Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Ginger Soup
Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Ginger Soup combines chicken breast with healthy vegetables, ginger, and several tasty spices including the medicinal Turmeric. This soup is filling, ultra healthy, and should be on your menu to kick off the new year.
Soup Season at our home looks like a constant rotations of flavors and textures. We love a spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup, a creamy Autumn Squash Soup, or a hearty Beef Barley Vegetable Soup on any given night of the week!
Healthy Chicken Soup
I’m all about starting the new year off on the right foot. No resolutions here to speak of, but just an overall goal to improve health. Up the veggies, lower the sugar, more fish, less wine (gasp!), and yes, move MORE. Are you in?
This anti-inflammatory soup was concocted for several reasons – to boost our immunities after the holidays, for a comforting home cooked meal, and to get back to lean eating after over-indulging.
Why This Recipe Works:
- SIMPLE RECIPE – This recipe uses simple ingredients including chicken, plenty of vegetables, healthy turmeric, and broth. All of these can easily be found in your local grocery store.
- FULL OF FLAVOR – We love the flavor of this simple soup recipe. It’s lean and mean and also really tasty!
- NUTRIENT-DENSE – This soup is loaded with nutrients, including protein and veggies. The turmeric, garlic, and ginger provide healing qualities.
Ingredient Notes:
- Fresh Veggies – Onion, carrots, celery, and shredded cabbage are the ultimate combo for this tasty soup.
- Turmeric – The potent anti-inflammatory spice that has the potential to prevent heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer. It may also help improve symptoms of depression and arthritis.
- Other Spices – Onion powder, rosemary, and thyme.
- Garlic & Ginger – These two root vegetables are commonly known to have medicinal benefits, in addition to their culinary uses in the kitchen.
- Chicken Breast – I tend to use organic chicken in almost all of my recipes now. But you could use rotisserie chicken or use whatever you have handy. Make sure you cut the chicken into two inch cubes, for even cooking.
- Peas – A bag of frozen peas is the perfect addition to this healthy soup.
How to make Chicken Ginger Soup:
Step 1
Sauté veggies. Heat a large stock pot to medium-high heat. Add olive oil, and then the chopped onion, carrots, celery, and cabbage. Cook until slightly softened, about 6-7 minutes.
Step 2
Add garlic, ginger, and seasonings. To the stock pot, add the minced garlic and ginger, and the seasonings – salt and pepper, turmeric, onion powder, rosemary, and thyme. Cook for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Step 3
Cook chicken. Then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Season the chicken breast with salt, and add it to the pot over medium heat (a rolling simmer). Cook until done, about 8-10 minutes. Remove chicken from pot to cool slightly.
Step 4
Shred chicken. Shred chicken with two forks, or place chicken chunks in a standing mixer, and using a strong attachment (to the mixer), start to shred it. This will take a couple of minutes.
Step 5
Add chicken back. Add the chicken back to the pot, along with the frozen peas. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes, or until the peas are warm. Check seasonings and adjust as necessary.
Step 6
Serve. Serve the soup with some freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!
Anti-inflammatory Benefits of Turmeric.
I’ve been living with chronic pain for more than half of my life. So instead of relying solely on ibuprofen, I like to add natural ingredients to our food to help fight pain. The Turmeric in this soup, as well as in my Anti-inflammatory Golden Milk, is my attempt at less drugs, more natural pain relief.
Curcumin is the ingredient in Turmeric that provides the anti-inflammatory benefit. It’s helpful to take it with black pepper for better absorption into the bloodstream, which is why freshly ground black pepper is an ingredient in my recipe.
While acute (short-term) inflammation can be beneficial to help the body fight foreign invaders, it can become a problem when it becomes chronic (or long-term). Turmeric can be helpful in fighting many of these chronic conditions, including heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, depression, and various other degenerative conditions.
Recipe FAQs:
Experts say that ginger root is anti-inflammatory, is beneficial for heart health, helps with nausea and motion sickness, is linked with lowering cholesterol, and may reduce muscle pain and soreness. Let’s incorporate ginger to our recipes!
