This homemade chicken soup from scratch is a must to make during cold and flu season. My Grandma’s incredible chicken soup from scratch is the ultimate comfort food, and it is absolutely delicious. All you need is one pot and some simple ingredients to make this incredible chicken soup recipe. See why 100s of people think this soup is the best cold and flu buster!
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Do you love homemade chicken soup? You won’t believe how easy my chicken soup is to make from scratch! I remember my grandmother making this chicken soup from scratch every time we went to visit. The memories come back every time I make it. She would dump the ingredients into a big soup pot, and magic happened as it cooked.
This chicken soup recipe takes time to make, but I promise it is worth it! It has hundreds of great reviews on the blog and on social media. People worldwide send me messages, and it makes me so happy that my Grandmother’s soup can brighten so many days.
You can also make the Instant Pot Version of this Homemade Chicken Soup! Delicious flavor in a fraction of the time!! If you love chicken soup as much as we do, you will want to check out all of my delicious homemade Gluten Free Soup Recipes!
Allergen Information:
This delicious soup is gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free. It is also Whole 30, Paleo, and Keto. It is perfect for anyone who has food allergies.
My Grandma’s Homemade Chicken Soup is Comfort Food!
This soup is as close to comfort food as it gets. I remember my grandmother making it every time we visited, and the memories come back every time I make it. This easy chicken soup recipe is made from scratch with simple ingredients. It takes time because the flavors slowly simmer, but I promise it is worth it!
Making a bowl of good chicken soup from scratch is so easy. You don’t need many ingredients. Add chicken, broth, carrots, onion, garlic, and celery to a pot. You can add noodles to make chicken noodle soup or add rice. We usually make chicken and rice soup because gluten free noodles tend to get pretty mushy. You can use brown or white rice in this soup recipe.
Pair this soup with these delicious gluten free bread for easy dipping: Gluten Free Light and Fluffy Cheddar Muffins or this Gluten Free Focaccia Bread.
You can use a whole chicken for my grandma’s old-fashioned chicken soup or chicken bone-in chicken parts to make this recipe. My neighbor loves using bone-in chicken thighs. You need to make sure your chicken pieces are with the bone, as the bone minerals are what make this soup so good!!
I prefer to use an organic whole chicken. Include the neck and organs…it all goes into the pot. You will want to cook this down for a couple of hours to infuse the chicken flavor into the broth.
If you love this soup, you will also want to try my Gluten-Free Matzo Ball recipe. This soup is great with matzo balls! Fresh chicken soup is always better than canned!
The Vegetables:
Classic chicken soup has onion, carrot, and celery. I have added turnip and rutabaga to my chicken soup recipe over the years, but I wanted to keep it close to my grandma’s recipe for this post.
(If you decide to add other vegetables, you would want one small turnip and one small rutabaga chopped up.) You can also try this easy Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Chicken for a soup with many extra vegetables.
Chicken Soup Seasoning:
This soup is full of flavor from these spices and herbs:
- thyme
- basil
- parsley
- garlic
- salt and pepper
I used dried thyme and dried basil. I also used fresh garlic cloves because dried garlic powder doesn’t add the same flavors to the soup broth. Fresh parsley is also better than dried.
How To Make Chicken Soup From Scratch:
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I love making my chicken soup with a whole chicken. The raw chicken cooks in the soup, adding incredible flavor! If you do not have a whole chicken on hand, you can easily use other chicken parts…it is best to use chicken with the bones as the bones add a lot of nutrients to the soup while cooking.
Step 1: Add your raw whole chicken to a large stockpot. Add in low-sodium chicken broth, seasonings, vegetables, and water.
Step 2: Cover the pot and bring the chicken soup to a boil. It should take about 10-15 minutes to boil, depending on the depth of the soup pot.
Step 3: Once the soup is boiling, let it boil for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to low and allow the soup to simmer for two hours.
Step 4: After the chicken simmers in the soup for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, remove it to a separate pan so the bones don’t fall apart in the soup.
Step 4: Serve the soup hot with rice or noodles. I recommend cooking them separately and then adding them to the bowl.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Most chicken broth is gluten–free, but I highly encourage you to read the labels. Look for any artificial ingredients, and also make sure the broth wasn’t made on shared equipment!
Some brands of gluten free pasta definitely hold up better than others. I like Jovial and Barilla pasta brands for chicken soup. As I mentioned above, you do not want to cook these in your soup…but these noodles will hold up to sitting in a bowl of soup for a little while.
