Easy Chicken Soup with Vegetables

This Easy Chicken Soup with Vegetables recipe produces a hearty and flavorful dish that comes together in just over an hour. Perfect for weeknight dinners or meal prepping this fall! Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are seasoned with a Santa Maria blend and then paired with a medley of vegetables, including carrots, celery, and potatoes, which can be prepped quickly while the chicken cooks. The soup is simmered in a rich chicken broth, fortified with light beer or white wine for extra depth of flavor. Garnished with fresh parsley and crispy chicken skin, this hearty soup makes a satisfying meal that serves 6-8 people.

What Ingredients Are Used in Easy Chicken Soup with Vegetables?

• Chicken Thighs: Chicken thighs are higher in fat than chicken breasts, which means they have more flavor! They also take slightly longer to cook and can withstand cooking much longer than chicken breasts, which means they won’t dry out or overcook while the rest of the soup comes together.
  • NOTE: We used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs to utilize the bones later for stock and to crisp up the skin to use as a salty topping for our soup. However, boneless-skinless chicken thighs would work just as well in this recipe.
• Santa Maria-Style Seasoning Blend: We love Santa Maria dry rub on almost any meat. It’s the perfect mix of seasonings with a slightly spicy kick. We suggest mixing up a larger batch so you can always have some on hand! This California-born dry rub is a seasoning blend that combines kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, granulated garlic, dried onion, and cayenne pepper. For an exact recipe, click here.
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Used to cook chicken and impart some flavor. Since olive oil has a lower smoke point, it must be heated slowly to avoid scorching or burning the chicken.
• Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Red Pepper Flakes: For seasoning chicken, vegetables and soup as it cooks.
• Onions: We chopped a yellow onion into a medium dice for our soup. A white onion could also be used. You could also use less onion and add some garlic for even more dynamic allium flavor.
• Baby Carrots: Carrots add heartiness, subtle, sweet flavor, and rich color to the soup broth. Baby carrots are a great convenience and time saver in this recipe. They are small enough that they don’t need to be chopped and large enough that they won’t overcook. Regular carrots work, too! (I would avoid purple carrots. Carrots impart flavor, and a lot of golden color to the broth, and purple carrots will do the same! Rather than a lovely purple hue, they will give the broth an unsightly gray and murky look.)
• Celery: Adds crunch and lots of flavor to the broth. Try cutting the celery to a similar size as the baby carrots so it cooks at about the same time.
• Russet Potatoes: I peeled the potatoes and then diced them small; that way, they cooked at the same time as the larger pieces of celery and carrots. I chose Russet potatoes, which have a starchy texture that will slightly break down while cooking and help thicken the soup.
  • You can use other types of potatoes, but they will add different qualities to the soup. Waxy potatoes like red potatoes or Yukon gold will have a creamy finish when cooked rather than starchy and retain their shape without breaking down in the soup.
• Light Beer: Beer or white wine is another way to add a greater depth of flavor to your soup in a shorter amount of time. Alcohol also boils quickly and will help remove all the leftover fat from the bottom of the pot left behind by the chicken and vegetables with less work! However, if you abstain, broth or water will achieve the same results.
  • NOTE: To avoid a bitter or acidic flavor in the final soup, boil out all the alcohol from the beer or wine before adding additional liquids. You can ensure this has happened by carefully leaning over the pot and smelling the steam coming off the soup. It should smell yeasty like beer but will eventually lose the acrid, boozy smell of alcohol.
• Chicken Broth: Rather than creating a broth and then making the soup, we cook the chicken in the pan to leave behind some flavor and fat, but also fortify the soup base with chicken broth to achieve more flavorful results in half the time.

What to serve with Easy Chicken Soup with Vegetables?

This soup is essentially a one-pot meal. It’s full of protein from the chicken, a medley of vegetables, and rich, savory broth that will leave you feeling full. Since we skipped the pasta, opting to use potatoes as the starch, this soup would be great with a side of crusty bread or buttery biscuits.