Here’s a fun food project for the weekend that’s sure to get you ready for the busy week ahead!
On Saturday make an Easy and Amazing Roasted Chicken and eat it! Â Do NOT throw out the carcass or the juices from the roasting pan!!
On Sunday, put the chicken carcass and the pan drippings into a large soup pot. Add enough water to just cover the chicken and bring to a boil. Â Turn down to low and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours. Â Now, remove the bones, making sure to scrape off any little yummy bits of meat that did not fall off in the simmering process. Â You can either use a slotted spoon to remove the bones, or dump the whole thing through a strainer but DO NOT lose the amazing broth you just made; make sure you dump it through a strainer into another soup pot! Â Pick out all the bones and add the remaining chicken meat back to the broth. Â Next, cut up whatever veggies you want to. I made a super simple chicken soup with just carrot, celery and onion. Â Add the veggies to the soup, and season with paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper. Â This is the EASIET way to make this soup but the sky is the limit!! Â Add kale, spinach, or collard greens. Â Make a pan of roasted root veggies and add that in – delicious!! Â Switch up the spices and add some cumin and cayenne for a zesty kick. Â Have fun and best of all, Â you’ll have soup left over for fast lunches or snacks next week!
Enjoy!

I love this site and I love your recipes! Thank you Sarah!
Thank you Blaire!! Miss you!!
I did this for the first time with my turkey…tasted awesome!
Wow, great minds think alike! 🙂 I heard the weather report and knew we were due to get some more snow in PA, so I bought an organic, free-range whole chicken yesterday so that I could roast it and then use the leftover carcass to make soup. I like using fresh thyme, fresh Italian parsley, carrots, celery, onion, whole black peppercorns, and celtic sea salt. Sometimes I’ll throw in some other root veggies. Thinking I’ll throw in some kale or Swiss chard into it this time around, since I bought both of those yesterday too. Can’t wait to make both recipes… yum!
Thanks for the inspiration and for all of your wonderful recipes. I also bought beets yesterday so that I can make the beet, kale, and shrimp salad from the other day’s post. Oh, and I also got some cabbage and grass-fed beef so that I can make the cabbage rolls and freeze them 🙂
Awesome Susan!!! Love it!!
It’s funny because I just bought 2 chickens yesterday so I can make this this weekend. Here is the recipe I’m going to try.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roast-Sticky-Chicken-Rotisserie-Style/Detail.aspx
Fabulous!
this inspired me to get up and put the leftover turkey breast (which nobody seems interested in) into the dutch oven to simmer. I was losing sleep over wasting it so thanks for the solution!
If anyone is missing the noodles, I hear kelp noodles are a good replacement. I used them earlier this week to make a paleo halushki and they were pretty tasty!
where did you find kelp noodles? I’ve looked everywhere..i’m on the east coast though…
Gotta love the easy and versatile roasted chicken morphed into soup. It’s also a great way to use up all those bits and pcs of veggies from the week before you restock the fridge.
Happy Souping
ps-I do this and then make the chicken & chili soup recipe you posted a while ago. Seriously, that soup is outragous! we just love it
My wife did this with my mom’s left over Turkey carcas except it was just broth we missed the veggie boat on that one.
Sweet recipe though Sarah!
PS: Is kelp ACTUALLY a good replacement for the real deal noodles?
Hi Brenden, I think I typed Kale, not Kelp. I honestly have not tried the kelp noodles and adding actual dried kelp to soup would make it a bit to swampy for me. LOL!! So I guess I would have to say, no, kelp is not a great replacement for real deal noodles… Maybe someone else feels otherwise?!?!
How perfect that I just roasted a chicken today!
Soup will pair well with the snow in the forecast 🙂
Hey Sarah,
You must have some kind of ESP or something, as i got a chook out of the freezer to make that roast recipe today! It’s the middle of summer down here in Australia, so not really soup weather, but who cares? I always feel like it’s a waste just throwing the carcass out after that awesome roast – even if it does look like it’s been picked clean by vultures when i’m done with it… Can’t wait to make this!
