Soups, Stews, and Roasts for Chicken Dinner Recipes

‘Tis the Season…for comfort food! When temperatures start to plummet (yes, sometimes even in sunny California) it’s the perfect time to break out recipes for wholesome and comforting foods. In our family, this means lots of nourishing soups, hearty stews, and whole roast chickens. We’d like to share a few of our favorites with you, and hope they might provide some inspiration for holiday dishes or hearty winter suppers. 

When choosing recipes for our family, we have a few important criteria:

It has to be paleo friendly - We’ve been inspired by recipes in the past that weren’t strictly paleo, as long as they are able to be modified to fit our dietary needs. Adopting a paleo diet has been such a positive life change for our family that we really try to live by it as much as we can. It’s actually quite surprising how easy it is to modify most recipes to fit a paleo lifestyle, so as long as a recipe isn’t super dairy or grain heavy, there’s a good chance we can tweak it a bit to suit our needs. 

Wholesome ingredients are a must - We’re firm believers that if you’re going to put something into your body, it should be something that nourishes it. That’s why we look for recipes with lots of nutrients, and healthy ingredients. You won’t find us encouraging recipes containing processed foods or artificial sugars. 

Pasture raised chicken is the cornerstone of our meals - This one probably goes without saying, but it’s worth mentioning. Since we follow a paleo diet, we do eat more meat than the average consumer, and since meat makes up such a large part of our diet we make sure that we’re eating the best! That means lots of Pasturebird pasture raised chicken, and when we eat beef or pork we make sure it’s grass fed and pasture raised as well. 

In this post, we’ll focus on some of our favorite comforting cold weather recipes - we’ll provide inspiration for a soup, a stew, and a roast recipe, all featuring pasture raised chicken as the main attraction, of course.

Thai Chicken Soup

As fond as we are of the age-old favorite nourishing chicken soup (and we keep bone broth on hand at all times in winter so we can whip it up quickly!), there are some really flavorful and nourishing paleo soups you can make with pasture raised chicken, that go beyond the standard broth and (that French term for carrots etc). In this recipe, we combine pasture raised chicken with the vibrant flavors of lemongrass, ginger, garlic and lime juice to prepare a soup that’s super satisfying for your tastebuds. These ingredients also do wonders for your immune system, including the shitake mushrooms, which give it a savory umami flavor. Feel free to adjust the red curry paste to suit your family’s preferences, but definitely give this nourishing soup a try this winter - you won’t be disappointed!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp avocado oil or olive oil

2 cloves garlic minced

1 small onion diced

1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 Tbsp minced lemongrass

1 Tbsp red curry paste

4 cups chicken bone broth

1 Tbsp fish sauce

2 cups full fat coconut milk

8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms sliced

2 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken breast

Zest of one lime grated

1 1/2 Tbsp lime juice about 1 lime

Sea salt to taste

Cilantro for garnish

Scallions for garnish

Instructions:

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and cook until soft and fragrant. Stir in the garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and curry paste and cook for one minute. Pro tip - when it comes to the ginger and lemongrass, you can buy paste in the grocery store that saves you the trouble of mincing these tough roots. They add just as much flavor as the real thing and really help save time. But, if you're looking for zero shortcuts - the real thing is as good as it gets.

Continue to stir as you pour the bone broth into the pot and then add the fish sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and stir, then add the mushrooms. Cook and stir until the mushrooms are soft, about 5 minutes. Add in the pre-cooked, shredded chicken and simmer all ingredients for a few minutes to heat through and meld the flavors. Stir in the lime zest and juice and season with salt to taste. Serve garnished with cilantro and sliced green onions. 

Paleo Herbed Chicken Stew

Get ready to impress your wintertime dinner guests with this incredibly flavorful, nutrient-packed herbed chicken stew. So creamy and delicious, but totally paleo, this stew gets its creamy consistency by using an immersion blender to puree a portion of the soup. Since this recipe uses Yukon gold potatoes, the puréed potatoes create a hearty and creamy base while the combination of herbs lends a nourishing flavor that’s perfect for cooler weather. 

Ingredients:

3 cups diced peeled potatoes

3 large carrots, cut into chunks

3 large celery stalks, cut into chunks

1 medium onion, diced

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground sage

1 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 cups chicken bone broth

1 lb pasture raised chicken breast

Instructions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add carrots, celery, and onion and cook until softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add broth and herbs and bring all ingredients to a simmer.  Add chicken and potatoes to the pot and simmer for 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through (use your meat thermometer to make sure chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.  Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and cut into large chunks, or shred with 2 forks.  Remove 2 cups of veggies and broth from the pot and puree with an immersion blender.  Add the thickened mixture back to the soup along with the chicken.  Stir well and season with salt and pepper.

Our Favorite Roast Chicken Recipes

Roast chicken is a delicious, simple recipe - much easier than most people realize. We did a feature on our favorite roast chicken recipes last year, and we’re linking it here so you can peruse and choose your favorite recipe and cooking method. 

We always recommend making bone broth with your pasture raised chicken bones. Not only is it nourishing and delicious, but it’s a great way to reduce waste and stretch your food budget. Bone broth is a delicious sipping broth, but it can also be used as a base for soups, stews, or sautees.