Chicken Soup For Baby, Toddler, Kids (GAPS Friendly)
Chicken soup for babies, toddlers and older kids made with fresh whole ingredients. It can be served for babies from 6 months in a smooth puree form or chunkier for older family members. This baby chicken soup is naturally gluten, grain and dairy free, and even GAPS friendly for babies and older kids. It’s the perfect way to serve chicken for babies who have food allergies and need soothing comfort food.
Making this chicken soup for babies takes quite some time, but the best part is that you make a large batch and can stock the fridge with healthy baby food for a few days.
Chicken Soup For Babies / Toddlers /Kids
This baby chicken soup is a 2 in 1 recipe, first simmering chicken meat and bones with seasonings and herbs creates a delicious homemade chicken stock for the soup, then into which the fresh vegetables are chopped and the chicken meat is shredded and served alongside.
Using the chicken meat, bones and skin provides the right combination of fat, salt and flavor. Don’t be tempted to use only meat, as the flavor won’t be as round.
For the most basic baby chicken soup, this recipe will work beautifully with or without a starchy component such as noodles or rice, but if you are comfortable with those, don’t hesitate to add some.
Related: Soft Chicken Meatballs For Babies, Toddlers, Kids (BLW)
How To Make Chicken Soup For Baby
Always try to make the chicken soup for baby with a stock made from scratch with organic ingredients. Yes there’s more steps than a quick and easy chicken noodle soup recipe, but it is so worth it because what’s more important than your baby’s health?!
Here are the steps:
1. First Prepare And Cook The Chicken Meat & Bones
- Wash the chicken (cut the parts with the most bones and cartilages, keep the breast for another meal) place it in a deep pot and add filtered water, bring to a boil.
- When it starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and spoon off any foam or scum that rises to the top.
- To the pot add the bay leaves, the black pepper, and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer on low heat until you prepare the rest of the veggies (about 20-30 minutes).
What Chicken Parts to Use For The Soup
When choosing the type of chicken parts to use in soup, opt for more bones and connective tissues (cartilage, skin including fat) because the marrow in the bones ads much more flavor and body, plus collagen and essential amino acids that help sooth the intestinal walls.
2. Prepare And Add The Vegetables
- Clean, peal and dice the vegetables. Add all those to the pot, one by one and simmer for 20 minutes until tender. Potatoes and noodles are usually a staple in chicken soups but since this is a GAPS compliant soup, I’m using cauliflower instead, and no grains.
- Then add the acidic ingredients: crushed tomatoes, lemon juice and salt (babies 12 months+). Simmer for another 10-15 minutes and turn off the heat. Taste and adjust the seasonings to taste. Add more sourness (lemon juice) or salt if needed. If you don’t have any lemon juice, use some apple cider vinegar instead.
- At this time you can add the fresh chopped herbs (parsley and dill) or other greens. Or you can save them and sprinkle on top of the soup bowl right before serving to your kids.
- Note: Let the chicken soup sit for 20 minutes or more (in the pot) before serving, to allow the flavors to blend in better. It will taste even better the next day.
Tip For Avoiding Overly Cooked Meat
If you want the white chicken meat tenderly cooked, remove it from the pot after 30 minutes. Take it off the bones, and throw the bones, skin and remaining meat back into the soup to finish simmering. Add the saved white meat, chopped at the end.
Quick Chicken Soup With Pre-made Chicken Stock
Bring the pre-made chicken stock to a boil. Add all ingredients, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until everything is cooked through and tender, about 20-30 minutes. If using raw chicken meat, add that to the pot before adding the vegetables. If you’re using already cooked chicken meat, add it when the vegetables are almost tender. Let the soup sit for 30 minutes before serving, to combine the flavors.
Chicken Soup Consistency For Babies
- 6-7 month old babies: puree in a blender to a smooth consistency.
- 8-9 month old babies: place in a food processor to get a finely chopped texture (not smooth as puree).
- 9-10 month old babies and up: serve as it is, chunky. It’s also great for baby lead weaning, as the baby picks the pieces from the soup with his/her fingers.
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How To Store
- Store leftovers for 3-4 days in an air-tight container.
- Freeze up to 3 months in an airtight container. Use glass jars, ice cube trays, or reusable silicone zip bags, they won’t leach harmful chemicals like plastics do.
- Thaw / reheat – defrost overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove at low temperature.
Leftover Chicken Meat From Soup
You probably won’t even use half the meat on the chicken for this baby chicken soup. So here’s a few ideas for things to make with the leftover cooked chicken:
- Serve as finger food to your baby, especially if you’re doing baby led weaning.
- Shred with 2 forks and add into a salad.
- Add into an omelet as breakfast.
- Mix into other baby purees and soups as a source of protein.