You do not have to use a whole chicken to make this soup recipe. You can also use bone-in chicken parts. My neighbor loves using bone-in chicken thighs. You need to make sure your chicken pieces are with the bone, as the bone minerals are what make this soup so good!!
Add more salt and seasonings to your soup if you want the flavors to be stronger.
How to store leftovers:
This soup will keep fresh in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container. You will notice the chicken fat congeals on top of the soup. You can use a spoon to scrape the fat off if you like. You can reheat it on the stove or in your microwave oven.
You can also freeze the soup. I highly recommend freezing it in Souper Cubes. These are one-cup-sized cubes that are perfect for a single serving! Freeze in the Souper Cubes, then move the frozen cubes to a freezer-safe zip-style bag. The frozen soup will keep fresh for up to 5 months.
More Homemade Soup Recipes to Try:
- This recipe is made without a roux and tastes amazing! Gluten Free Oyster Chowder (works well with clams for clam chowder too!)
- Another great winter soup: Turmeric Chicken Soup
- For my spice lovers, this Taco Chicken Soup is hard to resist.
- If you love wild rice, this Chicken Rice Soup is also delish!
If you love chicken as much as we do, you will want to check out ALL of my delicious, easy Gluten Free Chicken Recipes!!
Love This Recipe?
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, I would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment below. This will help others know this recipe is delicious. Thank you!
Grandma’s Homemade Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken raw
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 large onion chopped
- 5 carrots chopped
- 3 celery stalks chopped
- 2 teaspoons basil
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 quart chicken broth low sodium
- 4 cups water
- parsley is optional
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Instructions
- Add a whole raw chicken to a large stock pot.
- Add all ingredients, cover and simmer on medium low until it boils.
- Once the soup is boiling, turn down the temperature to low and simmer for 2 hours.
- Remove the chicken to a pan. Do this carefully so the chicken doesn’t fall apart. Cut the chicken meat into pieces and add back to the soup. Garnish with fresh parsley if you like.
- Serve hot. (My grandmother served it over rice, this is totally optional.)
Notes
- This recipe uses a whole raw chicken. The chicken cooks directly in the soup making the broth full of rich chicken flavors!
- If you do not have a whole chicken, you can use chicken parts. The soup will taste the best if you use bone-in chicken parts. The bone broth is what adds to the flavor.
- You can use fresh herbs or dried.
- I like to add a small rutabaga sometimes for a flavor boost. It is totally optional but if you try this, peel the rutabaga first.
- This chicken soup is even better the next day.
- This soup will keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn’t test, my rule of thumb is to add more flour if your dough or batter is wet and add more liquid if the dough or batter is too dry!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
Planning on making this today. Sick momma here with two sick kiddos (flu! ?), hoping this recipe gets us on the mend fast!
Awww, I hope the soup was a success and that you all feel better soon. I feel like this year has been rough with germs and illness :-(.
Currently in the simmer stage with this and by smell alone we are all drooling just waiting for it to finish up! I came looking for a recipe because our son is running a 102 degree fever, when your first few lines talked about Jewish Penicillin and it being a grandma’s recipe I knew I found what we needed! Thank you for sharing!
I hope it helps your son feel better soon Angie ๐
THIS MAKES A WONDERFUL SOUP EVERYTIME.
Thank you.
Hi Terry, I am so glad you like my Grandmother’s soup!! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
Awesome chicken soup. Made it especially for my mom in law that has pancreatic csncer. She said it’s the best chicken soup she has had in a very long time. Thank you:)
I am so glad you loved my Grandma’s soup recipe Justine ๐
We raise our own chickens but skin them, can’t wait to try this recipe. What about canning it? Thinking it would make great Christmas presents.
It sounds like a delicious idea but I would think you have to do something so it won’t spoil. I know nothing about canning.
i checked out the Ball website and it sayd 10 pounds of pressure for 1hour 30 minutes for 1quart jars, definately going to give it a try.
I freeze this soup in wide mouth mason jars, let it cool then just leave a few inches of space a the top for any expansion.
I didn’t realize you can freeze mason jars like this. Thank you so much for sharing your tip Robbin ๐
I have not made your soup yet but I was wondering if I can use just pieces of chicken instead of a whole chicken..
