Chicken Parmesan Soup is a great Italian chicken soup that is a combination of the wonderful flavors of chicken, Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasonings. Good enough for company but super easy in your crock pot for a weeknight family dinner.
Introduction and My Rating
We love chicken in this cooking for two household. We love soup, and I love simple. And this soup will fit for most low fat, low carb or keto diets.
So from my wife's Pinterest board, we have Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan Soup from Fox Loves Lemons. The recipe has been quite popular around the blogs, and there are a number of similar recipes. But like all recipes, it is just guidelines. So a nip and a tuck here and a simplification there, and we have what I wanted.
First, I wanted more meat... doubled. Next, I rarely have fresh herbs, so dry is always available—a bit more garlic, more broth to support the chicken, and lastly, diced tomatoes. I have never seen a 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes—very nice soup with almost no work.
My Rating
A low five for me and a bit higher for my wife.
🐓The Chicken
This recipe needs about 1 pound of raw chicken. Usually, that would be skinless boneless chicken breasts, but thighs would be fine. I happen to have chicken tenders.
If you have precooked chicken, like a rotisserie chicken, you will need about 3 cups of shredded chicken that you should add along with the pasta.
♨️Ingredients
The Cheese
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese will add a lot of flavors that you won't get from processed versions. I like buying Parmigiano Reggiano, usually in a big chunk from Sam's Club.
I prefer grated in the cheese and shredded for topping at serving.
The Pasta
The pasta is cooked in the crock pot with the fluid from the broth and chicken. I suggest using standard box pasta here since I know how it will cook in this sort of usage. If you want to use a non-standard type of pasta, you need to watch that it is cooked fully but not overcooked.
✔️Tips
Crock Pot Size
This fits in a 3 ½ quart or bigger crock pot. A double recipe will be fine in 6 quart or larger.
❄️Storage
This soup will store well refrigerated for 2-3 days. You may want to add more broth during reheating since the pasta will absorb more fluid. You can freeze this soup for 2-3 months.
📖Crock Pot Soups
Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Healthy Crockpot White Bean Chili Spiced Up
🔪Instructions
Start by grating ½ cup of Parmesan cheese plus a little extra for topping at the end. You could use a pre-grated, but it will suffer in taste.
Chop one green pepper and one small onion. Clean and trim 1 pound of chicken. Any raw chicken will do.
Add a 14 oz can diced tomatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, four cloves crush garlic, one teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon oregano, and ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Add ½ cup Parmesan cheese, chicken, pepper, and onion.
Cook on low for 4 hours total but 3 ½ hours into cooking, remove the chicken and shred.
Place the chicken along with 1 cup of dry pasta back into the crock pot and cook for about 30 minutes more until pasta is done to taste.
Serve with additional shredded Parmesan topping.
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📖 Recipe
Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan Soup
Ingredients
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese - plus a little extra for topping
- 1 green pepper
- 1 onion - small
- 1 pound chicken
- 14 oz diced tomatoes
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cloves crush garlic
- 1 teaspoon dry basil
- ½ teaspoon dry oregano
- ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 cup dry pasta
Instructions
- Start by grating ½ cup of Parmesan cheese plus a little extra for topping at the end. You could use a pre-grated, but it will suffer in taste.
- Chop one green pepper and one small onion. Clean and trim 1 pound of chicken. Any raw chicken will do.
- Add a 14 oz can diced tomatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, four cloves crush garlic, one teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon oregano and ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Add ½ cup Parmesan cheese, chicken, pepper, and onion.
- Cook on low for 4 hours total but 3 ½ hours into cooking, remove the chicken and shred.
- Place the chicken along with 1 cup of dry pasta back into the crock pot and cook for about 30 minutes more until pasta is done to taste.
- Serve with additional shredded Parmesan topping.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Use the chicken you want but generally skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs.
- You can use pre-cooked chicken like a rotisserie chicken. You will need about 3 cups and you would add it at the same time as the pasta.
- Good quality Parmesan cheese will add a lot of flavors.
- This fits many diets well like a low fat or keto diet.