Yes, you can substitute powdered ginger in this recipe, but it won’t taste the same. I love the “bite” of fresh ginger! But if you’d rather, use 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger for every tablespoon of fresh. Since this recipe calls for four tablespoons of fresh ginger, use one teaspoon of powdered ginger, if desired.
* In the refrigerator. You can store fresh ginger root (peel on) in the refrigerator for about a week. Wrap it tightly in plastic, and keep in your produce drawer.
* In the freezer. Use a freezer bag to store ginger root (peel on) in the freezer for several months. When you need some for a recipe, just peel some of the frozen ginger and return it to the freezer. It peels very easily from a frozen state!
Kitchen Tools Used:
xoxo ~Sue
Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Ginger Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion – chopped
- 4 large carrots – chopped
- 3 stalks celery – chopped
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper – to taste
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 3 cloves garlic – minced
- 4 Tablespoons ginger – minced
- 9-10 cups lower sodium chicken broth
- 2.5 pounds chicken breasts – cut into two-inch cubes
- 2 cups frozen peas
Instructions
- In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, add olive oil, and then the chopped onion, carrots, celery, and cabbage. Cook until slightly softened, about 6-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic, ginger, and seasonings – salt, pepper, turmeric, onion powder, rosemary, and thyme. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
- Then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Season the chicken breast with salt and add it to the pot over medium heat. Cook until done, about 15 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside to cool slightly.
- Shred chicken with two forks, or add it to a standing mixer to shred. Add it back to the pot, along with the frozen peas. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes or until peas are warm.
- Check seasonings, and serve with some freshly ground black pepper.
I love this!! I’ve been making this for awhile now, not putting the celery and peas tho. Also i don’t have chicken broth (living in Asia specifically in Philippines) so im using 4 chicken cubes added to the 10cups of water. Just wondering what’s the alternative of not having a chicken broth? Can we leave it as is? Given that initially the ingredients of the stock is on your recipe? Pls reply and hoping to have a better alternative since i want this not to have additives like msg etc from the broth/chicken cubes.
If you don’t have access to broth, I recommend making your own by boiling a whole chicken with plenty of herbs and spices.
This reminded me a little of what is called Thai House Soup in local Thai restaurants, but oh so much more hearty and sustaining. The taste is there though, and it’s even more delicious at home made from fresh ingredients. I will definitely save this recipe to remake again. I tried it out today because my wife has a cold and she said she wanted some good chicken and garlic soup to eat to make her feel better. Very delicious.
I added more garlic, because we can’t get enough of the stuff. 8 cloves for us, and I probably could’ve added more. Because I didn’t want to have to drive to the grocery store on this cold, dreary, rainy day, I used ground ginger instead of fresh. I had some really good quality frozen minimally cooked & seasoned chicken breasts, but I don’t think it detracted from the end result at all. And since we already had frozen peas & carrots, I just used those. Everything else was very similar.
This sounds delicious, Mike. I hope your wife is feeling better!
So good! Love the flavors, warms my soul. Found your recipe at the right time. Fighting a cold and a healing soup.
Thanks Jennifer! I hope you feel better soon!
Excellent! I will cook cut the chicken breast in half next time. It was was tough and difficult to shred from the small cubes. The flavor and aroma was fantastic!
I’m so happy to hear this, Jay!
Hello, can i substitute water to the chicken stock? And if ever water what shall i add? Thanks
My body felt great after eating this and it tastes great, too.
Absolutely delicious. It’s loaded with flavor and is very filling. Best of all-the ingredients are good for you!
Delicious and healthy!
Thanks for letting me know, Margaret!
Thank you for this lovely recipe! The only changes I made were adding the juice of one lemon, and not adding the frozen peas to the finished soup. I live alone, and don’t like mushy, discolored peas in my reheated soup. I add them “to order”. I place enough peas for one bowl of soup, in a small strainer. I run them under hot water until they are thawed, and drain. I add the peas to my bowl, and then add hot soup. Fresh peas every time. Same with pasta. I cook the pasta on the side, and add to each bowl as needed. That way the pasta doesn’t absorb all the leftover soup liquid and get mushy.
