Chicken Zoodle Soup
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Just like mom’s cozy chicken noodle soup but made with zucchini noodles instead! So comforting AND healthy! 227.3 calories.
I think we’re having the coldest winter of all. And when I say coldest winter, I mean 40 degree F weather. No joke.
Californians are serious wimps in the cold considering we wear flip flops 350 days out of the year.
But this chicken soup is everything. Seriously, it. is. everything.
You have all your veggies in one pot, simmering away in all of it’s glory, swapping out traditional noodles for spiralized zucchini noodles (AKA zoodles), and then adding in a squeeze of lemon juice for that hint of refreshing goodness.
It’s super cozy, comforting and healthy – except it doesn’t even taste healthy.
You win all around.
Chicken Zoodle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 pound 3 medium-sized zucchini, spiralized*
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Add chicken to the stockpot and cook until golden, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the stockpot. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in thyme and rosemary until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in chicken stock, bay leaf and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Stir in zucchini noodles and chicken; reduce heat and simmer until zucchini is tender, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with rosemary and parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
This is a fantastic soup! Â My husband loves it! Â I did add. sweet potato. Â It smells so good! Â I made it in the Instant Pot for 7 minutes and 11 minutes slow release
I made this soup tonight for my wife and I. We both loved it. Only made 2 small changes. I Spiralized the carrots and I used a rotisserie chicken on hand. I love your blog site and all of your recipes that I’ve tried. Thank you so very much!Â
hi, can frozen bought spiral zucchini instead of fresh be used? Thank you.
This was incredibly delicious. The splash of lemon juice at the end really ties it all together. Thanks!
Quick, easy and oh so good!!Â
The soup is delicious. I made it for my twin brother and his wife and my brother said it was the best chicken soup I’ve ever had.
I’ve made this twice. Wonderful each time!
More of a question than a review, as I haven’t made this yet. Just curious about the carb count…it seems very high considering the ingredients.
I would guess the carb count is very low because the recipe uses entirely vegetables and no noodles. Vegetables while containing carbs also contain fiber which actually makes their net carb count low. The energy your body uses to break down the fiber counteracts what you would get from the carbs. This would be labeled as a very low carb meal due to that nutrition information. Hope that helps!
I made this soup last night! I love it! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
I turned this into a vegetarian soup  and it was delicious.  I was a little unsure about the liquid quantity so did 4 cups of vegetable broth.  This didn’t seem enough for the zoodles I had so I added an additional 2 cups.  I also cleaned out the weeks’ veggies from the fridge so included some broccoli and corn.  I also used fresh herbs from the kitchen; parsley, basil and rosemary.  Was a delicious, easy and fresh soup that used all my garden ( and fridge) had to offer!
This is the very best soup that I have ever smelled and/or tasted. Here’s the kicker: I don’t normally care for chicken soup! I have tried to make chicken soup in the past years and none of them ever impressed me. I’m 62 and the only time I wanted chicken soup would be when I was sick with a cold. I LOVE THIS SOUP!!! I first made it a few months ago and shared it with a friend (non THM) who was home bound recuperating from a major surgery. She had to call me and tell me that this was the best soup that she had ever tasted (and she told others from our church too). She’s older than me and I’m sure she’s had more experience w/ chicken soup than me. Anyways, Thank You for posting this recipe. I’m making some today (July) to have when I come home from surgery because it is very comforting as well as “Damn Delicious”. I’m all alone so this will make me feel much better.
We love hearing that, Linda! We hope your surgery goes well with a speedy recovery. Sending you lots of love!
Super easy, healthy and so damn delicious ! My family loved it. This recipe is a keeper
Just made this for dinner. Â It was delicious! Â
This hit the spot after a long day of intense cleaning! I batch cook meat ahead of time and saved some of my leftover shredded chicken from your salsa verde enchilada recipe
and used it here. I added mushrooms to this and did some “clean out the fridge” additions like green onion and fresh cilantro as a garnish. I didn’t have thyme but did add rosemary from my herb garden. Delicious and Diabetic friendly!!
Can you freeze this recipe?
Yes, you can freeze in plastic freezer bags (I like to lay them flat in the freezer to save on space), thaw in the fridge overnight, and reheat over low heat.
I loved the idea of this recipe, but I’m honestly surprised at the raving reviews. I thought it was so bland that I wouldn’t have wanted to serve this to anyone else. If you do decide to use this as a baseline, know that it certainly serves more than 2 like the previous commenter had indicated.Â
Oh no! I made it and loved it! However I did use a few more of the veggies listed to clean out my fridge and used chicken thighs in crockpot for 4 hours which adds more flavor. I love lemon so included a lemon wedge to squeeze over each bowl, added a splash of heavy cream, and extra fresh herbs so maybe that is what made the difference.
Delicious recipe that we’re happy to add to our weekly rotation! I used the meat from a rotisserie chicken and replaced the water with 2 extra cups of broth. The zucchini noodles were a great low-carb substitute.
That’s great Jenna, thanks for sharing!
I made this tonight and the spices, oh my, so flavorful! Thank you for such a great recipe.
