Homemade Chicken Soup with DIY Budget-friendly Bone Broth (Kid Friendly, Paleo, Gluten-free)

If you know me at all, you know I am obsessed with bone broth and the benefits of collagen in the diet.  If you are wondering what at the hype is all about, check out my post from a few weeks ago, The Top 10 Healing Benefits of Bone Broth.

Our family eats chicken soup about once a week or every other week and it seems like I always have some sort of broth in the refrigerator to sip in a mug, warm up for lunches or to use for making dinner.  If anyone in the house catches a cold, I immediately start thinking chicken soup to the rescue! 

Here are my favorite things about homemade chicken soup:

1. It boosts the immune system when fighting a cold

2. All the veggies are one soft texture, which children seem to tolerate well

3. Its tasty, healthy and satisfying

4. Great for keeping in the fridge for quickly heated lunches

5. Its very easy and inexpensive to make

6. I usually get two meals out of 1 chicken (first we eat the roasted chicken, then I use the excess chicken and bones to make chicken soup later on in the week)

So yeah, that's basically why I love it and make it so often.  If its healthy, easy, inexpensive AND the kids will actually eat it without protesting, its a keeper in my book. 

So if you have been wondering how to make homemade broth or chicken soup, wonder no more! It is so easy to make that it is sure to become a weekly favorite.  Here is how I make it.

Firstly, I cook a whole organic chicken in the crockpot or roast it in the oven.  We have that for dinner one night early in the week.  Next, I take all the remaining chicken meat off and put it in a Tupperware in the refrigerator.  I save the bones and carcass for chicken broth and soup.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BONE BROTH

If you just want to make bone broth, click here for my favorite, simple, Instantpot bone broth recipe.

After making the broth, which should be ready in only 120 minutes in the Instant pot, you are ready to make some homemade chicken soup! You should have already removed and refrigerated the chicken from the chicken carcass before making your broth so that should also be ready to go.

Let’s do this!

INGREDIENTS:

• 64 oz of homemade bone broth (or storebought alternatively)

• 1 lb shredded chicken from rotisserie sized chicken

• 1 large yellow onion, diced

• 3 stalks celery, chopped

• 4 carrots, chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

• 2 tsp onion powder

• 2 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tbsp EVOO

• 1 cup cooked rice

• salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large stainless steel or ceramic pot. Add onions and saute them for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften, then add celery and carrots and cook for 3 minutes or until they begin to soften.

2. Add parsely and all the broth and bring to a low boil.

3. Cover with a lid and cook on a low boil for about 35-40 minutes, add in the chopped chicken at the last 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare your rice. (2 cups water to 1 cup rice).

5. Add all your spices to your liking (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder).

6. Add the rice right into the pot and serve. (Adding rice is optional)