Can leftovers be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze the leftover soup for 2-3 months.
I made this soup last week as my husband was at the hospital. I made some modifications, but the soup was really good. It helped me also with healing as I caught a cold.
I made my own bone chicken stock, I added green beans and one potato as I did not have cabbage.
I will keep this recipe for future use.
Thanks for your feedback, Jane!
This is phenomenal! I was looking for a chicken soup with ginger for my mom who is sick right now, and this was just the ticket!
I substituted spinach for the cabbage and added it at the end with the peas, and made the stock myself. I also added just a dash of red wine vinegar and soy sauce to balance out the flavors at the end. Looking forward to leftovers for the next couple of nights!
I’m so glad to hear this, Lindsay! đŸ™‚
Hi Sue. I’m giving this recipe a five-star even though I haven’t tried it yet because I was going to make my mother’s recipe for chicken soup which takes spinach and some other ingredients I don’t have on hand. Yet, I started to think this morning why can’t I make a chicken soup with cabbage Ginger and peas parsley carrots and celery and onion and garlic? Then I looked on the internet to see if anyone else had thought of the same idea and I saw not only did you have a recipe but it’s an Asian dish to make chicken soup with cabbage and Ginger. I’m so grateful. My daughter has been sick and I know this soup will help her. God bless you exceedingly. God used you in my morning moments of needing rest and to use the ingredients I have on hand rather than going to the grocery store in the Christmas rush.
Let me know how it turns out, Tulsi!
Hi Sue,
I just wanted to come in here and say THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this soup with the world. I recently had my eggs frozen, also known as mature oocyte cryopreservation, to preserve my ability for pregnancy later on in life. And I am terribly bloated due to the reactions from the medications (hormones galore). I was looking for foods to help me with healing and that could be equally satisfying. Boy am I happy to have come across your soup! The soup has all the anti-inflammatory foods that I was seeking to incorporate into my diet in my healing journey. And what’s best is that this soup is extremely delicious. Just what I needed and I’m so so grateful to you. Have a wonderful day!
Hi Jasmin! Wow, thank you so much for this kind review. I wish you well on your healing journey!
Nice recipe. I like my soup thicker so gave it a quick zap with hand held blender before adding shredded chicken back in. đŸ˜‹
Hi Mark. Sounds like a great idea to thicken this!
I almost never leave reviews but OMG this soup is so good. I tweaked the recipe a little bit. Halved it, kept the garlic and ginger the same, blended two cans of great northern beans and added it to the soup to make it more creamy. It was very flavorful, rich, and obviously very nutritious. I can’t wait to make this again for my bf when he gets back from England.
I love your idea of blending the beans, Aria! Thanks for your feedback!
I am going to doo this. Sounds delicious!
This soup is not only absolutely delicious but it has healing super powers! I have been under the weather the last week and this was the only thing that made me feel better. Thank you for sharing this recipe, I will be making this forever now!
This is so good to hear, Shannon! Thanks for your feedback!
The soup looks delicious & can’t wait to try it. Looking at the photo which shows your bowl of spices, it appears the thyme & rosemary are both dried. The pandemic has brought shortages on many things, including spices. I couldn’t find dried rosemary, so I bought fresh. Any suggestions on making an adjustment for fresh rather than 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary?
Hi Shirley. If you use fresh herbs, a good rule of thumb is to use twice as much as you would dried. Good luck!
Hello I see it’s 343 cal. What is the serving size?
Serving size is 1.5 – 2 cups each.
I love soup and this healthy option fills me up every time! Also, great meal prep option for taking your lunch to work!
It’s a great one!
I made this soup today, and I can tell it will become a staple for me. Love all the ingredients and the warm, rich taste of ginger and spices. Craig will probably require some crackers to help fill his stomach, but for me it doesn’t need them. It’s full of veggies, chicken and flavor, and it smells great too!
I’m so happy that you enjoyed this healthy soup, Jackie!