Also, my wife Noni posted you a question about our kids eating paleo the other day. Just wanted to say thanks heaps for the reply (not sure if you saw Noni’s reply on that other post) and to let you know that things are going a bit better the last week or two. I think it has helped that we’re out of the holidays, but we did ditch the last few non-paleo stragglers that were lurking around.
Depending what we’re eating, they normally just get some variation on meat and a couple of veggies (for my daughter – Heath still favours fruit at this stage). We have also been trying not to make such a big deal if they don’t eat something. If they don’t eat something, we have just been telling them to get down from the table and not fussing so much. Then if they want they can come back to it later if they’re hungry (which they normally will, funnily!).
Anyway, sorry for the epic, but thanks for the advice and i’m sure things will continue to improve – I’ll get them to give me a hand with the chicken today. Can’t wait for the podcasts and i think if you wanted to use our situation as a question that’d be awesome! (Maybe if you talked about the best way to counter kids not eating what you serve up, that might be helpful to folks, too)
Cheers,
Adam.
Hi Adam! Thanks so much for the update – so glad to hear that things are going better!! I wouldn’t worry at all about the kiddos eating fruit – they need those calories way more than we do, as long as it’s not the only thing she’s eating it’s totally fine. : )
How long will chicken broth keep in the refrigerator?
Hi David,
I would say probably 5 days. I usually use mine pretty quickly! You can always freeze it if you think you won’t use it up as fast.
Just made the chicken tonight, and it was amazing! The whole family loved it (and they can be an opinionated group). Just salt. It turned out perfect, and it was so easy!
I made 2 cornish hens for dinner on Sat, and just finished cooking them down this morning for soup! Great idea. I also added red peppers and zucchini, with some leftover chicken breast I had made Friday evening, as the hens were very picked over…and I may throw in some leftover broccoli towards the end. Great idea! LOVE soup in the winter. If only I could convince the family to stop eating bread with it…lol
I just made this, and it turned out lovely. The crispy chicken skin on night #1 was fantastic. Tonight I boiled the carcass and with the resulting goodness, added beets, kale, and garlic. AWESOME. Thanks so much for sharing. Even my beets and kale-hating husband ate a bowl of it, saying “It’s better than I expected.”
HI Andrea, so glad you all liked it – even the “kale-hating husband”! LOL!!
Chicken turned out amazing- had it for dinner that night. Was craving chicken noodle soup, so I took the carcass threw it in a pot and made the broth. Added some veggies and half a packet of “miracle” noodles with a bunch of spices. One of the best soups I’ve ever made. Excellent for these cold winter days.
Hi Shawn! What are “miracle” noodles??
Hi Sarah!
This was wonderful! I made mine just as you recommended and added Kale, then served it with avocado cube on top. My 6-year loved it too! Today I heated it up and added some left over okra that was sauteed in bacon drippings and some of my husband’s hot sauce that we sell at our restaurant. Absolutely delicious. I will definitely try your other variations!
Kwanza Bowe | IslandMommy
I made this last night after roasting my chicken on monday night! Absolutely delicious and filling! Your website is absolutely amazing!
This is something that I have been doing for many years. One tip I would add is to throw the carcass (minus most of the meat) back into the roasting pan and put it back into the oven for about 2 hours at a low temp – 225 to 250. Then take it out, put the carcass into the soup pot (I always add a stalk or two of celery, an onion cut in half and a carrot or two) and be sure to put some hot water into the roasting pan to scrape up all that yummy goodness, too! You will find that you have a very rich and beautifully amber-colored stock that is more intensely flavored. Soup is my “thang” and I am working on revising all my soup recipes to fit them into the Primal/Paleo plan.
Thanks for the site. It’s very helpful, especially for someone like me who is just starting out.
mary
I forgot to say that after boiling the carcass and celery, carrot, onion combo, I strain the whole thing. Those poor vegies gave their all for the stock, so I toss them and then add new veg to the soup. I wonder how this would be with some diced tomatoes…