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This Keto Chicken Vegetable Soup will be a hit at your home, whether you’re focused on meal prep or just want a big steaming bowl of soup to warm you up! You’ll find juicy chunks of my cast iron skillet chicken breast, a quick and savory herbal broth, as well as loads of veggies. Perfect for those looking for a low-carb chicken noodle soup option. Each bowl is about 3g net carbs.
Why Make Keto Chicken Soup
- Great for meal prep: Soup is perfect for meal prep (especially for cold weather and flu season) because you can prep it for the coming week & just reheat a bowl when you’re ready.
- Perfect freezer meal: This low carb chicken soup recipe also works well as a freezer meal option. Just put it in the freezer pre-portioned and thaw overnight.
- Easy recipe, yet packed with flavor: You’ll be surprised at how so few spices, simple ingredients, and so little hands-on time come packed with so much flavor. That said, whether you follow a low carb diet, keto diet or not, this quick recipe is some of the best chicken soup you’ll have!
Ingredients Needed
This chicken vegetable soup uses simple ingredients that you probably have on hand. Here’s what you’ll need to gather:
- Chicken: I’m using raw chicken breasts for this recipe. But, you can also use things like chicken thighs.
- Dry Spices: this keto chicken and vegetable soup has flavors from a range of dry spices like bay leaves, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper.
- Vegetables: I use both fresh vegetables and frozen in this recipe. Specifically, I include carrots, celery, and frozen cauliflower rice.
- Olive Oil: avocado oil or another cooking oil. This helps to sear the meat and sauté the vegetables.
- Chicken Bouillon: I use bouillon in quite a few recipes (e.g., creamy tomato soup, cauliflower rice pilaf, and pressure cooker pot roast). I prefer it over regular broth because it has more flavor and creates easy sauces. If you don’t have any, feel free to substitute the bouillon and water for chicken bone broth, regular broth, or even your own homemade chicken broth, if you’d like.
- Sea Salt: I salted this keto chicken soup to my preference. But, you can always add salt when the homemade chicken soup is finished to your taste. Bouillon will add salty flavor so you might find that you can skip the sea salt.
You can get the full list of ingredient amounts and instructions from the full recipe card at the end of the post.
How to Make Low Carb Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Season both sides of the chicken and sear it in the large pot. Add the vegetables and sauté those too (photo 1).
- Add the bouillon, broth, and bay leaves. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through (photo 2).
- Remove the chicken from the pot and cut it into bite-sized, tender chicken pieces or shred it (photo 3).
- Add the frozen cauliflower rice and continue to simmer until it is warmed (photo 4).
Top Cooking Tips & FAQs
- Don’t leave any spices behind: The spices for the chicken are also used to add herb flavors to the broth. Be sure sure to coat your chicken breasts with the spice mixture so that you use up all of it.
- Store in the refrigerator or freezer: I’ve enjoyed this low carb chicken vegetable soup for up to 5 days when it is stored in the refrigerator. If you aren’t ready to eat it all, just portion it, and store the individual bowls in the freezer for when you’re ready to enjoy it.
Keto Chicken Soup Variations:
- Make it creamy: If you’re a fan of creamy chicken soup, add a little cream cheese, heavy cream, and/or sour cream, based on your preference. It’ll still give love a delicious, low carb keto chicken soup. I recommend starting with a tablespoon.
- Use leftover chicken: If you can’t or don’t want to buy chicken breast for this keto chicken soup recipe, but you already have some recent, leftover chicken (like chicken thighs from rotisserie chicken), try that as a replacement. Simply skip the steps for cooking the chicken and heat it through at the end.
- Skip the chicken sometimes – make keto vegetable soup: If you don’t want to or have guests that can’t have chicken, no worries! Without chicken, this low carb soup recipe will still give you a delicious, healthy soup that the whole family will enjoy. Perfect to add to your list of vegetable soup recipes.
As I mentioned in my low-carb carrot cake recipe, keto is not a specific food, but about staying in ketosis. I opt to enjoy carrots in moderation. This recipe contains 3/4 cup of carrots, which is less than 1g net carbs per serving.
More recipes to enjoy:
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Keto Chicken Vegetable Soup
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Ingredients
Seared Chicken Breast
- 1.5 lb Chicken Breasts, about 2-3 chicken breasts
- 1.5 tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Natural Ancient Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil, Coconut Oil or other fat for cooking
Soup Add-ins & Broth
- 3/4 cup carrots, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 4 tsp Chicken Better than Bouillon, low-sodium
- 4 cups Water
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 cup Cauliflower Rice, frozen
Instructions
To sear the chicken breasts:
- Mix the Italian seasoning, garlic powder, sea salt and black pepper in a small bowl
- Sprinkle them on both sides the chicken breast
- Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven to medium heat
- Cook the chicken breast for 3-4 minutes per side (to sear/brown both sides)
To Complete the Soup:
- Move the chicken to the outer edges of the pot. Add the carrots and celery to the center of the pot. Cook for 2 minutes (to get the vegetables slightly tender)
- Add bouillon, water, and bay leaves to the pot. Stir until the bouillon is incorporated.
- Cover the pot and cook on medium-low for 10-15 minutes (to cook the chicken)
- Remove the chicken from the pot and cut it into bite-sized pieces
- Add the chicken bites and cauliflower rice to the pot. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes (enough time to the cauliflower to heat through)
Nutrition Details
The nutrition facts come from entering the recipe ingredients into Spoonacular API, a database of food ingredients. They may vary for any recipe based on the exact product used. The keto sweeteners I use have 0g net carbs & are not included because sugar alcohols do not impact most people. This is provided as a courtesy, but you can do your own calculations if you wish!
SUE J McSorley says
I didn’t plan ahead, but it was a chilly night & I wanted a chicken soup. I hadn’t defrosted my chicken so just threw all of the spices into a pot with my frozen chicken & veggies & it still turned out amazingly delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe, I will probably try it the way written some time, or maybe not since it was already so good!
Dr. Davinah's Eats Team says
We’re so happy that you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