This delicious homemade healing chicken soup for the GAPS Diet is so easy to make, 10 minutes prep time then let the slow cooker do all the work. Perfect for busy families!
Whether you need a yummy soup to boost your immune system to help fight a cold or to nourish your body while gut-healing this healing chicken soup has got you covered. It’s so easy to make, and so delicious, the whole family will love it! You’ll never go back to store-bought soup again.
What is Healing Chicken Soup?
Healing chicken soup is a nourishing easy-to-digest soup, packed full of the gut-healing goodness of chicken, meat stock, onions, and garlic. It’s perfect for healing leaky gut and nourishing the body during the postpartum period.
Enjoy a bowl of Healing Chicken Soup at the end of a busy day or for breakfast on the GAPS Intro Diet. Simply place all the ingredients in a slow cooker before leaving the house in the morning or a night before bed and 7 hours later your soup is ready to eat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s easy – Simply load your slow cooker up and let it do all the work.
- It freezes well – This soup freezes really well, making it perfect for batch cooking.
- It’s good for you – The meat stock made during the cooking process has amazing gut-healing properties.
The Powers of Healing Chicken Soup on the GAPS Diet
Meat stock it’s liquid gold for the digestive system; it contains the building blocks for the rapidly growing cells of the gut lining and has a soothing effect on any areas of inflammation in the gut. The gelatinous soft tissue around the meaty bones and the bone marrow provides some of the best healing remedies for the gut lining and immune system. (Gut and Psychology Syndrome p145)
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride creator of the GAPS Diet recommends consuming lots of meat stock on a daily basis! The more meat stock consumed, the quicker the gut lining heals!
I share how to make chicken meat stock the GAPS way in this post and the benefits of meat stock vs bone broth for gut healing here.
This recipe is a delicious addition to your GAPS Diet meal rotation and suitable from Stage 2 of the Intro Diet when the celery is removed at the end of the cooking time. Or can be made Stage 6 by slicing the celery into smaller pieces and leaving them in the soup.
Baby GAPS
This healing chicken soup is a great one for introducing solids to baby once meat stock is tolerated as the vegetables are very soft and easy to digest. My 10-month-old loves this soup!
Sourcing Ingredients on the GAPS Diet
To achieve the maximum healing benefits that this soup has to offer I recommend sourcing the best quality of ingredients that you can afford or is available to you.
Good: Free range
Better: Grass-fed / pasture-raised
Best: Organic Grass-fed / pasture-raised
When possible, select organic produce to support better nutrient absorption and significantly lower your exposure to harmful toxins and pesticides.
And look for a Celtic Sea salt as it is less processed than other salts and retains a rich profile of trace minerals including magnesium, calcium, and potassium, which play a crucial role in maintaining the body’s optimal electrolyte balance.
Looking to learn more about the power of food as medicine and root cause healing? Check out GAPS Diet and GAPS Introduction Stages to learn more.
Ingredients
Chicken Drumsticks – Drumsticks are our favourite but you can also substitute bone-in chicken thighs.
Carrot – A low starch, low fibre vegetable that is very easy to digest when cooked in meat stock.
Garlic – Has amazing antiviral and antibacterial capabilities.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Tools You May Need
- Knife and chopping board
- Slow cooker
How to Make Healing Chicken Soup
This recipe is incredibly easy to make! Follow along below for the full how-to.
Place the chicken drumsticks at the bottom of your slow cooker. Then, layer the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and salt over the chicken.
Place the peppercorns in a tea strainer and add it to the slow cooker and pour in the filtered water.
Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce heat to low and cook for 6 hours.
At the end of the cooking time, remove the celery, peppercorns (still in the tea strainer), and chicken from the slow cooker. Discard the celery and peppercorns.
Remove the chicken meat from the bones and return the shredded chicken to the slow cooker.
Adjust the salt to taste. Serve hot.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
Make it GAPS Intro Stage 6 – Cut the celery into small slices and leave in the soup. Swap the peppercorns for ground pepper.
