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Living Well Mom

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Nourishing Paleo Chicken Soup

By in Paleo

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Few things are as soothing and comforting as a bowl of homemade chicken soup. With garlic, ginger, and turmeric, this Nourishing Paleo Chicken Soup recipe can help you warm up and feel better when you are feeling under the weather!

This soup truly is amazing, in so many ways. First of all, your entire family will love this simple paleo soup. It’s kid-approved and even picky eaters love it!

My kids gobble up this nourishing meal and ask for more, every time—even though it’s filled with vegetables. 😉

bowl of hearty nourishing chicken soup in a white bowl on white napkin with garlic and carrots this idea now...

You don’t need to wait until you’re sick to make this one. There are just some days when I’m in the mood for chicken soup, and this is my go-to recipe every single time!

It’s fairly quick and easy too; you can have dinner ready within an hour (or even less if your chicken is already cooked).

Bowl of paleo chicken soup with garlic in the background

Hearty Paleo Soup

This paleo chicken soup recipe has a lot of yummy, good-for-you ingredients. But let’s take a minute to talk about what this soup doesn’t have.

My soup recipe is gluten-free, grain-free, and dairy-free! This means it can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

This paleo chicken soup also has an amazing combination of spices and vegetables. It’s a wonderful way to get nutrients into your family’s diet.

Bowl of whole30 chicken soup with celery and carrots

A Twist on a Classic Staple

I grew up with the canned chicken soup as our “sick food” and never really liked it. Those squishy noodles and tiny chunks of flavorless chicken are really kinda gross when you think about it. For years, I avoided chicken soup because of that.

Then my best friend introduced me to her family’s chicken soup recipe. She’s Filipino and includes some of her favorite spices and flavors in her soup, like soy sauce and extra extra garlic. She has no hesitation about putting two whole bulbs of garlic in her soup!

Paleo soup with 2 bulbs of garlic, chicken, carrots and celery

Now me? When I met Allie, I had never used real garlic, only garlic powder. Needless to say, Allie fixed that quickly and I now love garlic almost as much as her.

Anyways, when Allie made her chicken soup for me a couple of years ago, I was amazed at how incredibly delicious it was. She gave me the recipe and I’ve made it many times since.

But when I had to cut out grains and soy from our diet a few months ago, I knew I had to rework that chicken soup recipe to fit. I wanted something that would incorporate my friend’s flavorful recipe, but stay true to what we could eat.

White bowl filled with a soup that has chicken, broth, and veggies

After two+ months of testing, this is the result – a chicken soup that is so good and so nourishing, we call it Nourishing Chicken Soup.

And just to prove how good it is, all four of my kids gobble up this soup and ask for more, even after eating it once or twice a week for several weeks while I’ve been perfecting the recipe!

Ingredients in This Paleo Chicken Soup

Chicken soup with celery, carrots, and garlic in the background

This soup is delicious thanks to the addition of simmered vegetables and spices coupled with chunks of flavorful chicken. Some of the ingredients in this paleo soup are:

  • Chicken. I recommend purchasing organic chicken when you can. For this recipe, you can use white meat, dark meat, or even add a whole chicken!
  • Organic Chicken Broth or Bone Broth Again, I highly recommend purchasing organic broth if you can – you may be surprised to see how many additives are in the non-organic versions!
  • Vegetables. This paleo soup recipe calls for several different vegetables including onion, celery, carrots, and cauliflower. These veggies will keep your soup filled with fiber, minerals, and other nutrients.
  • Herbs and spices. Remember what I said about Allie showing me how to make a soup flavorful? This is where all of that comes into play! This hearty chicken soup has a fantastic blend of spices and herbs that will make this the best soup you’ve ever tried.

The Importance of Garlic

2 bowls of paleo soup with chicken, garlic, carrots, and celery

Garlic is essential in this Nourishing Chicken Soup recipe, not only because it adds to the flavor profile, but because it has tons of nutrients.

Yummy paleo chicken soup in a white bowl with chunks of chicken and vegetables

Either way, when you combine all of that with chicken, vegetables, and a few choice herbs and spices, you have a powerhouse meal that is nourishing for your whole family.

Enjoy!

Print

Nourishing Chicken Soup

A bowl of food on a table, with Chicken and Soup
Print Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

4.9 from 41 reviews

This easy family-favorite chicken soup is packed with ingredients and nutrients that are both nourishing, warming, and delicious!