- I have not added extra salt and you may want some added to your taste.
- This fits in a 3 ½ quart or bigger crock pot. A double recipe will be fine in 6 quarts or larger.
- You can cook this on high in half the time.
- This soup will store well refrigerated for 2-3 days.
- You may want to add more broth during reheating since the pasta will absorb more fluid. You can freeze this soup for 2-3 months.
Nutrition
Editor's Note: Originally Published October 11, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos and a table of contents to help navigation.
DOROTHY GALLARDO
1 pound chicken without skin is 10 pts
parmesan cheese 4 oz 15 pts
broth chicken 4 cups 4 pts
pasta 1 cup 24
53 pts divided by 6 9 pts a serving
Danielle
It's in the crock pot now waiting to put the pasta in. Just stired it. Hope it gets thicker when pasta is used. It's too soupy for me
Suzanne
Dr. Dan Made this soup for my husband and I and my picky son and his wife and son stopped in. Needless to say it was a big hit and Meggan went home with the recipe at my son's urging and even my teenage grandsons couldn't get enough. Glad I made double batch. Thanks again for another hit!
Charles
Hi, Dr. Dan.
This isn't a direct comment on this particular recipe, but rather about an ingredient - Chicken Broth. Blood pressure, and all that stuff...
I've found that substituting a good stock - lower (roughly half) salt, zero fat, zero carbs, 10 cals per cup, mostly from protein. (remainder from, the "zero fat, zero carbs") works well in your recipes, without adding any extra salt to compensate. If it tastes a bit short, often a bit more spice will do the trick, rather than adding salt.
For example, Swanson broth (pictured above, in your recipe) vs. Costco Kirkland Signature Organic Chicken Stock, which I use for just about everything, including rice sometimes.
Per cup - from the box(Kirk) and from the website for the same size box(Swanson)
Calories: Swan-10, Kirk-10
Fat Calories: Swan-5, Kirk-0
Sodium: Swan-860, Kirk-440
Total Carb: Swan-1g, Kirk-0
Protein: Swan-1g, Kirk-2g
DrDan
Hi Charles, thanks again for the thoughts.
The FDA has some rounding rules for manufacturers that can make comparing low number funky. Lets look at the Fat Calories for example. If under 50 calories per serving then this is rounded to the nearest 5. So here the Swanson maybe 2.6 and the Kirkland 2.4. The sodium is approximately correct. (I did use low sodium broth this time which is 570). The carb and protein... rounding issues again perhaps.
These rounding rules make it almost impossible to calculate nutritional information correctly on a recipe. Zero is not really zero and if you use 4 cups it may not be zero but really almost 10. This is why I don't usually do nutritional analysis. It would be misleading although I have done it a few times for fun.
Check out this link. https://goo.gl/ZZGY6p
The FDA has their link but I can't find it right now and it is written in "Government talk" anyways.
Did you know PAM which is pure oil is listed as zero calories. What a world we live in...
I tend to use what I have. I do like broth a tiny bit more and should get in the habit of buy that instead but I use cans more than boxes since they are smaller and I tend to forget the half used box in the refrigerator.
Dan
DrDan
I should also point out the nutritional analysis you find on blogs and recipe sites all have the same issues with these numbers. So take the official manufacturer FDA numbers for what they are (rounded and somewhat misleading) BUT if calculated for those numbers I would question the accuracy a lot.
Karen
I have two questions. Did you mean 1 (14 ounce can diced tomatoes)? Recipe ingredients say diced chicken. When do we put in the 1/2 cup of Parmesan, at the beginning or when adding the pasta? I am looking forward to making this soup soon, sounds really good!
Charles
1) yes, 1 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes.
1.5) (seemed like a question) the chicken is a matter of preference. Leave it whole, and remove at 3.5 hours to shred and return with the pasta, *or* cube it before cooking, if you prefer to have chunkier bits of chicken in the final product. Skip the shred step in this case. (My take on the recipe, after all, they are just guidelines...)
2) Add the cheese at the start. Add a little bit more for garnish when serving.