Healthy Chicken Soup with Kale
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If there’s any kale recipe that deserves being paired with chicken, it’s this one. The flavor of healthy kale combined with homemade chicken stock and chicken breast makes a soup that’s hard to resist. We’re huge fans of eating kale in almost any form and when there’s left over kale, carrots and chicken, we’ll simmer up a big batch to savor during the week.
Healthy Chicken Soup with Kale
This chicken soup recipe doesn’t get any easier than this. The ground cumin and bit of soy sauce really add a wonderful depth of flavor to this soup. Bland chicken soup sucks that’s why when developing this recipe we decided that the touch of soy sauce and spice of ground cumin would elevate this recipe to big flavor. Readers love this recipe and so do their kids. It’s great to have soup that pleases everyone in the family. This chicken soup with kale recipe uses boneless skinless chicken breast and this makes the soup healthy, with very little fat. But if you’re a fan of chicken thigh meat, then you can certainly use that as well.
What you’ll get is a more flavorful chicken kale soup because brown meat has so much more flavor. To make it a more substantial meal, add come cooked egg noodles or pasta for a chicken noodle kale soup. The possibilities are endless!
{Video} Watch the video for making the Healthy Chicken and Kale Soup
This recipe was originally published in 2013 and re-published in 2020 with updated video.
{Extra Video} How to make Chicken Stock from Left Over Chicken
Chicken Kale Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
- 1/2 onion , diced
- 1 pound (455g) boneless skinless chicken breast (or boneless thigh meat) , cut into small bite sized pieces
- 1 large carrot , chopped
- 1- inch (2.5cm) knob ginger, peeled & smashed
- 1/4 teaspoon (1ml) ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon (1ml) chili powder
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) soy sauce (Use Tamari for gluten free)
- 4 cups (2.84l) chicken stock
- 1 bunch of kale , ribs removed and leaves chopped
- salt to taste , depending on how salty your stock is
Instructions
- In medium stock pot, heat the pan on medium heat, then add olive oil. Add onion and cook until translucent.
- Add chicken and cook for about 3 minutes or until brown on the outside. Add carrots, ginger, ground cumin, chili powder and soy sauce. Stir and cook for about 2 more minutes.
- Add chicken stock. Turn heat to high and bring soup to a boil. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to low.Simmer soup on low for about 15 minutes. Skim fat from top of soup occasionally, if needed.
- Add chopped kale and cook for 2-3 minutes or until kale becomes tender. Serve hot.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Other Soul-Comforting Soup Recipes
- Healthy Turkey Soup Recipe with Kale – Easy 30 Minute Recipe
- Favorite Slow Cooker Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Creamy Turkey Vegetable Soup (or Chicken)
More Soup & Stew Recipes and Healthy Chicken Recipes and Fresh Tart Chicken Kale Soup with Sweet Potatoes
44 Comments on “Healthy Chicken Soup with Kale”
Absolutely delicious… I added fresh baby spinach with the Kale and a few chopped up Yukon potatoes, a lot of fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil, thinly sliced small onion, no carrots maybe add another time and no added salt as the broth was high in sodium will use unsalted bone broth next time around. Last time I made this I added Italian white beans but for me the broth a tad too starchy so I omitted them. So many variations to this recipe but basically stuck with the original minus any soy sauce too high in salt. All in all extremely pleased how it turned out and yes, used fresh chicken breasts instead of drum sticks or thighs this time. Thank you for sharing a wonderful healthy filling soup recipe!!!!
Love all the healthy greens you added to the recipe Cor! So glad you enjoyed the recipe
I just made this and it turned out beautifully. Simple but very tasty. The ginger blends well with the spices. Loved adding greens from my garden into the soup. Thanks!
Thanks Kimi! That’s awesome that you have garden greens. YUM!
This is just the right soup for my keto diet. I added extra kale just because I love kale so much lol.
I’m so glad it’s getting cooler here. This soup really helps keep me warm during the Holidays.
I don’t usually leave reviews on recipes BUT let me tell you this soup was freaking delicious. I did add some cayenne pepper and celery though. I’ll def make this again. it made 4 servings and for servings 3 & 4 I added some shrimp.
Love the addition of shrimp to the soup. Thanks Stacy and so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Love this recipe but wondering if you have any suggestions if we wanted to try and make it in the instant pot? Thanks!
Hi Jess, we don’t have any suggestions yet but when we test it in the instant pot and have good results, we’ll let you know!
Thank you.
I want to make soup tomorrow but do you think it would work with chicken thigh? My family doesn’t like white meat, and could we omit the ginger?
Hi Brandi, yes chicken thigh meat is great! So much more flavor than white meat. And you don’t need the ginger.
The proportion of kale to everything else makes it more like a kale stew and I didn’t even end up using the full typically sized bunch. I would suggest a half bunch along with some noodles. If you add noodles, I would suggest another cup of broth. I also doubled the spice as mine needed some extra flavor.
So flavorful. So delicious ? Made this twice in two weeks! Hubby isn’t a fan of soups but has asked for this one twice. He Even asked me to leave a review. I Didn’t have chili powder so I used paprika and coconut aminos in place of soy sauce. Those were the only changes. Excellent and delicious and even more so delicious when most all ingredients are fresh from the garden!
Yay! So glad your husband enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing Abby!
I planted kale for the first time and had to find recipes to use it. I came across this one and thought it would be quick in my Instant pot. It was extremely flavorful. I don’t usually use cumin because i am not a fan, but decided to actually follow the recipe! I loved it! And my husband even chose it for lunch the next day!
Yay! thanks for sharing Ellen. So glad you and your husband enjoyed the leftovers. 🙂
I am obsessed with this soup. It’s so so so flavorful from the soy sauce and spices, that the white meat chicken is totally fine. I make it at least 2x/month and keep it on hand for a quick, delicious and flavorful meal. If I were to add anything to make it more ‘hearty’ I think white beans could work.
Highly recommend.
We’re so happy you enjoy this soup so much Sara! Thanks so much for sharing and love the idea of white beans too. Fantastic.
I used thinly sliced mushrooms and chicken bouillon instead of carrots and stick since that’s what I had in the house. I added red pepper flakes and cayenne. My son and I both really enjoyed.
This is such a yummy soup and one of the make regularly! I just looked for The first time at the nutritional contents and was surprised it had 13 g of fat though… Other than the oil where does the fat come from between vegetables and chicken breast? I’m on weight watchers so I’m trying to figure out the appropriate points and this just doesn’t make sense to me. Can you let me know please?
Hi Lauren, it’s mostly from the oil and some fat that releases from the chicken. The chicken stock also has some fat. You can certainly try using half the amount of oil.
I love this healthy and delicious soup. It’s the perfect way to end the day.