Chicken Soup Recipe (Using a Whole Chicken!)

a bowl of whole chicken soup with noodles

4.88 from 39 votes

Chicken Soup Recipe (Using a Whole Chicken!)

This outrageously delicious Chicken Soup has it all: a rich nourishing broth, fall off the bone chicken, and delicate noodles. Find out why this recipe has a slew of fans and die-hard devotees— instant pot, pressure cooker and stove top instructions included!

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 30

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 268kcal

Author: Abra Pappa, MS, CNS, LDN

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, preferably organic (4-5 lbs.)
1 pound carrots, cut in half
1/4 piece celery bunch, remove the lower 1/4 of the celery bunch for the soup and reserve the rest for other uses
2 yellow onion, cut into quarters
1 head garlic, cut in half
1/4 small head of cabbage, cut in half
2 bay leaves
10-15 whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tbsp. salt
1 bunch fresh parsley
water to cover chicken
Cooked noodles pastina is my favorite but any pasta noodle will do

Instructions

Remove the innards from chicken and rinse the cavity. Rinse the body of the chicken as well. Place the whole chicken in the soup pot.
Quarter onions leaving the skins on. Place in the soup pot.
Cut carrots into chunks and place in the pot. *no need to peel*
Cut off the whole base of a bunch of celery. Do this by measuring 4-5 inches from the bottom of the bunch and cut from that place. Put the bottom piece in the pot.
Place a whole bunch of freshly rinsed parsley in the pot.
Cut a head of garlic in half with the skins on and place both pieces in the pot.
Add in cabbage, bay leaves, salt, peppercorns, and paprika.
Fill the pot with spring water 2/3 full. Leaving room in the last 1/3 of the pot. Make sure the chicken is fully submerged.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for 1-2 hours or until chicken is tender and cooked through and broth is flavorful. You test the chicken by pulling a piece off of the bone, it should fall right off the bone, be super tender and no longer pink. This typically takes 90 minutes but if your chicken is closer to 5 lbs. it may tke 2 hours.
Remove the pot from the heat and allow the soup to cool down slightly.
Remove the chicken from the pot with tongs and place in its own container. Shred the chicken that you would like in your soup and set aside.
Place a strainer over a large bowl and carefully pour broth with all the vegetables through the strainer. Remove the larger pieces of carrots and set aside to slice into your soup. If you'd like, reserve some cooked cabbage to chop into your soup. Smoosh all of the remaining vegetables with a wooden spoon to extract as much flavor as possible. I take my time to really smash the garlic through the strainer which will create a beautiful garlic paste to stir into the soup. Discard the smooshed vegetables in the strainer.
Taste the broth and adjust seasoning before pouring into the soup terrine.
Put soup together: Shred chicken from bone and add to stock then slice carrots and add to stock. Add noodles or rice to individual soup bowls. Top with additional parsley.

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