  • Author: Erika Bragdon
  • Cook Time: 45 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
  • Category: soup
  • Method: cook
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2–3 lb chicken thighs, breast, or a whole chicken
  • 4 cups organic chicken broth
  • 6 cups water
  • 1/2 cup onion, chopped
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
  • 3–4 cups carrots, chopped
  • 2–3 cups celery, chopped
  • 6–8 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 tsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp basil
  • 1/2 Tbsp parsley
  • 3 Tbsp coconut aminos
  • 1.5 tsp sea salt, more or less to taste
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper, more or less to taste

Instructions

  1. Fill a large pot with water. Add the chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until fully cooked through. Remove the chicken and set aside.
  2. While the chicken is cooking, you can cut up the vegetables.
  3. Add the broth and 6 cups of the water the chicken was cooked into a large stock pot. Add the onions, ginger, carrots, celery, garlic, and turmeric. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes.
  4. While the broth and vegetables are cooking, cut up the cauliflower and pulse several times in a food processor until it resembles grains of rice. If you don’t have a food processor, you can just cut it up into small pieces.
  5. Shred the chicken and add the chicken and diced cauliflower to the pot, along with the remaining ingredients: fish sauce, basil, parsley, coconut aminos, sea salt, and pepper.
  6. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste.

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collection of hearty chicken soup pictures

Copyright © Living Well Mom. All content and images are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you would like to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words. Alternatively, you may link back to this post for the recipe.

About Erika

Erika Bragdon is a flower essence practitioner and a second-generation homeschooling mom with 3 kids at home and 1 in college. She enjoys her chickens, goats, and gardening on a small farm in New Hampshire, and is passionate about sharing flower essences and more ways to renew body, mind, and soul with moms.

Comments

  4. Cathi @ Simple Sojourns says

    This recipe has all the good things a healing bowl of soup needs. And as a vegetarian, it will be simple to exclude the chicken and use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth. Yum! I can already smell it cooking in my kitchen!

    Reply

  6. Pam S says

    I made this tonight. It was a hit! Love that I am giving my family all these wonderful foods. I could not find the coconut aminos so I substituted soy sauce. I will definitely make this again.

    Reply

  7. Amy Newport says

    Delicious! I used my slow cooker. Wonderful combination of textures and flavors. thank you! I love that it is delicious per recipe, and nimble as a base for further yummy ingredients.

    Reply

  8. Hillary says

    I made this tonight and it was amazing! The ginger, turmeric, amino acids, and fish sauce add so much depth to the soup. I will be making this again and again. The changes I made were I didn’t use the stock, I just cooked the chicken in enough water to use for the soup. I also didn’t add the cauliflower. Next time, I might use my emersion blender to blend the soup just a tad, to help thicken it. Oh, and I threw in the celery leaves, chopped, along with some red pepper flakes. I fed my family, along with some friends, and everybody went back for seconds or thirds. Thanks for such a great recipe!

    Reply

  10. Connie McKeon says

    I rarely post on any sites but this soup deserves a mention. Loved by all members of the family tonight. So tasty! An absolute winner! Thank you.

    Reply

  11. Hailey N says

    My whole house is sick so I decided to make this and it is AMAZING! Though my two year old won’t eat anything that doesn’t look like a weenie or broccoli, I’m sure when I make it for her when she’s a bit older, she’ll love it too! Great recipe!

    Reply

    • Gina D. says

      I made this today because I wasn’t feeling well. I had leftover rotisserie chicken and I used a white sweet potato because I didn’t have any cauliflower. Other than those changes I made it as is. It was so delicious!! I never would’ve thought to use ginger, turmeric, or coconut aminos in chicken soup. It was super super easy to make. Because I used cooked chicken I think it took me less than 30 minutes. But it tasted like I spent all day in the kitchen!! It was really the best homemade chicken soup I’ve ever had!! Making it again and again. 🙂

      Reply

  14. Lori K Warfield says

    Love this recipe! I also think that the tumeric helped with some pain management when I ate it. Now, my new favorite! I made it without the cauliflower and added peas. I forget if peas are Paleo but I just couldn’t give them up since I raised on them in this type of soup! Used dried herbs and all good. I also used a small amount of chicken bone broth and it also made me feel better.

    Yep, this is my NEW favorite!

    Reply

    • Erika says

      I love reading comments like this! I’m so happy you love this and were able to make it your own. I consider peas Paleo and that sounds yummy! I’m going to give your idea a try.

      Thanks, Lori!

      Reply

      • Kathy says

        As I work Full time I bought a BBQ chicken & completely took the meat off the carcasse & then broke it all up I cooked all vegies first & added the already cooked chicken approximately 10mins before serving. Just found it quicker for me after full days work.

        Reply

  15. Pavel says

    Interesting soup! 🙂 Thanks for recipe! 🙂 Made it tonight – my first chicken soup I ever made :))

    I haven’t got Fish sauce and Coconut sauce … also without Cauliflower … 🙂

    I am eating it right now – is still very hot so can’t really taste it properly … 🙂 to me it seems kind of blend 😀 but I made 4l of it so I guess I underseasoned it :))) …

    I was afraid not to overseason :)) …

    Any ideas what could I have done differently? :))

    Thanks for reciper anyways!! 🙂

    Reply

  16. Kevin says

    So the “fill a large pot with water” to cook the chicken? About how much water? I was thinking enough to cover the chicken plus about an inch or so? I’m a dummy at soups and seem to never get the broth right, so I have to ask.

