Chicken and White Bean Soup

We thought Spring was here a week ago, and suddenly we wake up to 37 degrees F. That’s why I’m reposting this really easy soup that will warm you up, and can serve as a whole meal.

Chicken and white bean soup has all the feels and flavors. Made Italian style with carrots, onion, celery, Italian parsley, garlic, white cannellini beans, the soup is finished with pecorino or parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. 

This recipe uses canned white cannellini beans, and left over chicken or rotisserie chicken and boxed broth. You can make your own chicken stock and cook beans from scratch. While that might be considered ideal, it isn’t necessary for a delicious soup. 

Are Canned Beans Okay for Chicken and White Bean Soup?

Some years ago,  I had the pleasure to interview Guiliano Hazan, son of famous Italian cookbook author, Marcella Hazan, and he explains “Italian” cuisine as a dish in which you can taste each ingredient separately and not as one flavor. No ingredient should be placed in the dish to fight with another.  I asked him if his legendary mother and he differed in anything. He told me she favors “fresh beans” and perhaps dried beans, but he will use canned beans. But they agree that flavors would end up in the same place.

I liked that culinary confidence, and if anyone knows what tastes good, it would be Giuliano Hazan who has been eating from the hands of an Italian cooking legend since birth.

If you like the bread in the picture, that’s my homemade sourdough.

Ingredients for Chicken and White Bean Soup

• Chicken
• Cannellini Beans
• Boxed Organic Chicken Broth
• Onion, Carrots, Celery
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Parsley
• Fresh or dried thyme, rosemary
• Bay Leaf
• Fennel powder or fennel seed or fresh fennel
• Pecorinio or Parmesan

If you don’t like fennel, skip it, but I think it adds that extra aromatic.

Play Around

• Add baby spinach to bowl when serving.
• Add chopped kale in last ten minutes.
• Add cooked rice or cooked macaroni.

More Soups from Spinach Tiger

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Chicken and White Bean Soup

White beans, left over chicken, boxed broth makes an easy, healthy soup.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time10 hours hrs

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: bean soup, beansoup, chicken soup, soup

Servings: 8

Author: Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 cups chicken, diced or shredded
• 4 cans cannellini beans
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
• 1 medium white onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 2 carrots diced
• few fresh thyme sprigs can use rosemary also
• 1 handful Italian parsley chopped
• olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed or 1 cup chopped fennel
• pinch red pepper flakes
• Pecorino or Parmesan for serving

Instructions

• Rinse beans with water. Reserve 1 can of beans to emulsify later.
• Add butter and olive oil to heavy bottomed pan.
• Add in onion, carrot, celery (and fennel if using fresh) and cook until nearly soft.
• Add in garlic, cook a minutes, but not browning.
• Add in chicken broth. Add in beans that are rinsed and drained.
• Add In spices, and shredded chicken.
• Blend reserved can of beans until pureed. Add to soup.
• Cook until carrots are soft.
• Serve with Parmesan or Pecorino cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

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