup recipes, this one is packed full of veggies, like onions, carrots, and parsnips, and it uses a wide mix of herbs that make the soup extra flavorful.
The original recipe is made for the stovetop, but I ended up adapting it for the slow cooker to make things a little simpler. Plus, I just love the idea of chicken soup slow cooking all day long. I mean, the smell alone is worth making this. Like most slow cooker recipes, you add all the ingredients to your slow cooker, forget about it, and come home to the best home cooked soup. Add farro and you’re done.
So easy, super healthy, and even more delicious.
The only way to make this soup better is with a side of crusty bread, which I highly recommend doing.
I ended up letting this slow cook all day on Sunday while filming new HBH cooking videos with my brother Malachi, who films and edits all of HBH’s videos that you see on the site. Kai has a bad cold and said the only thing that sounded good was chicken soup. So, I threw this into the slow cooker and by the time we finished filming for the day, the soup was ready. I served up a couple bowls and we both agreed that it’s truly the perfect chicken soup, we especially loved the fresh topping of cilantro at the end.
I had leftovers, so I packed them up and saved them for lunch the next day and I swear the soup got better as it sat. One tip if you do end up having leftovers, or plan to make this for meal prep, I recommend either removing the farro (you could also use pasta) from the soup before storing or just cooking the noodles separately and adding them to your bowl before serving. The hot broth will be enough to rewarm the farro. If you leave the farro in the soup, the farro will soak up a good amount of the broth.
Also? It’s not in these pictures, but I ended up topping my bowls of soup with stove popped popcorn. I know it sounds odd, but this is something my mom has always done with soup and it’s honestly the best soup topper ever.
You have to try it.
Slow Cooker Hearty Chicken Soup
Servings: 8 servings
Calories Per Serving: 382 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 6 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 2 parsnips, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 2 leeks, chopped
- 8 peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2-3 pounds bone-in chicken breasts or thighs
- kosher salt and black pepper
- juice + zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 cup dry farro
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro and or mixed herbs
Instructions
- 1. In the bowl of your crockpot, combine the chicken stock, butter, olive oil, onions, carrots, parsnips, celery, leeks, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 4-5 hours. 2. About 45 minutes before serving, remove the chicken from the soup. Remove the herbs and discard. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, plus the farro. Shred the chicken and stir it back into the soup and cook until the farro is tender.3. Divide the soup among bowls and top with herbs. Serve with a hunk of bread.
Notes
Stove-Top
Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the carrots, parsnips, celery, leeks, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, chicken stock, and chicken. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 hours. Shred the chicken. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, add the Farro and cook 25-30 minutes. Serve as directed.
Instant Pot
Follow the slow cooker directions. Cover and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes and then use the quick release to release the steam. Shred the chicken, add the lemon and farro and cook on sauté until the farro are soft, about 15 minutes. Serve as directed.
*Adapted from Share Cookbook.
Soup and a cozy Tuesday night. Yes.
Hi! So I was very excited about the soup but what ended up happening was her veggies/farro absorbed all the broth ! No liquid left 🙁 any ideas as to how ? I did instant pot and added the farro all the way at the end for 10min under sauté.
Thanks!
Hey Val, that is really odd. Did you use the correct amount of broth? Was there anything different about the way you made this recipe? Next time, just use 1-2 more cups broth if the same thing happens and make sure to season well with salt and pepper so that the soup does not loose flavor. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope this helps!! Thank you! xTieghan ??
I made this in the instant pot. I substituted the farro for pot barley. My husband could not get enough of it. Thanks for the recipe and the beautiful photography.
Thank you Lorrie! xTieghan
Made this last night. Really enjoyed it, good combo of flavors.always enjoy farro.
Thank you so much Joyce! xTieghan
Does it freeze well?
Wow! So so good!! I made it the stovetop method. I used boneless, skinless chicken. I added two cloves of minced garlic and did not add the farro because by the time I remembered to add it, it was getting late and I didn’t want to wait any longer to serve dinner. My husband loved it. I had leftovers for lunch. Drool worthy! Will definitely be making this one again!!
So happy to hear that Sarah! Thank you for trying this! xTieghan
Chicken recipe
Do I put the chicken in uncooked?
HI! Yes, the chicken should be added raw. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
My soup was really watery and ended up having no flavour ??? what did I do wrong?
I ended up adding pasta
Hi Ashleigh, was there anything you changed or did differently when making the recipe? Any details you can provide me will be helpful in problem solving. It is hard to know what is happening without being in your kitchen with you while cooking.Thank you! xTieghan
what can i substitute the farro for, i want a low carb soup so a healthier option would be great
Hi there! I recommend quinoa or brown rice. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
So easy and delicious! I added pasta instead of Farro (because I couldn’t find it in stores here (Australia)), and I halved the recipe and still got 3 servings. Maybe because of the pasta, it wasn’t as soupy as I was expecting, but it’s still really good. 10/10 will make again.
Thank you Shazzie! xTieghan
Like you said, this soup was better on day two, or three. I made it on Sunday, and ate some again today (TuesdayY. Delicious! Thicker and richer broth. So yummy. Thank you! I love your recipes.
Thank you so much Cynthia! xTieghan
I am not a herby person and I also didn’t have he herbs mentioned, so instead I went for more of an Indian flavour with some cumin and curry. Soooo good.
I love that! I am so happy this turned out amazing! xTieghan
Plan to make this this weekend for a sick friend. I’d like to sub in egg noodles. Do you think that would be okay and about how many noodles would you use? 16 oz?
Thanks so much
Hi there! Egg noodles will be great and yes, 16 ounces! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTiegha
This soup looks delicious!!! How can I make it gluten-free?
Thanks
Francesca
Just made this for my sick boyfriend, we both loved it! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you so much Lauren!