This hits the spot today in very chilly West Michigan. Hubby has the start of a cold so fill him with chicken soup. I made two changes. One is I only had two small zucchini and instead of hauling out the sprilizer I just jullienned them. The other (Don’t get mad) I added a cup of pasta noodles. That just made it for me. Very delicious with great flavor. Will made again.
This popped up on my social media account and of course I had to try it with my zoodles that were in my freezer. I doubled the chicken, carrots, garlic and celery and used my stock pot. I also tinkered with the broth by using 5 parts homemade dark turkey stock to one part homemade roasted tomato with garlic soup. I also used thick cut zucchini noodles and it turned out so much better that I could have imagined. We live in rural Southern Manitoba, Canada and it’s been anywhere from -20 degrees celcius to -43 so this soup is perfect!
I omitted the zoodles and carrots and added 1/2 tsp of turmeric and a teaspoon of cayenne. This hit the spot. So good. I froze the soup in 9 oz Dixie cups, peeled the cup away once frozen and store in a gallon ziploc bag. Perfect low carb soup for one!Â
I also added 2 chicken bouillon cubes!
I love, love ,love this soup. Even my husband liked it.
HOW would you modify for cooking in crockpot? how long would you wait to add the zoodles? i make all soups in my crockpot for convenience
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I tried this last night and I really like it! My grocery store has started selling zoodles in the produce section and I wanted to try them before investing in a spiralizer. The lemon juice adds a nice flavor. I’ll probably add more chicken the next time I make it. I did end up adding almost 2 more cups of water, as it was more like a stew than soup.
Looks wonderful- I will substitute chicken for tofu and vegan chicken bouillon cubes!! Thank you!
This looks yummy!
Made this for dinner last night. This definitely met all my criteria for a perfect recipe: easy, healthy, and absolutely delicious! Love it when a recipe is nutritious without compromising on flavor. This will definitely become a weeknight staple in my house. First time I’ve ever made something from your site, but I will most definitely be trying more of your recipes now! Thanks.
Did I maybe make a mistake using fresh rosemary and putting in a sprig? It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like the rosemary is overpowering. Thanks in advance!
The rosemary sprig is only used as a garnish. 🙂
This was delicious and so easy to make! It was so flavorful and filling. I’ve never used a spiralizer before but now I’m excited to try other zoodle recipes!Â
Made this for my husband and me tonight, and we loved it! We doubled all the vegetables and used 2 cups chicken stock + 3 cups vegetables stock (didn’t add any water). Plus, I juiced a whole lemon and added cayanne to the chicken to spice it up a bit. It was delicious!
We’re in the middle of an ice storm so I stocked up on recipes to try–this being the first one. It was so good!!! I was nervous and almost but some regular noodles in–but my husband convinced me to try it as is–so glad!! The lemon juice gives it such a fresh taste-don’t skip it. I’ll definitely put this in the soup rotation! Â My only tip is to use scissors & cut the zoodles as you are putting them in the pot. Â Easier to eat—loved this!!!
thanks for the tip on cutting the zoodles. It is my first time using them and want to do it right.
I just made the soup & it is really good! Â I substituted with unsalted chicken stock & increased the lemon in the end. Â The next time I make it I will use a higher sodium content stock just to compare. Â It was pretty delicious even with the unsalted stock. Â Thank you for the recipe & the video!
This was really good. The only things I differently was use shredded rotisserie chicken and used 2 cups chicken broth instead of water. Very yummy on a cold day!
As the weather cools off here in Ohio soup is on my mind. I made this over this past weekend and it’s was lovely. The only think I will change the next time I make it is to add additional broth rather than the 2 cups of water. The water really diluted the flavor and made it less flavorful than it could have been.
As a Californian I can say it’s not being a whimp when you are use to a warmer climate. That’s why we pay higher prices for everything here…..we don’t have to shovel snow!
do you know what the carb count would be if you did not add the carrots?
Heidi, I recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain the nutritional information without carrots.
Do you add the zucchini cooked or raw?
The zucchini does not have to be cooked prior to adding.
Can I freeze this soup????
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Californians are NOT wimps of 40 degrees. I am a California native, have moved back after 10 years in cold Northeast Tennessee. Snow, cold win…
We are very close to the cold Pacific ocean, and 40 degrees is about the same as 25 degrees back in TN.
Thank you for the recipe, I look forward to trying it. Love your recipes.
I have one question: how long must this boil until we whisp zoodle in?
You can stir in the zucchini noodles as soon as it comes to a boil.
This is incredible! It has become a new favorite! The herbs that are used give it so much flavor! I stay away from grains, so this is perfect for me. Thank you so much!
Want to make really good soup suck it of the bone soup use whole chicken and boil for two or three hours  last hour add all your veggies and spices.  And there you have it the flavor is in the bones. Everyone will call you a queen or king
This soup is amazing, full of flavour, will definitely be making this again
First time I’ve ever made soup and it was so easy and it came out fantastic! I’ve been making variations of it twice a week haha.