Hi Donna, you can use pieces of chicken but I highly recommend making sure the pieces are bone-in. There are a lot of nutrients in the bones that cook into this soup, giving it that awesome cold and flu busting benefit.
Curious, will the veggies be really mushy? I mean cooking for 2 hours seems a little much. Thank you!
Hi Jodie, the long cook time didn’t make our veggies mushy. You can cook less, we do cook on a simmer for much of this for flavor, but it isn’t necessary. You can also add the veggies in a little later.
Beat soup ever! I do the chicken boil then strain it and refrigerate the broth over night. The fat rises to the top and can be skimmed off. Then add all the good stuff~ AMAZING!!!
I am so glad you liked it!! You made my day!
Hi! How would this be cooked in a crockpot? It would be much easier for me.
Hi Andrea, this should work well in a crock pot :-). Please come back and let us know how long you cooked it for.
Hey Miss Sandi – during the simmer process do I scoop off any foam or excess fat?? I canโt wait to try this. Thanks for your help. Thanks to Grandma too!
Hi Keith, that is up to you. We tend to scrape the fat off after the first refrigeration when it has solidified at the top. During the simmer stage the flavors are still infusing with the soup. Enjoy ๐
Once it’s done, turn off burner. Let it set a minute, then use the back of a ladel that was sitting in ice to wipe off the oil. The oil will stick to the frozen metal.
That is a great idea!!
Great and itโs only a total of 8 cups liquid mine doesnโt cover the ingredients all the way ?
Hi Mikaela, how large of a pot are you using? You can definitely add more water, you want the chicken to be just barely submerged.
When would I add the rice and how much ?
You would want to cook the rice separately and add it to your bowl and pour the soup over it. My grandmother never cooked the soup with the rice because it would make the broth starchy.
Apart from the very first bowl of soup that I tasted, I froze the first batch of soup that I made and it is so delicious that I find I cannot wait until I am sick before I devour some more! I expect it will keep the germs away anyway LOL! Well that’s my story anyway…. I have another batch cooking on the stove so I really don’t plan on running out anytime soon. I made this soup on both occasions exactly as written and it is superb. The flavour and the aroma of the soup whilst cooking is amazing and I am very happy to have found this recipe. Thank you very much for sharing your Grandma\s recipe. I did leave a comment for the first soup I made but think it may have gone astray.
You made my day. Thank you so much for coming back to tell me how much you liked my Grandma’s soup.
Second time I am making this soup – BEST recipe ever – full of flavor Thank You !!
Yay!! I am so glad you liked my grandmother’s soup, Kathy. I appreciate your coming back to let me know. If you didn’t leave a star rating in the recipe card by clicking the stars, I would be so grateful if you would so people know how yummy this recipe is.
Thank you for this recipe. We are making it right now and it smells wonderful.
I am so glad you are trying this. Let me know how it turns out.
Chicken simmering , as I write this little note of Thanks for the recipe ..The flavors are filling the kitchen with a wonderful aroma …..I know this will help me on the way to a a cure for the cold /flu that I am experiencing right now…
Thanks so much for a delicious recipe…Yum!!
I am so glad Marie…I hope you feel better soon :-).
Yessssss!! This soup is just what the doctor calls for when sick! I made this yesterday for me and the little woman. I am sick as a dog, so I looked up soups on Pinterest. I came up with this gem! Easy to make, very flavorful and inexpensive. I am adding this to my favorites, for sure!
I am so glad you liked my Grandma’s recipe Al! Thank you so much for coming to let us know :-).
I was all set to come on here and tell you that a soup is NOT homemade if you buy the broth, then saw that yours calls for the whole chidken–this truly is Gramma’s recipe, except that she used the feet whenever possible.
I haven’t seen chicken here with feet, but I bet my grandmother did. Thank you so much for stopping by Janelynn ๐
Whole chicken wasnt’t on sale, so i used chicken leg quarters. So glad i found this recipe when i search chicken soup from scratch. Best soup ever, i hope my dad doesnt read this. P.s. my son is sick but i used alphabet letters so my daughter would eat it. Way to go a masterpiece for sure.
I am so glad you found chicken that worked. As long as your chicken legs had bones, you will get the benefits of the bone broth in this recipe. I hope everyone feels better soon!!
If I want to refrigerate this and eat it throughout the week, should I skim some of the fat off the top? Or would that take away the delicious flavor? Thank you for sharing!
Hi Stephanie, I usually scrape some of the fat off the top, but that is totally optional ๐