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When the weather turns chilly, this is the pot you want simmering away. A classic, brothy chicken soup with tender vegetables, soft herbs, and a finish that tastes like it cooked all day—because it did.
Everything happens in the slow cooker, so prep is quick and hands-off. Ladle it up with noodles or rice, add lemon and herbs, and dinner’s ready.
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.
This post was originally published on March 6, 2018
It’s still winter here, so this would hit the spot!
Yes!! Thanks Natasha!
I love all the veggies and the farro in this Tieghan. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and the cookbook here at HBH. I’ll need to check it out. Love the idea of the popcorn as a topping for the soup too!
Thank you so much Mary Ann! I am so glad you’re liking this!
Hey Tieghan,
I love this soup and the pictures (I like the white background and clean look). Also, I really love the cookbook and it’s cause. That seems like a lovely Easter or early Mother’s Day gift. Maybe I can make this soup for my mom when I visit next week. 🙂 I’m sorry Kai has a cold. Hopefully the soup helped!
Sleep well and stay warm.
Thank you so much Kristin!
Okay, so I had a bad experience with parsnips, totally weird I know, and I haven’t really gone back to them, but this chicken soup looks too good to pass up, especially with it being hearty!
I hope you love this Aimee! Thank you!
Bummer! Made this tonight as written (accidentally forgot the butter though) and it was not good, which is sooooo odd because every single one of your recipes I’ve made have been nothing short of spectacular. Not sure what went wrong here? It was watery, not broth-y like your photos and hardly had much flavor at all. The ingredients filled my standard crockpot to the brim, which was fine, but there were so many veggies that the ratio seemed a little off. BUT, I guess I can’t successfully replicate each recipe 100% of the time, right? Your recipes are LOVED in our household, so no love lost here. Thanks for always creating spectacular dishes even if this one didn’t hit the spot for me. 🙂
Hey Sherry, I am so sorry this was not for you. Honestly, I really can’t think what might of went wrong. At what time did you add the farro. Hoping I can help, but it might just be this recipe is not for you. Again, so sorry! Please let me know if you have other questions. Thank you for all the kind words! 🙂
I love your recipes. I’ve made several of them. And I was absolutely thrilled to watch Red win the Gold Medal! I was extra happy for many days after that.
I do want to tell you that for some reason, for the last two weeks, your website will freeze and then go blank and then reload. A message appears that says “This webpage was reloaded because a problem occurred.” I use an iPad, the Safari browser, or an RSS reader for your website. The error has occurred on both. Yours is the only website doing this. So I’m passing this along to you in the hope that you can pass it along to your IT people. Thanks so much for all your inspiration!
Hi Jennifer! I am so glad you are enjoying my recipes and were able to watch Red! Thank you so much for letting me know, I will try to resolve this problem!
Great recipe. Farro is difficult to find in my part of the world, could I use quinoa instead?
Yes, quinoa will be great. You should only need to cook the quinoa 20-30 minutes. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
This looks delicious! Is the butter absolutely necessary? I’m lactose intolerant. Could I use Ghee or just more olive oil?
You can just omit the butter. no big deal. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
Do you use bone IN chicken? or boneless?
I used bone-in. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
perfect recipe for today. expecting 12 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow so a warm bowl of chicken soup will be very welcome. thanks for sharing
Thank you Barbara!
This soup looks so wonderful. Perfect for a cool day.
Thank you Joyce!
This looks amazing, T! I really love having cozy soups like this during the late weeks of Winter when Spring is taking forevvvvvvvvvver to come. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Tori!
This looks amazing!! And I love all of the different
Veggies! Prepping this today for tomorrow’s Crock Pot dinner!! I’m giving this 5 stars upfront because there’s no way this could be less than awesome!
Thank you so much Lisa! I am so happy you enjoyed this!
It looks amazing! One question , do I use boneless,skinless chicken?
I used bone-in, but skinless, but honestly anything will work. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
Did everyone make it back ok, from the games? That is going to come in handy for the second storm the east coast is about to endure
Hi Titi! Yes, everyone came back safe! Thank you!