Tips For Making Perfect Chicken Soup

Whoever said that chicken soup was good for the soul was really onto something. This comforting food is a favorite for when you have a cold or need a hearty bowlful to dip your sandwich into. It's easy to throw together, customizable, and can be easily improved with a couple of tips from the pros. That's exactly why we turned to Mexican chef, television personality, and culinary ambassador for Avocados from Mexico, Pati Jinich, who is using her role to spread awareness around diabetes prevention.

When making chicken soup, Jinich says she likes to use either bone-in skin-on cuts or whole chicken. "Bones give the broth body, and dark meat adds richness," she says. While white meat chicken, say from the breast of leftover rotisserie chicken, may be easy to add to your soup, it won't give you great depth of flavor like a drumstick would. She prefers to keep the skin on and the bones in as the meat cooks in the soup, noting that any excess fat can be skimmed off prior to serving. 

Chef Pati Jinich also had some recommendations around which types of vegetables to use for a high-quality chicken soup. She calls out popular favorites like a mirepoix — onion, carrot, and celery — as well as garlic, zucchini, and potatoes. "I also love adding corn, cabbage, or fresh herbs depending on the style," she says. These creative additions allow you to take your recipe in a variety of ways, turning a basic chicken noodle soup into something with more dimension. 

While there are many vegetables that you can add to chicken soup, there are also ones that you should avoid. "I avoid vegetables that overpower or turn bitter with long cooking, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and spinach, or other greens that can become dark and muddy-tasting if added too early," says Jinich. If you add these to your soup, just remember that timing is of the essence. " ... Those are better stirred in at the end," she says.