Super nourishing and comforting during cold and flu season, this bone broth chicken vegetable soup is made quickly using frozen broth and is packed full of vegetables.

When anyone in my family has a cold or flu, they often ask for a chicken vegetable soup. It's just comforting when you're not feeling well - and I love that this is a comfort food that's good for you, too.
Everyone knows that chicken-noodle soup is supposed to help with colds, but I think it has a lot more to do with the healthy attributes of chicken bone broth than the noodles, so when anyone in my family is sick, I make this easy and nourishing chicken bone broth vegetable soup - with extra veggies.
Sometimes there may be noodles, but most of the time I just make it like this, with lots of vegetables.
This is a soup I use at home and also as a gift of sorts - whenever my kids came home from college with a cold, they most often left with one or more containers of this nourishing chicken vegetable soup that takes just minutes to make.
Hmmm, but to make a good bone broth, you need hours of cooking time, don't you?
Typically, yes - are you curious about how I managed it in only minutes?
Quick Bone Broth Chicken Vegetable Soup
The answer is - frozen broth!
While it takes some planning to make and freeze broth, it's super easy planning by using your slow cooker to make an easy bone broth and freezing it for later in quart canning jars.
Then when you want to make soup all you have to do is defrost your broth and gather some vegetables.
For more ways to make bone broth, check out this Bone Broth 101 Guide.
Ingredients
Basic ingredients:
- chicken broth, preferably homemade
- onion
- carrots
- celery
- potatoes
- 2 cups additional vegetables like cabbage, spinach, kale, etc.
- salt and pepper
There are two 'secret' ingredients I always include in a comforting nourishing soup for colds:
- garlic
- cayenne
These ingredients are stars at helping to boost our immune systems (along with turmeric and black pepper which I mention below).
Once my kids were old enough to enjoy spicy foods, I upped the cayenne amount but when they were younger I'd only add a pinch to their portions.
Directions
After chopping the vegetables, it's simply a matter of combining them with the broth and other ingredients.
Bring all this to a boil and then gently cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Starting with the frozen prepared bone broth you will have a nourishing cold and flu chicken soup in just a few minutes that will put any canned soup to shame.
I hope your family will come to count on this soup to comfort them through a sickness just like mine does - or just when you want delicious, flavorful bowl of warm soup!
Bone Broth Soup FAQs
Stock made from bones has minerals that help build and strengthen our bones, as well as helping to protect the joints. It also has more healthy nutrients like amino acids, vitamins, and essential fatty acids. (source)
There are also sources that say that drinking bone broth regularly can help with inflammation, gut health, sleep, and may support weight loss. (source)
Most sources suggests drinking bone broth daily to get the most out of it, but that's not always possible, so having it at least 3 times a week in either a soup or drinking from a mug should give you the health benefits.
Chicken bone broth on its own may help ward off the common cold but you can increase that possibility by adding a teaspoon of turmeric and black pepper to the recipe.
Quick & Healthy Chicken Bone Broth Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth, preferably homemade
- 1 onion
- 3 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 3 small potatoes
- 2 cups additional vegetables like cabbage, green bean, spinach, kale, etc.
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoons cayenne or to taste - the more you can take, the better
- 1 to 2 teaspoons salt to taste - more if using unsalted homemade broth
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- noodles, optional*
Instructions
- Chop all vegetables into small, even pieces.
- Combine broth, vegetables and spices in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Lower heat and gently cook for 10-15 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked.
- Taste to adjust seasonings and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
More Quick Whole Food Soups to Try
Cauliflower-Vegetable Cheese Soup
Curried Turkey or Chicken Rice Soup
Slow Cooker Sausage-Bean Soup with Tomatoes and Spinach
This recipe has been updated - it was originally published in November 2013.
Barbara says
Wanted to let you know that, for some reason, this post has been the most recent post for quite a while. I use your "blog" feature so I can see what the latest post is. I thought you may have been on vacation because no new posts for a couple weeks. Today I went to home page and scrolled down to recent posts and saw all your posts in October. Yet your blog feature shows this post from end of September.
Jami says
Thanks for alerting me to that, Barbara - I didn't realize that was happening.
I've contacted my developer and I'm sure he'll have it fixed soon!
Barbara says
I can tell he has been working on it. Love the thumbnail views showing all posts chronologically, except the bone broth recipe from September. But I can easily see the most recent recipes aside from that one.
Jami says
Oh, good!
Megan says
Making this today for the “quarantine.” Gotta keep the immune system up! Thanks! Everyone stay safe and healthy 🙂
Jami says
Good idea! Yes, you too. 🙂
melanie says
same!!!
Amy says
Compared to Puffs, Kleenex ARE sandpaper 😉
Just sayin'. But I do love, and exclusively use, Kleenex's "Viva" paper towels.
mary w says
But if you can't resist noodles in your chicken soup, cook and keep noodles separate from the rest of the soup. That way if you have leftovers the noodles won't soak up all the broth.
Jami says
Thanks for the tip, Mary! 🙂