This soup is made for January. It’s loaded with vegetables, chicken and beans. It’s made from scratch. And it cooks entirely in the slow cooker. No pre-cooking meat required.
In fact, it fits in great with our Slow Cooker Soup Series from last year.
For a simple, complete meal add in cornbread or biscuits. Or try these Rosemary Goat Cheese Muffins.
Here’s what you’ll need for the soup.
The recipe uses bone-in chicken breasts. These get placed on the bottom of the slow cooker. When the soup is just about ready to serve, you’ll remove the chicken and take the meat off the bones, returning the meat to the pot.
I love this method of cooking the chicken right in the soup. The bone-in chicken adds a wonderful homemade quality to the broth. And if you have an Instant Pot and want this same great flavor in a fraction of the time, check out my Instant Pot Chicken Minestrone Soup too!
Slow Cooker Chicken Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large bone-in chicken breast
- 1 onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 2 boxes chicken broth 32oz each
- 1 can dark red kidney beans
- 2-3 carrots sliced
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 3/4 cup shell pasta
- 2 cups kale chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- Parmesan cheese for topping optional
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in bottom of slow cooker.
- Add onion, garlic, tomatoes, chicken broth, beans and carrot to slow cooker.
- Cook on high 5-6 hours or low 7-8 hours.
- Minutes before serving, remove chicken breasts from pot and add zucchini, pasta and kale to the pot.
- Use a fork to pull chicken off the bones. Chop or shred the meat and return to the slow cooker.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Top each bowl with Parmesan, if desired.
If you have an Instant Pot, then you’ll want to check out my Instant Pot Chicken Minestrone Soup version of this favorite. And the entire collection of The Best Easy Instant Pot Soup Recipes.
And if you want more quick and hearty recipes for the Instant Pot, then sign up for my free Instant Pot School. You’ll learn how to make some basics, soups and way beyond with free printable recipes, a meal plan with a color-coded grocery list and video lessons.
Yummiiiieee, what a nice soup, perfect for the cold winter days!!! Your recipe sound fantastic!
Have a happy time and all my best
Elisabeth
What a wonderfully efficient way to make soup. I’m pinning this one for later!
How long do you cook pasta after putting it in crockpot?
About 15 minutes, give or take. By the time I had the chicken off the bones and back in the pot, set the table and called everyone in it was ready to eat.
Thanks. Look forward to trying this.
The print button won’t work. I keep getting a “page not found” error.
Kim, I’m sorry about that. I’ll look into it. I’ve been having trouble with that print button. You can try copy/pasting into a word doc and then printing.
It looks great!
Crazy! It is like you looked in my frig and pantry to see what I have and created a blog post recipe that I could make tomorrow without having to buy a thing! Yes!!! And we are on what my husband calls a “soup diet” for the next couple of weeks. So glad to have a new soup to try. Thank you.
I hope you like it! Almost all of my recipes are created when I look in my own pantry and wonder what to fix 😉
I made this soup tonight. It was delicious and I will make it again!
Trying this recipe tonight! Do the kidney beans go in with the first batch of ingredients, or the second one? Thanks!
With the first batch.
This looks so delicious! Can I make it without bone in chicken breast? I don’t have them here. If so, do you know what I would need to do differently? Thank you so much 🙂
You can use boneless chicken. You won’t need to do anything different, other than no bones to mess with.
This recipe appears to be fantastic. Question should the Dark Red kidney beans be “drained or not”?
Yes the kidney beans should be drained.
I have it cooking right now and the house smells amazing!! Looking forward to eating it this evening.
I have shredded cooked chicken in my freezer. How many cups do you think I would need for this recipe? I have the chicken in two cup portions in freezer bags. Thanks!
2-3 cups should be enough
Does the can of diced tomatoes need drained? Also can you use fresh tomatoes(2 cups) to be put in with the second batch of ingredients? I also added some cauliflower with the first batch should any of this harm the taste of the soup at all?
You don’t need to drain the diced tomatoes. I’ve not tried it with fresh tomatoes or cauliflower, but both sound good to me.
Do you have to cook the pasta separately and then add it in
No, it can be added to the soup during the last part of cooking.
Looks like a great recipe and from the previous comments everyone liked it, my only concern is what size of cans for the tomatoes and kidney beans. Also should the kidney beans be rinsed before you put them in?
Both the diced tomatoes and the kidney beans come in cans that are around 15 oz. And there’s no need to rinse the beans before adding them to the slow cooker, the liquid will just add more flavor.