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Next time you are craving a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup, you HAVE to try this flavor packed, Chicken Pastina Soup recipe! Get ready to be blown out of your chair, with layers upon layers of rich, comforting, yet bright flavors! Warm up mind, body, and soul with this Italian comfort food.
If you love trying out new soup recipes, I highly recommend my Italian Meatball Soup, my One Pot Lasagna Soup or even my Beef and Rice Soup, since they can all be served for lunch, but even better for dinner! Make my grandmother's Canadian Split Pea Soup recipe if you have a little bit more time on your hands, it is definitely works it!
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What you need to make Chicken Pastina
Find below the list of ingredients I used to make this recipe!
- Chicken Breasts or chicken thighs
- Onion
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Chicken Broth
- Pastina (Italian for "little pasta") like Peperini or Stelline (affiliate links) I actually ordered them from Amazon since I had a hard time finding them at the grocery store.
- Fresh Lemon
- Salt and Pepper
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Follow these instructions in order to get the best tasting Chicken Pastina Soup!
Place a Dutch oven or large sauce pan on medium-high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and cook your chicken breasts. They should be golden on both sides and have a minimum internal temperature of 165F.
Remove the fully cooked chicken breasts from the Dutch oven. Reduce the heat to medium, and add in the butter. As the butter melts, scrape the bottom of the pan to release all of the flavor.
Add the chopped carrots, onion, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until the onions are translucent.
Deglaze the Dutch oven by slowly pouring in the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer.
Once the broth is simmering, turn the heat to low and sprinkle in the pasta. Make sure to stir the soup for the first few minutes so that the pasta doesn't stick to the bottom.
While the soup is simmering, shred the chicken breasts. Use two forks to break the chicken apart.
Once the pasta is cooked, remove the soup from the heat. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Stir to combine.
Add your desired quantity of shredded chicken back into the soup. I only added half of it, and kept the rest to make a small batch of my Chicken Wild Rice Salad.
Serve the hot soup with a sprinkle of chopped fresh dill if you have on hand. Add real grated parmesan on top of the soup for an added treat!
Substitutions and Variations
- Veggies - You can add a rib of celery to the recipe, very finely chopped. You can also omit the carrots and/or celery from the recipe. I do not recommend skipping the onion or garlic, since they give a lot of flavor to the broth.
- Chicken - Replace the 2 chicken breasts with 4 or 5 boneless skinless chicken thighs. To use up leftover rotisserie chicken, simply start the recipe by cooking the veggies and add 1 ½ cups of shredded chicken to the soup at the end.
- Dairy Free - Use olive oil instead of butter to cook the veggies and the entire recipe becomes dairy free.
Storage
Place any leftover Chicken Pastina Soup in airtight containers and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Portion it out in freezer safe containers (affiliate link) and place in the freezer for those days where you need to eat something warm and comforting.
Recipe
Chicken Pastina Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 2 pieces Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- 2 tablespoon Butter salted or unsalted
- ½ large White Onion finely diced
- ½ cup Carrot finely chopped
- 5 cloves Garlic minced
- 900 ml Chicken Broth
- ½ cup Pastina (Stelline or Peperini)
- 1 piece Lemon juiced
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Dil optional topping
- ¼ cup Freshly Grated Parmesan optional topping
Instructions
- Place a Dutch oven on medium-high heat.
- Drizzle the 1 tablespoon of Olive oil in the preheated Dutch oven and cook the chicken breast for 8 minutes, before turning them over. Cook for another 8 minutes, or until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breasts is at a minimum of 165F.
- Remove the fully cooked chicken from the Dutch oven and place on a large clean plate.
- Turn down the heat to medium and place the butter in the Dutch oven. As it melts, scrape the bottom of the pan to release all of the stuck on pieces.
- Add the prepared onion, carrots and garlic into the Dutch oven. Cook until the onions are translucent, 4-5 minutes.
- Slowly start pouring in the chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the Dutch oven to release all the flavor. Pour all of it in and bring to a simmer.
- Once simmering, turn the heat to low and add the pastina to the broth. Make sure to stir the soup frequently for the first few minutes so that the pasta does not stick to the bottom. Cook for 8 minutes of until the pasta is cooked.
- While the pasta is cooking, shred the chicken breasts with the help of 2 forks.
- Once the soup is ready, remove it from the heat. Add in the juice of a lemon, and about 1½ cup of shredded chicken. Stir to combine.
- Serve the soup hot with optional topping of fresh dill and grated parmesan cheese.
