Recipes · Sick-Day Food
Classic Chicken Soup
Reader ratingsA plain, golden pot of chicken soup: a whole bird simmered slowly with onion, carrot, celery and parsley, then shredded back into the broth. Warm fluid, salt and easy protein for a day when little else appeals.
Chicken soup is a sick-day staple in Jewish, Chinese, Latin American and many other kitchens, and the 12th-century physician Maimonides advised it in his treatise on asthma.
Safety
- Handle the chicken safely: wash your hands, board and knife after touching raw poultry, and cook until the thickest part of the thigh reads at least 165°F (74°C), which the long simmer easily exceeds. Cool the soup quickly in shallow containers, refrigerate within 2 hours, keep it 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer, and reheat until steaming hot.
- Remove every bone and bit of cartilage and shred the meat finely before serving it to a child or an older adult.
- Soup is gentle fluid and food, not a treatment. If you or a child cannot keep liquids down, or you see signs of dehydration (very dark urine or none for 8 hours, no wet diaper for 3 hours in a baby, no tears, sunken eyes, dizziness, unusual drowsiness), sip an oral rehydration solution and get medical care. Also seek care for trouble breathing, chest pain, a stiff neck, confusion, a fever that lasts more than 3 days, or any fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or more in a baby under 3 months.
- Allergy and diet swaps: celery is a common allergen in some countries, so leave it out and use extra carrot or parsnip. Choose rice or gluten-free noodles for celiac disease, because regular noodles contain wheat and egg noodles also contain egg. Homemade soup is usually lower in sodium than store-bought, but if you have high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease or a sodium limit, salt each bowl lightly or not at all.
Why it’s good for you
A bowl gives you warm fluid, salt and easy-to-eat protein in one dish, which is often all you can face when your appetite is low.
Evidence
Limited evidence
Mostly small, early, or laboratory studies.
In a 2000 laboratory study, a traditional chicken soup, and the chicken and each vegetable on their own, slowed the migration of neutrophils (inflammatory white blood cells) in a test tube, while commercial soups varied widely; no study has measured whether soup shortens a cold. In 15 healthy volunteers, hot chicken soup and hot water both briefly sped up nasal mucus flow compared with cold water, and in 30 people with colds or flu a hot fruit drink relieved more symptoms than the same drink at room temperature, with a placebo effect a possible explanation. A Cochrane review found no trials showing that being advised to drink more fluids helps with respiratory infections, so soup is best seen as a warm, hydrating comfort food.
General information from research and traditional use — not medical advice, and not a treatment for any condition. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a health condition, check with your clinician first, and seek care for symptoms that are severe or do not improve.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken inside and out and put it in an 8-quart pot with the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns and parsley stems. Pour in the cold water, which should cover the chicken by about an inch. Starting with cold water draws more flavor out as the pot heats slowly.
- Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat and skim off the gray foam that rises. Lower the heat until only a few lazy bubbles break the surface, partly cover the pot, and simmer for 75 to 90 minutes, until the chicken is falling-off-the-bone tender and the thickest part of the thigh reads at least 165°F (74°C).
- Lift the chicken onto a board and let it cool for 15 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot, pressing the vegetables lightly. Keep the soft carrots and discard the rest of the solids.
- Pull the meat from the bones, discarding the skin, bones and cartilage, and shred it finely. Chop the carrots into small pieces.
- Skim the fat from the surface of the broth with a wide spoon, or chill the broth and lift off the solid layer. Return the chicken and carrots to the broth and warm gently for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the chopped parsley leaves and the lemon juice, if using, and salt each bowl to taste. Serve over rice or noodles, cooked separately so they do not soak up the broth.
Tips
- Take it a spoonful at a time. Sip the broth first and add the shredded chicken, carrots and rice as your appetite returns.
- Freeze in 1-cup or 2-cup containers for up to 3 months, so a bowl is ready on a day you cannot cook. For a deeper, more gelatin-rich broth see the Slow-Simmered Bone Broth, and for a spicier version with kale, garlic, ginger and turmeric see the Immune-Boosting Chicken Soup.
- Salt each bowl rather than the pot, so anyone on a low-sodium diet can season their own.
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