This Italian Tomato Chicken and Rice Soup is hearty, healthy and easy to make. It’s loaded with sautéed veggies, herbs, spices and shredded chicken – nourishing, satisfying and absolutely delicious!

Tomatoey Chicken and Rice Soup🍅🍲

A few more things to love about this soup:

• Veggie Packed: This soup is filled to the brim with veggies and bulked out with rice and chicken making it healthy and filling!
• One Pot: Cook and add ingredients in stages to layer in the flavor without needing to dirty any more dishes in the process.
• Great Leftovers: Make a big pot and enjoy throughout the week. The flavors only get better with time!

Soup Steps

• Sauté Veggies + Spices:
  • Warm a large pot with oil then sauté onion and garlic about 5-7 minutes to soften.
  • Add carrots, celery, bell pepper and cook another minute.
  • Stir in dried spices, tomato paste and canned tomatoes. Cook another couple of minutes.

• Simmer Liquids + Chicken:
  • Add chicken stock, water, bay leaves and chicken thighs to the pot.
  • Simmer over a medium heat, then cover and cook about 25 minutes.
  • Optional Step: Once or twice as the soup cooks, skim off the foam/scum that gathers at the top soup. This is mostly done for the overall appearance rather than flavor.

• Cook Rice
  • Add the uncooked rice and simmer another 10-15 minutes until fully cooked.
    • For a thicker soup use 1 cup rice.
    • Make sure to rinse the rice before adding to the pot to wash off the excess starch.

• Shred Chicken:
  • Remove, shred and discard chicken bones then return the shredded chicken back to the pot.
• Taste + Season:
  • Stir in lemon juice for a final pop of flavor.
  • Add more salt and pepper as needed. Low sodium stocks/broth may need more salt.
  • Add a couple tablespoons grated parmesan for more umami. Use nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan for dairy free alternatives.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Rice: Use brown rice instead of white rice. Simmer without rice for about 15 minutes, then add the brown rice and cook another 30 minutes before shredding and de-boning the chicken.
• Chicken: I recommend using bone-in thighs over chicken breast for the flavor (fat = flavor). However, if you’d prefer a lower calorie option you can absolutely use chicken breast instead. If using chicken breast, only simmer about 20-25 minutes to avoid overcooking the meat.
• Stock: Use your favorite chicken broth/stock: homemade, from a stock cube, or store bought. If you’d like more control over the saltiness of the soup, use a lower sodium stock and add salt as you like. Vegetable broth/stock also works.
• Grated Cheese (or vegan equivalent) – For even more umami add some parmesan cheese at the end! For a dairy free option use nutritional yeast to give your soup a similar, cheesy/nutty flavor.

Hungry for More Homemade Soups?

More hearty, healthy and delicious soup recipes to check out:

• Five Spice Chicken Noodle Soup – Easy Pho Recipe
• From Scratch Instant Pot Chicken Soup Recipe
• Easy Tomato Soup – Instant Pot
• Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Low FODMAP Tomato Carrot Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken And Wild Rice Soup
• Fasolada (Greek Bean Soup)

Enjoy!

Let me know if you try this Tomato Chicken & Rice Soup recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Recipe

Italian Chicken and Rice Soup

Yield: 6-8 servings Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

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Loaded with sautéed veggies, herbs, spices, tomato and shredded chicken - Gluten Free + Dairy Free

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil (30 mll)
• 1 large chopped onion, white or yellow
• 3 large cloves minced garlic (about 1 tbsp)
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 3 medium celery stalks, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp Italian Herb Seasoning
• 1 tsp fennel seed (optional)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 can chopped tomatoes in juice [15oz | 440g]
• 6 cups chicken stock (1.4L)
• 2 cups water (480 ml)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.5 lb bone in, skinless chicken thighs
• 2/3 cup long grain white rice, uncooked (130g)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (30ml)
• Salt and black pepper to season

Optional Additions

• 2 tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese or Nutritional Yeast (or to taste)
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• Fresh herbs like parsley, basil, oregano etc

Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.

Instructions

1. Warm olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over a medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes until onion softens and turns translucent.
2. Add carrots, celery, bell peppers to the onion mixture and cook another minute or so. Stir in the Italian herb seasoning, fennel seeds (if using) tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. Cook another 2-3 minutes.
3. Add stock, water, bay leaves and chicken thighs. Bring to a simmer then cover and continue to simmer another 25 minutes.
4. Optional: Every so often as the soup cooks, skim the foam off the top of the soup for cleaner looking broth.
5. Remove lid, stir in the rice then cover and simmer another 15 minutes to cook the rice.
6. Turn off the heat. Remove chicken thighs from the pot and transfer to a large bowl. Remove the bones and shred the meat with a couple of forks. Stir the shredded meat back into the soup pot along with the lemon juice.
7. Taste and season the soup adding optional additions as desired: grated parmesan, chili flakes, fresh herbs, more salt and pepper etc. Serve and enjoy.
8. Store leftover chicken soup in an airtight container in the fridge. Keep up to 3-4 days.

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

© A Saucy Kitchen, Sarah Nevins

Course: Soups & Stews Cuisine: Italian