This easy lemon chicken soup is healthy, hearty and delicious! As a bonus, it can be made in one pot in less than 30 minutes for a speedy weeknight meal!
It’s soup season and I’m officially IN LOVE with this super easy lemon chicken soup!
It’s warm and cozy, hearty and oh-so-flavourful!
This is a soup recipe that we’ve been making on repeat since it’s so simple to prepare.
It’s also perfect for meal prepping as you can make up an extra large batch in advance and eat throughout the week or freeze for later!
As an added bonus, our little guy devours this stuff. He literally can’t shove it into his mouth fast enough and loves drinking the flavourful broth.
Gotta love those family-friendly recipes!
What ingredients do I need for this lemon chicken soup?
The required ingredients are all pretty basic and can all be tossed into one pot for a tasty meal with minimal clean up!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Olive oil
- Onion
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Skinless boneless chicken breasts
- Chicken broth
- Lemon
- Red pepper flakes
- Israeli (or Pearl) couscous
- Green onion
- Salt and pepper
How to make lemon chicken soup
This lemon chicken soup is so easy and definitely my preferred meal to make on busy weeknights.
To start, you’ll need to heat olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Cook onion, carrots and garlic for 3-4 minutes or until fragrant.
Add broth, chicken breasts, lemon zest, lemon juice and red pepper flakes. Increase the heat to high, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. You may need to adjust the cooking time slightly depending on the size of the chicken breasts that you use.
Stir in couscous and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes or until couscous has softened. Turn off heat.
Remove chicken from pot and shred using two forks. Return to the pot and stir in the green onion.
DONE!
Is this soup lemon chicken soup freezer-friendly?
Yes! One of my favourite meals to freeze are soups because you can easily double the recipe and freeze the leftovers!
To freeze this soup: Pack the soup in air-tight freezer-friendly containers or in large ziplock bags.
To defrost this chicken soup: Place in the fridge overnight. From there, you can either place the soup in a large saucepan to reheat or defrost in the microwave for a few minutes.
How to reheat this lemon chicken soup
To reheat the soup, dump into a large sauce pan and bring to a light simmer until heated through.
Alternatively, you can place in the microwave for a minute or so to reheat.
Can I use pre-shredded chicken for this soup?
Yes!
If you have some pre-shredded chicken kicking around that you prepared in the instant pot, slow cooker, by boiling or from a rotisserie chicken, feel free to use that instead of adding the chicken breasts to the broth.
The benefit of using pre-shredded chicken is you can cut down the cooking time.
Simply skip the step about cooking the chicken breasts, and add 3 cups of shredded chicken.
Then proceed to the next step of adding the couscous.
Doesn’t get much easier than that!
Can I make this soup gluten-free?
Yes. If you wish to omit the pearl couscous, sub in a cup of brown rice or quinoa instead.
You may need to increase the cooking time slightly to allow the rice or quinoa to fully cook.
How to serve this lemon chicken soup
What I love about this soup is that it tastes amazing on its own, but it’s even BETTER with a few extra toppings!
You can serve it topped with:
- Crumbled feta (to give it a Greek flair!)
- Additional sliced green onion
- Chopped parsley
- An extra squeeze of lemon juice if you’d like even more zesty flavour
You can even serve along with a side of crispy pita chips if you want to add a little crunch!
More hearty soup recipes
- Curried Pumpkin Chicken Soup
- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
- Mexican Meatball Soup
- Sausage, Kale and White Bean Soup
- Healthy Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a rating and review!
Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 onion quartered and sliced
- 1 cup thinly sliced carrots about two large carrots
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts or about 3 cups shredded chicken
- 10 cups no salt-added chicken broth
- Zest of one lemon
- Juice of half a lemon or more to taste
- ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 cup Israeli or Pearl couscous or quinoa
- ¼ cup diced green onion
- Salt and pepper to taste
Optional Garnishes:
- Crumbled feta cheese
- Additional sliced green onion
- Chopped parsley
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Cook onion, carrots and garlic for 3-4 minutes or until fragrant.
- Add broth, chicken breasts, lemon zest, lemon juice and red pepper flakes. Increase the heat to high, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Stir in couscous or cooked quinoa and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat.
- Remove chicken from pot and shred using two forks. Return to the pot. Stir in the green onion.
- Serve topped with a sprinkle of feta cheese and additional green onion or parsley, if desired.
Nutrition
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This is very really unique helpful information.I learn so much from you as well! Thank you so much for sharing your helpful information. Keep it up.
Thanks so much Mahidua! Glad you enjoyed the post!