- Add in casseroles.
- Make chicken meatballs, patties, or fritters.
- Chicken Crepe Rolls, as finger food, great for lunch boxes.
- Check out more baby chicken recipes here.
More Baby Soup Recipes
Have you tried baby chicken soup recipe? Your feedback is really helpful, please rate and leave a comment below recipe card!
Chicken Soup For Baby, Toddler, Kids, From Scratch Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken meat with bones (Use the thighs and drumsticks, the wings and back bones)
- 10 cups filtered water
Vegetables
- 2 medium carrots (diced)
- 2 celery stalks (diced)
- 1/2 medium celery root (celeriac) (about 1 cup, diced)
- 1 large bell pepper (red or yellow, diced)
- 10 cauliflower florets (chopped, or use 3 potatoes (if not GAPS))
- 4 oz crushed tomatoes (or 2 Tbsp tomato paste)
Seasonings And Aromatics
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 4 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1.5 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed, or apple cider vinegar)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 fresh sprigs)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp Celtic sea salt (or to taste (for babies older than 12 months))
- 2-4 tbsp fresh herbs (parsley and dill) (or other herbs, to garnish)
Instructions
Prepare And Cook The Chicken Meat & Bones
- Wash the chicken, place it in a deep pot and add filtered water, bring to a boil.
- When it starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and spoon off any foam or scum that rises to the top.
- To the pot add the bay leaves, the black pepper, and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer on low heat until you prepare the rest of the veggies (about 20-30 minutes).
Prepare And Add The Vegetables
- Clean, peal and dice the carrots, onion, celery root (also known as celeriac) and stalks (and potatoes if using). Divide the cauliflower into smaller florets, or finely chop. Add all those to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes until tender.
- Then add the crushed tomatoes, bell pepper, lemon juice, diced garlic and salt (if using). Simmer for another 10-15 minutes and turn off the heat. Taste and adjust the seasonings to taste. Add more sourness (lemon juice) or salt if needed.
- At this time you can add the fresh chopped herbs (parsley and dill) or other greens. Or you can save them and sprinkle on top of the soup bowl right before serving to your kids.Note: Let the chicken soup sit for 20 minutes or more (in the pot) before serving, to allow the flavors to blend in better. It can taste better the next day.
Quick Chicken Soup With Pre-made Chicken Stock
- Bring the pre-made chicken stock to a boil. Add all ingredients, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until everything is cooked through and tender, about 20-30 minutes. If using raw chicken meat, add that to the pot before adding the vegetables. If you're using already cooked chicken meat, add it when the vegetables are almost tender. Let the soup sit for 30 minutes before serving, to combine the flavors.
Notes
Tips For Making Chicken Soup For Babies (From Scratch)
- When choosing the type of chicken parts to use in soup, opt for more bones and connective tissues (cartilage, skin including fat) because the marrow in the bones ads much more flavor and body, plus collagen and essential amino acids that help sooth the intestinal walls.
- If you want the white chicken meat tenderly cooked, remove it from the pot after 30 minutes. Take it off the bones, and throw the bones, skin and remaining meat back into the broth to finish simmering. Add the saved white meat, chopped at the end.
- Add some cooked rice or other whole grains in the soup for a boost of flavor and texture (not GAPS compliant).
- This soup is suitable for full GAPS diet but not introduction diet. To be able to enjoy it in the introduction phase of GAPS Diet, you will need to remove the celery stalks, replace the lemon juice with sauerkraut juice and remove the black pepper. Serve only if there is not reaction to nightshades (tomato and bell pepper).
Nutrition
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Am I missing a step? If I remove the chicken and put the bones back in, the end result is soup with veggies and bones. Am I supposed to discard the bones before adding the veggies?
I made it anyhow, sifted through for the bones and it was good! But it seems very tedious
You just discard the bones when the soup is done and add back the meat. The reason for keeping the bones till the end is to extract as much amino acids and minerals as possible during the boiling process. You can keep the bones in the liquid if you don’t mind, and just discard when serving.
Hi-
I have a 6 month old, and I just made a pot of chicken soup from scratch- I could have sworn I was always told not to freeze the broth WITH the meat in it? Can I purée the soup and chicken and veggies together and freeze?
That’s probably because the meat changes it’s structure faster while frozen, and it degrades when defrosted. Other than that there is not specific reason you can’t combine veggies with meat and stock and freeze all together. But I would probably consume it within 3 months.
I’m pleased this chicken soup recipe is from scratch with real ingredients, usually moms tend to make shortcuts with the broth by buying unhealthy packaged alternatives. The soup turned out delicious, I made a large pot and I have frozen some portions for later.
That’s right, food from scratch is so much more nutritionally superior!