Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup

December 4, 2014

Warm up this winter with my fast weeknight Sweet Potato & Chicken Soup. It’s gluten free, bursting with kid-friendly flavors, and it’s packed with  vitamin A, an immune booster.

Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup via LizsHealthyTable.com

It’s hard to avoid stuffy noses and colds in the winter, but eating foods rich in vitamin A (like sweet potatoes!), can keep your family’s immune system going strong. This soup is sweet (from the sweet potatoes!), so even if your kids tend to shy away from vegetables, chances are they will love every steamy spoonful.

5.0 from 4 reviews
Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup
 
Author: 
Nutrition Information
  • Serves: 6
  • Serving size: 1 generous cup
  • Calories: 140
  • Fat: 3.5g
  • Saturated fat: 0.5g
  • Carbohydrates: 14g
  • Sodium: 510mg
  • Fiber: 2
  • Protein: 13g
Recipe type: Dinner
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My recipe was just featured in the Live Well Digest, a quarterly WIC publication. It's easy to make, a favorite with families, and it's gluten free.
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil or canola oil
  • 2 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into ¼-inch dice (about ¾ cup)
  • 1 small onion, cut into ¼-inch dice (about 1 cup)
  • 4 cups chicken broth, made from reduced sodium chicken bouillon or in a 32 ounce carton
  • One medium sweet potato (12 ounces), peeled and cut into ½-inch dice
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1½ cups roughly chopped cooked chicken (about 8 ounces)
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a medium-size pot over medium-low heat. Add the celery and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 10 minutes. Lower the heat if the vegetables begin to brown.
  2. Add the chicken broth, sweet potato, and thyme, and stir to combine. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook at a low boil, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
  3. Stir in the chicken and heat through.
Notes
If you follow a vegetarian diet, switch from chicken broth to vegetable broth, and leave the chicken out. For more protein, add 1 to 2 cups of chickpeas. Each serving has 160% vitamin A.

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Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup via LizsHealthyTable.com

      1. If you have fresh pumpkin, use 12 ounces. Peel the pumpkin, cut into 1/2-inch dice, and cook according to the recipe.

        Reply

  5. Thanks for the quick to put together and healthy soup recipe.
    Due to allergy had to eliminate celery, but added a medium turnip
    and a yellow pepper. So yummy and hearty, we have a new
    favorite soup!

    Reply

  6. We like hearty soups so I put in extra chicken, a carrot, cannelloni beans and zucchini. My first soup with sweet potatoes and was delicious!

    Reply

  8. Made this for my family this weekend, it was delightful. I added some left over mushrooms and cauliflower at the end. Big hit!

    Reply

  9. This is a wonderful, wonderful recipe!
    Very delicious and has the perfect amount of flavor!! Thank you so much for the post!

    Reply

  10. I’ve not tried this, but…there are tons of things to do to chicken soup to intensify flavors and build the base. Roast whole onions for soup, use rehydrated shitake (stemmed, sliced) for deep umami flavor. Sliced ginger. Use bone in chicken. I’ll remove bone and put bones back in to further cook out flavor. Garlic and kosher seasalt. The additions are endless, enoki mushrooms, tofu, fresh seafood, garnished with cilantro, chives, fine slivers of ginger. I’ll even cook a batch of farro to add into individual bowls. You can go in so many directions with a good chicken soup! So many.

    Reply

    1. Rebecca. You made our day. So many great ideas. My mom, by the way, makes the BEST chicken soup in the world. When I see bone broth recipes, I think about the base for her soups!

      Reply

  11. Thank you so much for this recipe.I made this soup for Family meal at my job. Everybody loved it. And I mean everybody including the bosses. I added broccoli and some lime juice to make it my own.

    Reply

  12. Delicious and quick lunch meal! I included garlic as I sauteed the celery and onions, added a small amount of a hot pepper for heat, and a teaspoon of tumeric for health!

    Reply

  13. I love to make soup with root veggies, including carrot, parsnip, beet. I’ve never used sweet potato because I worried it wouldn’t hold up for an hour of cooking. Can you only put them in at the end, or will they stand up to the coming like a regular potato?

    Reply

    1. I’d put them in later in the cooking process. When they are cut into a small dice, they will cook quickly. A half-inch dice should soften with just about 15 minutes of cooking. So if the broth is on a low bubble, add the diced sweet potato, bring back to a low bubble, and give it 15 minutes. Check for doneness. If not tender, give it a few more minutes. Hope that helps!

      Reply

  14. Had my doubts on the simplicity of the soup but it’s pretty tasty. For some depth I added chiliflakes and poultry seasoning.

    Reply

  15. I loved it and made it twice this week! Next time I will just double it. I was under the weather with a cold and needed some comfort food, but didn’t want chicken noodle soup. I came across this recipe and thought it looked simple and nourishing. It was great and I got over my cold and was able to do well on my final exam! Thank you

    Reply
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