Chicken Minestrone Soup

5 from 1 vote

Chicken Minestrone Soup

Delicious Chicken Minestrone recipe with fresh vegetables, chicken, beans and Italian herbs in a flavorful broth. Pasta optional, as it is added at serving time. Stove top, Instant Pot and Slow Cooker directions included.

Course Soup

Cuisine Italian

Diet Diabetic, Low Calorie

Keyword chicken minestrone soup, minestrone chicken soup

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

release time 10

Total Time 45

Servings

Calories 385kcal

Author Robin Gagnon

Equipment

Instant Pot, Slow Cooker or Soup Pot

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large onions peeled and diced (3 medium)
3 pieces of bacon chopped regular or turkey bacon
2 cups celery chopped
2 cups carrots chopped
1 medium zucchini or yellow squash chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cloves garlic minced
⅓ cup loosely packed fresh basil minced
28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes or your favorite crushed tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
15 oz can white beans drained (Cannellini beans, white kidney beans or Great Northern beans)
4 cups cooked rotisserie chicken chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
al dente cooked pasta (such as elbow macaroni, shells, or ditalini) optional

Instructions

Heat your Instant Pot on saute mode with olive oil in the bottom of the pot.
When it’s nice and hot, add your diced onions and bacon and sauté for about five minutes, stirring often, until bacon is crispy and onions are tender.
Add your celery and carrots, and sauté for another five minutes covering between stirs to soften the veggies faster.
Add zucchini and cook for 2 more minutes.
Add your tomato paste, garlic, and basil. Let it cook for two minutes, careful not to let the garlic burn.
Add the tomatoes and use a potato masher to mash them up.
Add the chicken broth, drained white beans, rotisserie chicken, parsley, and oregano to the pot and mix well.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cancel the saute mode, place the Instant Pot lid on and lock in to “sealing”. Select manual/high pressure and set the timer for 2 minutes.
When finished, allow the Instant Pot to do a natural release for about 10 minutes, then place the valve on “venting” to release the rest of the pressure.
Serve with a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese.
Make pasta on the side to add to bowls when serving. Elbow pasta, shells or ditalini pasta are popular choices.

Notes

Recipe Variations:

Exchange the regular chicken stock for reduced sodium or vegetable broth.
To make with raw boneless skinless chicken breasts instead of shredded rotisserie chicken, use 1 pound of chicken diced into bite-size pieces and add along with the zucchini rather than later in the cooking process.
Add a cup or two of cut green beans to the soup.
To make the soup spicy add a few pinches of red pepper flakes.

Slow Cooker

Cooking Time: 4 hour 15 mins on high, 6 hour 15 mins on low

To make the soup in a Crock Pot, perform steps 1-4 in a large skillet or Dutch oven unless you have a saute or sear feature on your slow cooker (add the minced garlic cloves along with the zucchini in step 4). Then transfer to the Crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

Stove Top

Cooking Time: 1 hour 15 mins

Using a soup pot such as a Dutch oven, is the traditional way to make a classic minestrone soup. To do so, simple sauté the veggies as shown in recipe over medium-high heat. Reduce to medium heat before adding the garlic, tomato pasta and basil. Add remaining ingredients as mentioned in main recipe. Reduce to simmer once soup starts to boil and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Nutrition calculated without optional pasta added in.

Nutrition