All the recipes I’ve tried from you came out absolutely perfect, I’m in love with your recipes and thank you for brightening my days with great meals. Can’t wait to get my hands on your book this fall!
Just a note to let you know that this is our new chicken soup recipe. EVERYONE loved it and Teenboy didn’t even miss actual noodles! Simple and wonderful – Thank you
LOVED this recipe, Chungah! I made it a few weeks ago when I felt a cold coming on, but instead of the chicken stock I used my homemade chicken bone broth! So good 😀
For the record, our winters in north Texas get into the teens and I STILL wear flip flops…. 🙂
Oh my goodness, I made this soup tonight and I can honestly say it is THE most delicious chicken soup I have ever tasted!! Yum!! My family loved it too, wolfed it down! I don’t have a zoodle machine so just grated the zucchini in my food processor and it was perfect. Very easy recipe to make too. This will definitely be a once-a-week meal in our house 😉 Thank you!!
Thank you for your comment! I was just trying to figure out if I could make the zucchini noodles without a spiral slicer! I’m going to try shredding them!
The soup was okay. I added some other seasonings to make it more flavorful and I would suggest doubling the recipe if you have more than two in your family or want an abundance of leftovers. Not sure I would make this again but I do like the idea of using zucchini in place of noodles.
I just wanna say, THIS TURNED OUT AMAZING! I am not a great cook, like at all, yet I successfully made this soup and my husband AND picky 2 year old son loved it!!! Thats a miracle within itself!
I had to substitute the zucchini noodles with egg noodles simply because my husband is not down with “fake noodles” as he calls them.
I wish I had doubled the recipe so we could actually have leftovers.Â
This one is a keeper!!! thank you!
This recipe works great for left overs the zucchini stays firm and the flavors improve.
I made this recipe as written except I doubled it. It was even better the next day. We celebrate Chungah night once a week with all your recipes. Thank you so much.
Just finished my second helping! Went straight to your blog tonight when I couldn’t find the recipe I’ve used before. Don’t have a spiral slicer, had no zucchini, since I was making regular chicken noodle. I’m certain the zucchini adds more flavor than the handful & 1/2 egg noodles I added. But quick flavor fix with some drops of Sriracha! Even the kids liked it (minus the hot stuff). Cold here as we’re expecting the Blizzard of 2016 in NC- so this was a great way to end my day. As always, thanks so much for your delish quick and easy meals!!
Made this over the weekend using the spiralizer I got for Christmas. Â Amazing. Â On a cold day too; we just wanted to inhale the broth. Â Used half a small Meyer lemon from our tree so not sure if it was more than two tablespoons but really brightened it up. Â Sooooo good. Â Husband said I can make this whenever I want. Â Want to try your zucchini fettuccine next. Â Oh, and zucchini noodles held their form without sopping up all the broth as one reviewer wondered.Â
Hoping to try this soon. I ordered the spiralizer through the link on here and waiting for it to arrive. Hope it is a yummy as it looks!
Thank you for posting this recipe. My husband was recently diagnosed with diabetes and I’m constantly trying to find healthier versions of recipes. We love zucchini noodles in stir fry with shrimp or chicken. I’m going to make this.
Such a good idea for Zoodles! Excited to try this to warm up.Â
I have a spiralizer. Â I never thought to put the noodles in soup. Â How long do you think they can last in there? Â Regular noodles tend to suck up the liquid and turn to mush. Â What has been your experience with zoodles?
​Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as there were no leftovers! As always, please use your best judgment.


As a suggestion…just make the recipe up to the add zoodle part. Â It can stay in the fridge like that. Â When you are ready to eat a bowl. Â Ladle the no zoodle soup that you desire into a pan, heat it and pick up the recipe from there. Â Add the zoodles at that point and cook the 3-5 minutes. Â That way you never have to worry about mushy zoodles. Â
I do the same with cooked macaroni. I add it to the soup when reheating… no more mushy noodles!
I made a double batch of this soup last night and the zoodles have held up perfectly! They are even still a little crisp although they have become a bit more drab in color. Otherwise there is really no difference. If anything, it tastes even better the next day, as many soups do. I’m enjoying it now for my lunch as I am sick at work and it’s raining outside. I definitely recommend this soup!
This is so creative! Â I just got a spiral cutter and have been looking for zoodle ideas. Â What a great way to cut carbs!
This looks awesome and we get some real cold days here on the coast of Virginia! I have been wanting to buy a Spiralizer, but have hesitated until now. I trust you and your recommendations, so just ordered one from Amazon. Can hardly wait until it gets here! Thanks, Chungah!
This recipe sounds great! I have been looking for spiralizer recipes that work & can’t wait to try this one. I also like using it to easily shred carrots as well. We would like to see more using these types of cut veggies. (My favorite spiralizer is the OXO brand.) Thanks.
I saw this on Instagram and couldn’t wait for you to post it. My car temp. read 7 degrees the other morning, so I feel your pain this winter. Your adorable corgis make me laugh every day; my daughter and I love, love, love them and their antics. Their sweaters are just so cute.
The sweaters are just everything, right?
I’m in Houston, TX and it snowed yesterday. We are freezing here!