Chicken and Kale Soup

An easy, tasty, and healthy soup for a weekday meal.

Chicken and Kale Soup 1

Growing up, I don’t recall eating a lot of greens for dinner at home. I would say that, overall, my mom’s cooking tended to be heavy on the meat and carbs, and light on the fresh vegetables. So, I was glad to hear that, after my mom went through a battle with breast cancer, she had changed her diet to include more greens.

Annie and I love to cook with all kinds of vegetables, but kale is one that we hadn’t yet tried out yet. We found bunches of kale for sale at the KCC Farmers’ Market, and Mom bought them, along with some Swiss chard and red beets. Mom said she normally puts them in a pot with a little bit of water to steam, then eats the greens and drinks the liquid. It sounded healthy, but it didn’t sound too tasty to me.

Bunch of Kale

kale

Mom had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge, so we decided to make a broth with the chicken and add the kale to it – “simply hantam” style. I pulled the meat off the carcass and tossed the bones into a small dutch oven. Covered the bones with water and then brought it to a boil. Then we took it down to a simmer and skimmed off some of the fat.

boiling rotisserie chicken carcass

We rinsed the kale and removed the leafy greens from the tough stems. We chopped the stems up and tossed them in the soup, then added the chopped greens on top. Annie added in a couple of cloves of garlic, minced. Put the lid back on top to let the greens cook down some.

add chopped kale

After simmering a few minutes, the greens had melted into the soup. I added the shredded chicken meat back in to the soup. A little salt to taste, and a little soy sauce to “umami” it up. That’s it!

Time to dish it up.

chicken and kale soup

I realize you can take this soup and add a lot more ingredients to it to make it more interesting or nutritious (see recipes from Ash Cooks, Coconut and Lime, or Honey Sweet Living ). But honestly, this soup was tasty enough as it is. We all clamored for seconds.

So why make it complicated? Simply make it!

Aloha, Nate

I am entering this post in the Soup, Salad and Sammie Sundays roundup, hosted by my friend Deb from Kahakai Kitchen.

16 thoughts on “Chicken and Kale Soup”

  1. That is a nice red cast iron pot !
    Simply healthy recipes rocks !
    I would add in a 2-3 clove of garlic and let it simmer along.
    And carrots and roasted pumpkins.

    Ahh the sudden burst of ideas, it all boils down with a good broth base then more adventures to explore.

    Gonna cook something tonight.
    Cheers.

  2. Simple is good–this soup looks healthy and delicious–the perfect combination in my book. Thanks for sending it to Souper Sundays. 😉

    So glad that we got a chance to get together for lunch today. It was great to get a chance to catch up a little and meet your Mom and kids. Thanks for fitting me in on such a fully-packed trip. Have a great rest of your time here and safe flights back.

  3. Wondering what your kids think of this? I love love love kale now that I’m grown, but as a kid, with the exception of watercress in soup I couldn’t stand a speck of green. Hmm…you might be on to something.

  4. I love your “simply hantam” chix and kale soup 😛 It sounds healthy and looks super delish! I don’t think I’ve seen this vege at our supermarket in BEL. Would savoy cabbage make any difference?

  5. Thank you. This looks delicious and will fit into my low carb healthy diet beautifully. Kale and chicken are meant to be together!

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