It is officially the Season of Soup.

November has brought us beautiful, cool Autumn days.  During this time of year there are few things better than coming home to a warm and hearty soup after being out in the cold.  Ryan and I will often eat soup once a day or every other day during this time of year.  It’s perfect to heat up for lunch or to have for a simple and easy dinner.

So for the second recipe in my Slow Cooker series I want to share with you my simplest Chicken Soup recipe.  You easily throw it in your slow cooker before you leave for work or to run errands.  There are several options for how to cook it, including a stove top method which requires only one hour of cooking time.

This soup can be adapted to fit whatever is in your fridge – use what you have, and substitute any other vegetables – such as winter squash or turnips.

Slow Cooker Chicken Soup (Paleo, AIP)

Prep: 15 minutes          Slow Cooker: 3-8 hours or Stove top: 1 hour           Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds uncooked chicken breasts/thighs
• 1 pound diced carrots
• 2 medium sweet potatoes cubed (I love white sweet potatoes!) or 1 pound parsnips diced
• 6 ribs/stalks celery chopped
• 1 onion diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves diced finely
• 2 to 3 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 to 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 cups chopped kale or collards.
• 6 to 8 cups Chicken Broth/Stock
• Optional: 1 to 2 tbsp dried herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage)

Directions:

1. Grab your slow cooker or giant stock pot.  Add all of ingredients except for the broth.
2. If you like a thicker soup, add just enough broth to barely cover the ingredients.  If you enjoy a more broth-y soup add the full amount of broth.
3. Slow Cooker: 7 to 8 hours on low, 3-4 hours on high. Stovetop: Bring the soup to a boil, cover, and reduce to simmer (low) – leave for one hour.
4. Once the soup is finished cooking (chicken is cooked through and veggies are soft) remove the chicken and shred or chop it.

We love this served with my sandwich bread toasted with a bit of coconut oil and a sprinkle sea salt (wonderful butter substitute). We also enjoy some sort of biscuit or “cornbread” with this soup.  My favorite Paleo “cornbread” is by Glutenfree Fix – I used her mini “Corn” Dog recipe to make these sweet little muffins, but left out the hotdogs 🙂

Enjoy! 

To see the first recipe in my Slow Cooker series head here: Slow Cooker Apple Butter.  To purchase my favorite programmable Slow Cooker for $49 head here: Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker.

This post does contain affiliate links – if you buy through them I do receive a small percentage of the profit – which goes to help support this work 🙂 Thank you for your readership.