    Reply

  17. Melissa says

    I’m wondering if there is a substitute for the fish sauce? Or if I leave it out all together would that be alright? It’s the only ingredient I don’t ave on hand, but I’ll wait to make the soup if it’s a “star” ingredient. Thank you

    Reply

  18. Sylvia Klaker says

    Made this soup over the weekend, as I was looking to make a soup that would help me feel better. This soup is a winner! It’s really tasty and those healthy ingredients went to work, chasing my nagging cough and cold outta me! Many thanks!

    Reply

  20. Alex S says

    Made this tonight and it came out great! I’m excited to make it again and spicier for my taste. I used 5 lbs boneless chicken, I like to put my boiled chicken in the kitchenaid to shred it (I highly recommend doing this! So easy!). With more chicken I added 2 cups vegetable broth I had on hand. I didn’t increase the seasoning and I think that it would have tasted even better if I increased the seasoning with the amount of chicken and liquid I used. Next time I want to add some sort of pepper to make it a little spicy, as well as more vegetables to add some more nutrients, maybe peas and kale (though I don’t want to alter the flavour).
    Thanks for this recipe!

    Reply

  21. Tara says

    Beautiful soup! I made it with turkey bone broth from Christmas and it was just delicious. It is actually the first soup I’ve ever made from scratch-I gave some to a friend today and she said it was the best soup she’s ever had! Thanks so much for this great recipe

    Reply

  22. Jen says

    Delicious! I had to substitute soy sauce for both coconut and fish oil (just didn’t have it) and it was wonderful – even my kids loved it and they are picky!
    Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply

  25. Melanie says

    Great recipe! Didn’t use the cauliflower, but made it in the pressure cooker and it was AMAZING! Thank you!

    Reply

  26. Megan says

    Made this soup this weekend. I’m 10 weeks pregnant and eat Paleo which has been a bit difficult during this morning sickness phase. I was craving some good chicken soup to help settle my stomach and this recipe was perfect! So many healing ingredients that are Paleo compliant and beneficial to my pregnancy. I think I’ll make it again in the Crockpot to help develop the flavors some more or give myself more time to cook it on the stove so it can simmer longer. Thank you!

    Reply

  28. April says

    Hi, I want to make this but I’m not understanding if I use the water that the chicken cooked in plus the 6 cups of water plus the chicken broth? Or do I discard the water I cook the chicken in and only use the 6 cups plus the 4 cups of broth when I’m putting it all in together?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Tracy Wehrmann says

      Hi Erika,

      The recipe sounds delicious, but I have the same question as April’s original one about the liquid. Keep all the liquid that the chicken was cooked in and add more or discard the “chicken water”?

      Thanks!

      Tracy

      Reply

  29. Debi says

    Made this tonight and was simply amazed! Can’t wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow, if it can wait that long! Thank you!!

    Reply

  30. Melissa says

    I made this today in the crockpot. My husband recently started a very strict diet and I am gluten free. My daughter requested soup for dinner so I turned to google and came across your website. This was so yummy. It made the house smell so good. I used half bone broth and half chicken broth. I also sautéed the celery, onions and two cloves of garlic until aromatic. I sprinkled some turmeric on top. I also diced and sautéed the chicken only slightly before dumping in crockpot.I dumped everything including aminos and fish sauce in and turned it on. I had no issue with taste. I omitted the carrots and cauliflower for carbohydrate reasons. Instead I made qinoua on the side and put in the individual bowls based on preference. It was a big hit. My daughter loves it and it totally hit the spot.

    Reply

  34. Susan says

    This was deliscous! So healthy and so good.
    Thank you for sharing. Super easy too. 5 stars for some reason my phone will only allow 4.

    Reply

    • Erika says

      You don’t have to have the fish sauce. It helps improve the flavor, but it’s not necessary. You’ll probably need to add more salt without it. Enjoy!

      Reply

  36. Jessica says

    I am definitely giving this a 5-star- it’s amazing! So tasty, so healthy, so nourishing- everything I would love for a soup to be 🙂 what a blessing- thank you for posting this recipe, Erika.

    Reply

  37. Gordon H says

    Whole family loved the soup, two days in a row!! I appreciate if anyone can share the nutritional info for this recipe…I am a busy Dad and my daughter in Uni is asking me for this (not my forte). I substituted Worcestershire sauce, since there was no Fish sauce in my kitchen. Thanks for providing a delicious recipe.