Stovetop Instructions – Add the ingredients to a heavy-based pot or Dutch oven and cover with a lid. On high heat bring the pot to a gentle boil and skim the scum off using a metal skimmer, strainer, or slotted spoon; and discard. Reduce to a gentle simmer with a lid on and cook for 2 hours or until the meat is just falling off the bone. Remove the drumsticks from the pot and separate the meat from the bones. Shred the meat into bite-size pieces and return to pot.
How to Introduce and Serve
Serve in your favorite bowl, mug, or thermos for on-the-go.
Salt to taste and add 1-4 tablespoons of animal fat; ghee, butter, lard, or tallow; increasing as you can tolerate. Finally, top with a splash of fermented vegetable juice like sauerkraut juice or cabbage tonic, or a dollop of fermented dairy such as whey or sour cream.
How to Store and Reheat
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months. If freezing in silicone or Ziplock bags allow the soup to cook to room temperature or in the fridge overnight.
Reheat in a saucepan on low, stirring consistently or in a glass container in the oven.
Tips for Making Healing Chicken Soup
Filtered Water – Most city tap water contains chlorine and other additives, reduce your exposure to these chemicals by filtering your water first before adding it to the soup.
Gelatinous Meat Stock – To get the perfect meat stock gel or wobble in your soup once cooled you’ll want to use a ratio of 1kg to 1.5L chicken to water.
Rapid Cooling Soup – Fill a sink with cold water and reusable ice blocks. Place the hot soup pot in the cold water. Stir the soup to release heat and aid cooling. Depending on the size of your pot you may need to carefully drain the water in the sink and refill it a few times to cool the soup.
FAQ
Can I use other cuts of chicken?
Meaty bones are key for a good chicken stock in this recipe. While we prefer drumsticks, bone-in thighs, wings, chicken feet, or a combination of these all work well.
My soup didn’t gel?
If your meat stock doesn’t gel or achieve a gelatinous texture don’t worry, it’s still full of lots of nutrition and healing benefits. Here are 6 reasons why it might not have gelled.
- Too much water
- Not enough connective tissue or joints
- Cooked at too high a temperature
- Cooked at too low a temperature
- Cook time too short
- Inferior bones
More Soup Recipes from the Kitchen
Thank you so much for stopping by the kitchen!
Resources
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride
- Gut and Psychology Syndrome (Yellow Book)
- Gut and Physiology Syndrome (Blue Book)
Becky Plotner
Healing Chicken Soup
This delicious homemade healing chicken soup for the GAPS Diet is so easy to make, 10 minutes prep time then let the slow cooker do all the work. Perfect for busy families!
Ingredients
- 1.5kg chicken drumsticks
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 1 celery stalk, sliced
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced ½ inch thick
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp Celtic Sea salt
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 2L filtered water
Instructions
- Place the chicken drumsticks at the bottom of your slow cooker. Then, layer the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and salt over the chicken.
- Place the peppercorns in a tea strainer and add it to the slow cooker and pour in the filtered water.
- Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce heat to low and cook for 6 hours.
- At the end of the cooking time, remove the celery, peppercorns (still in the tea strainer), and chicken from the slow cooker. Discard the celery and peppercorns.
- Remove the chicken meat from the bones and return the shredded chicken to the slow cooker.
- Adjust the salt to taste. Serve hot.
Notes
Recipe Variations
Make it GAPS Intro Stage 6 – Cut the celery into small slices and leave in the soup. Swap the peppercorns for ground pepper.
How to Introduce and Serve
Serve in your favourite bowl, mug or thermos for on the go.
Salt to taste and add a 1-4 tablespoons of animal fat; ghee, butter, lard, or tallow; increasing as you can tolerate. Finally, top with a splash of fermented vegetable juice like sauerkraut juice or cabbage tonic, or a dollop of fermented dairy such as whey or sour cream.
GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.
The information in this blog post is my personal experience and for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease; and does not consider your individual situation. If you have medical questions, please consult with a qualified medical practitioner.
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