Creamy chicken soup with homemade stock

It's worth taking the time to make the stock for this creamy and comforting soup, which can be frozen.

Copper bowel filled with creamy chicken soup and garnished with chives
By Carlton Boyce | Published - 17 Dec 2025
Social Facebook Social Twitter Social Pinterest Email

If anyone in your family is feeling under the weather, chicken soup is the ultimate pick-me-up. It’s cheap, too, because this recipe uses the chicken carcasses your butcher usually throws away.

The key is to use homemade stock, which adds a depth and complexity (and richness, thanks to the gelatin the chicken bones impart) that no stock cube can hope to match.

Ingredients

For the stock

  • 3-4 chicken carcasses (if you use your local butcher, they probably won’t charge you for them)
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 1 stick of celery
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • 12 peppercorns
  • Water to cover

For the soup

  • The shredded chicken that you've pulled from the carcasses
  • 150ml single cream
  • Salt and pepper

Method

How to make the chicken stock

  1. Put the carcasses in a roasting tin and roast in a hot oven until they start to brown.
  2. Take them out of the oven and put them in a large saucepan, breaking them into pieces if you need to.
  3. Rinse the roasting tin out with boiling water, pouring the pan juices and water into the saucepan with the chicken.
  4. Add the roughly chopped carrots, celery, onion, peppercorns and bay leaves.
  5. Cover and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for at least two hours.
  6. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Sieve the stock into a large bowl or jug and leave to cool in the fridge. Pull all the chicken from the carcasses and store in a covered bowl or Tupperware container until needed.

How to make the chicken soup

  1. Take a couple of litres of the chicken stock and boil it in a saucepan until it's reduced by half.
  2. Add the shredded chicken meat and heat through for a couple of minutes.
  3. Remove from the heat and add the cream. Stir well, season to taste and serve immediately.

Notes

Variations

You can boil the stock down to make the most delicious chicken gravy in the world, although you do need about six litres to make a decent gravy boat’s worth! You don’t add anything else; just boil it down until it is as thick and tasty as you like it.

Thrifty tips

  • You can freeze both the stock and the meat at stage 6. It can then be defrosted and used to make a chicken risotto or casserole instead of soup.
  • The soup freezes well, so you can also make a large batch, scaling up from this recipe as necessary. Just pour into clean takeaway containers straight from the saucepan, or let it cool a little before ladling into freezer bags.

(Hero image credit: Getty)

Carlton Boyce

Written by: Carlton Boyce

Carlton gave up being a prison governor to become a freelance motoring journalist six years ago, and now earns his living travelling the world driving, photographing and writing about cars. He’s also previously worked as a lumberjack, police officer, retail manager, breakfast chef, and smallholder, allowing him to write about more than just cars.

View author page
Related articles
Serving of lamb curry with rice
The Hairy Bikers’ green lamb curry (saag gosht)
Bowls of soups, one topped with a large crouton. More croutons on a baking try in the background.
Jamie Oliver’s spring soup with cheesy toast
Roast parsnips on a plate
Honey-roast parsnips
Bread, cheese and wine on a wooden board
Love food and wine?

Find out about Saga's gastronomy holidays here...

They say the way to the heart is through the stomach, and Saga’s thoughtfully crafted food and wine holidays are perfect if you like trying new flavours and exploring traditional methods of cooking.

Find out more
Vintage by Saga Christmas Champagne offer
Hand-picked wines from Vintage by Saga

Skip the queues this Christmas with high quality wines delivered direct to your door. Save £89 on your first case and receive a free bottle of champagne

Find out more

Related articles

Roast parsnips on a plate
Honey-roast parsnips
A delicious and easy recipe that’s perfect for a fantastic Christmas dinner or Sunday lunch.
Homity Pie
The Hairy Bikers’ homity pie recipe

The TV chefs have updated this retro classic with more vegetables to create a great vegetarian dish.

Bowls of soups, one topped with a large crouton. More croutons on a baking try in the background.
Jamie Oliver’s spring soup with cheesy toast

A tasty healthy and low-cost spring soup that mainly uses freezer and pantry staples.

Mary Berry's puy lentil and pearl barley soup
Mary Berry’s puy lentil and pearl barley soup

A deliciously healthy lentil soup recipe from Mary Berry which can easily be scaled up to feed a crowd.

Copper bowel filled with creamy chicken soup and garnished with chives
Creamy chicken soup with homemade stock

It's worth taking the time to make the stock for this creamy and comforting soup, which can be frozen.

Mary Berry game pie in an oval pie dish - cut open to reveal meat and gravy filling
Mary Berry's game pie
Pheasant, guinea fowl, partridge or venison can all be used in Mary Berry's traditional game pie recipe.
Browned potato slices in a deep round dish
Boulangère Potatoes

Potatoes boulangère is a classic French recipe of sliced potatoes and onions cooked in stock, perfect as a vegetable side dish.