    Reply

  39. Janet says

    Somebody mentioned this recipe on the Whole30 fb page today. I’ve been fighting upper respiratory illness the last few days and decided to try it out. I went to look for chicken in the freezer but didn’t have any. Instead I found some bone broth and cut up turkey from Thanksgiving so used those. Unbelievably, I had all the other ingredients. We are eating it right now and it is so delicious. Thank you so much!

    Reply

  40. Kathy says

    This is my new favorite chicken soup! I made it for my family and another family battling the flu and it was a hit! Delicious and nutritious! I added a lot of fresh spinach a few minutes before serving and that enhanced the flavor, nutrition and look of the soup.
    Thank you!

    Reply

  41. Ces says

    This is a keeper!!!! My toddler inhaled it and it was gone!! Soooo good!! I added more ginger, turmeric, load up on veggies not just what the recipe calls for and put some hard boiled egg on top! Will keep serving this to my family!

    Reply

  42. Kristi says

    I’ve been making homemade chicken my whole adult life. This tops it. Made exactly per the recipe and it was delicious!

    Reply

  43. Lisa says

    Turned out very good, little more salt and basil is all I would do different. I used a roasted chicken I deboned, added a but now flavor.

    Reply

  44. Jennifer says

    I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it has always been delicious! Turmeric and ginger really give it pizzazz and no matter the weather, it always puts me in a good mood 🙂

    Reply

  46. Jennifer says

    I was so relieved to find this Paleo friendly recipe at a time when several members of our household got hit with a cold at the same time. As soon as I added the veggies to the broth for simmering, the aroma began to waft through the house. Our kids noticed. And what’s even more bizarre to me is that we are not a soup family. In my 23 years of marriage, I’ve only made soup a handful of times. Not uncommon to go years in between soup dinners. That is until now. This recipe has earned it’s way into the “regular meals” of our household. First try was a huge success with my picky kids who usually avoid veggies when given the chance. Thank you for this recipe. It brought us all around the dinner table and made us feel warmth where it matters most.

    Reply

  47. Colleen says

    Hello, this looks like a great recipe and I plan to cook the soup today. (As soon as my Whole30 compliant chicken broth is ready!) Are the herbs you’re using dried ones or fresh?

    Reply

  49. Anna says

    Yum! I’ve made this twice now. I sauté the onions/garlic/carrots/celery first for a bit more flavor. And I’ve always added shredded chicken that was cooked in the crockpot previously. Delicious! It’s on my regular soup list now 🙂 Has been a great breakfast while on the Whole30.

    Reply

  50. Donna Calvo says

    We loved this soup. I used soy sauce in the place of the fish sauce and some saffron threads in place of turmeric. I used a bag of riced cauliflower from Trader Joe’s.

    Reply

  51. Mary Baldiga says

    I have never written a comment before. THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING SOUP EVER!!! I have deleted all of my other saved chicken soup recipes. Seriously, amazing!!!

    Reply

  53. Megan says

    I don’t eat meat, but I have made this for my partner many times while he’s sick. He seems to really enjoy it, as he eats bowls at a time. Ingredients are wonderful and it always smells good. 🙂

    Reply

  54. Destiny says

    My family is recovering from a stomach virus so I hesitantly made this for my family. I didn’t expect my kids (8,6,5,2) would eat anything with these ingredients! But I was surprised it was so tasty and the kids slurped it up with a little encouragement. We did add noodles and extra soy sauce. We also had no fish sauce, so left out. Yummy soup!

    Reply

  55. Mary Baldiga says

    I’ve been making this soup for a while – it is amazingly delicious! When I went to make it again today, I noticed you can make double or triple and the calculations are made for you! I LOVE that! I am easily distracted! This time I am going to add some brown rice, per my son’s request. Thank you for your delicious recipe!!

    Reply

  56. Sharon says

    I love this recipe and have prepared it twice but now I want to try in my Instant Pot. Have you experimented with your soup in Instant Pot.? The nice thing about this option is you can start with frozen chicken to save time (if like me you forget to thaw chicken)..
    Thanks!

    Reply

  57. Carey BAKER says

    My husband cane down with the flu so I thought I’d try this. The recipe was amazing and he had no idea tumeric and ginger were in it. My girls loved it was well. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Erika says

      Goodness, I thought we had updated this recipe with the nutritional info. I will do that today. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Miranda! Have a wonderful happy & healthy day yourself! 🙂

      Reply

  59. Kellie says

    This was SO GOOD! Absolutely delicious! Will make it again. I added gf noodles instead and servers it with some gf sourdough. Loved the hint of ginger and turmeric. Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply

  60. Janet says

    Loved the additional ingredients I haven’t seen before like coco aminos & fish sauce! Added great flavor!

    Reply

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