Chicken Parmesan Soup recipe is a great Italian soup with tender chicken and pasta combined with Parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings in a flavorful tomato broth.
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This chicken parm soup is good enough for company but easy for a weeknight family dinner. Most people use their slow cooker, which will be about 4 hours. But the stovetop is about 1 hour. And use rotisserie chicken will only take 20-30 minutes.
It is a fantastic chicken soup for a crock pot or stovetop. And it will fit a healthy diet like a low-calorie or low-fat diet or even a low-carb keto diet.
Serve with a nice side salad and bread like Peasant Bread or Whole Wheat Rolls. Or use it along with an entree of Baked Chicken Parmesan or Chicken Baked Ziti.
See Pasta e Fagioli Soup for another Italian Pasta soup. You may also these other crock pot soup and chili recipes, like Taco Chili, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Vegetable Beef Soup, Healthy White Bean Chili, and Easiest Crock Pot White Chicken Chili.
Inspired by Fox Loves Lemons-Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan Soup, one of several similar recipes. But I added a nip, a tuck, a simplification, and some stovetop instructions.
🐓Ingredients
- Chicken—breasts or thighs
- Parmesan cheese
- Aromatics—onion, garlic
- Green pepper
- Pasta
- Cans—chicken broth, diced tomatoes
- Pantry—dry basil, dry oregano, crushed red pepper (optional)
👨🍳How to Make Chicken Parmesan Soup
- Prep green pepper and onion. Clean and trim chicken.
- Add diced tomatoes, chicken broth, chicken, onion, crushed garlic, Parmesan cheese, pepper, and spices to a crock pot or large pot.
- Crock Pot: Cook on low for 3 ½ hours into cooking; remove the chicken and shred.
- Stovetop: Bring to a light boil, then decrease to simmer and cover. Cook until chicken is 165°—30-40 minutes.
- Remove the chicken, shred it, and return to the slow cooker or pot with the dry pasta.
- In the crock pot, cook for about 30 minutes until the pasta is al dente. On the stovetop, simmer until the pasta is al dente, usually 10-15 minutes, depending on the pasta.
- Serve with additional shredded Parmesan topping.
✔️Tips
- Use the chicken you want. Precooked or rotisserie chicken can be used—see how in the FAQ section below.
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese will add a lot of flavors that you won't get from processed versions.
- I prefer grated in the soup and shredded for topping at serving.
- Use a standard box of pasta here. If you want to use non-standard pasta, you need to watch that it is cooked fully but not overcooked.
↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size" recipe
This is a very easy recipe to decrease or increase in size. The full recipe makes about 12 cups, which I call 6 large servings.
The slow cooker needs a 4 quart or larger. A half recipe would fit in a 2-quart mini crock pot, and a double recipe would need a very large 8-quart size, but an increase of 50% would fit in the more common 6-quart size.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings desired.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- Cook for the same amount of time.
❓FAQs
One pound of cooked shredded chicken will make about 3 cups in volume.
You will need about 3 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken.
Add everything but the pasta to a large pot, bring to a boil over medium heat, then add the pasta. Cover and simmer until the pasta is al dente, usually 10-15 minutes.
❄️Storage
This soup will store well and be refrigerated for 4 days. You may want to add more broth during reheating since the pasta will absorb more fluid. You can freeze this soup for 3 months.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Use fresh Parmesan cheese if possible.
Chop one green pepper and one small onion—clean and trim 1 pound of chicken. Any raw chicken will do.
To a 4-quart crock pot or a large pot, add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, 4 cloves crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon oregano, and ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Add ½ cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese, chicken, pepper, and onion.
In a crock pot, cook on low for about 3 ½ hours. On the stovetop: Bring to a light boil, cover, and decrease to simmer—cook for about 30-40 minutes. When the chicken is 165°, remove and shred it.
Place the chicken and 1 cup of dry pasta back into the crock pot or pot. Cook until al dente—about 30 minutes in the crock pot or 10-15 minutes on the stovetop, depending on the pasta.
Serve with additional shredded Parmesan topping.
📖 Recipe
Chicken Parmesan Soup (Crock Pot or Stovetop)
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
- Use fresh Parmesan cheese if possible.
- Chop one green pepper and one small onion—clean and trim 1 pound of chicken. Any raw chicken will do.
- To a 4-quart crock pot or a large pot, add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, 4 cloves crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon basil, ½ teaspoon oregano, and ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Add ½ cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese, chicken, pepper, and onion.
- In a crock pot, cook on low for about 3 ½ hours. On the stovetop: Bring to a light boil, cover, and decrease to simmer—cook for about 30-40 minutes. When the chicken is 165°, remove the chicken, and shred it.
- Place the chicken, along with 1 cup of dry pasta, back into the crock pot or pot. Cook until al dente—about 30 minutes in the crock pot or 10-15 minutes on the stovetop, depending on the pasta.
- Serve with additional Parmesan topping.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Use the chicken you want but generally skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs.
- You can use precooked chicken like a rotisserie chicken. You will need about 3 cups and you would add it at the same time as the pasta. See the FAQ section in the post.
- 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 4 quart or larger crock pot. Crock pot size is discussed in the post. A mini crock pot will work for a half recipe, a 6 quart for 50% increase and an 8 quart for a double recipe.
- You can cook this on high in half the time but the paste phase will still not cut in half.
- This soup will store well refrigerated for 4 days.
- You may want to add more broth during reheating since the pasta will absorb more fluid. You can freeze this soup for 3 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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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.