Rotisserie Chicken Soup

Making this rotisserie chicken soup with salsa is quick and easy. It’s the perfect weeknight meal that the whole family will love. This is my favorite soup to make on cold winter days.

Our rotisserie chicken soup is the best soup for those who love flavorful and healthy, hearty soup dinners. This is one of the easiest homemade soup recipes out there with chicken, and full of nutrients!

You can make this recipe three ways: in the Instant Pot, in your Crockpot, or with the tried and true stovetop method. You know I love making quick recipes that are delicious with less hands on time in the kitchen.

Where’s the recipe?

Here at My Crazy Good Life we write our recipes so everyone can follow them. We love it when our readers feel comfortable, confident, and successful in the kitchen. As a result, the post below has detailed instructions, recipe tips, nutrition, and healthy eating plan information.

If you’d like to skip past the ingredient list, recipe tips, nutritional and healthy eating guides, simply scroll down to the bottom where you’ll find the easy to print Rotisserie Chicken Soup recipe.

Ingredients in Rotisserie Chicken Soup

• Rotisserie Chicken: Flavorful chicken is a must. We stopped buying store-bought rotisserie chicken a while ago because of the extra ingredients added. We learned how easy it is to make our own rotisserie-style chicken, and we’ve been making them for this recipe (and others) ever since. I have five different rotisserie chicken recipes, cooked five ways: Crockpot, Instant Pot, Grill, Ninja Foodi, and Oven. Click here to read about our favorite rotisserie chicken recipe and how to cook a rotisserie chicken five ways (with recipes!)
• Chicken stock: If you aren’t making your own, choose low-sodium chicken stock from the grocery store.
• Zucchini: Diced small, feel free to use celery if you don’t have zucchini on hand.
• Carrots
• Black Pepper: A little bit goes a long way.
• Brown rice: (dry for IP, cooked for stovetop or Crockpot)
• Salsa: I think salsa is so tasty – choose one with a mild or medium heat depending on your liking.

How to make Rotisserie Chicken Soup in the Instant Pot

1. To start, pull the meat from the rotisserie chicken and chop it into bite sized pieces.
2. Next, add the meat, bones, and skin to the Instant Pot. I grouped the bones and skin on one side of the Instant Pot so that they were easier to remove later. Yes, the bones are important–it adds a depth of flavor that just isn’t there with regular chicken meat. You’ll remove the bones and skin later :)
3. Finally, pour the rest of the ingredients to the Instant Pot. Close the lid and turn the pressure valve to sealing. Remember, dry rice for Instant Pot cooking!
4. Cook on high pressure using the soup setting for 25 minutes. When the Instant Pot is done cooking let the pressure release naturally or release the pressure by turning the valve a little then closing it again. This will release a little pressure at a time and prevent the soup from shooting out of the valve if you used the quick release function.
5. Remove the bone and skin from the soup the serve. Garnish with chopped avocado, cilantro, chopped green onions, and/or tortilla strips and cheese.

How to make Rotisserie Chicken Soup in the Slow Cooker

1. First, pull the meat from the rotisserie chicken and chop it into bite sized pieces.
2. Next, add chicken meat, bones, and skin to the slow cooker. I grouped the bones and skin on one side of the slow cooker so that they were easier to remove later.
3. Then pour the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker.
4. Finally place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the soup on high heat for 2-3 hours or low heat for 4-6 hours.
5. When it’s time to eat remove the bone and skin from the soup the serve. Garnish with chopped avocado, cilantro, and/or tortilla strips and cheese. You can add salt and pepper at the end to taste!

How to make Rotisserie Chicken Soup on the Stovetop

You can skip steps 3 & 4 if you are using the crockpot chicken for meal prep recipe that I linked above! In all reality you could skip right to adding the rice if you make the crockpot chicken. Just make sure to add your salsa into the mix for the simmering process!

1. First, pour the chicken broth and salsa into a large pot or dutch oven on low heat.
2. Then cook the carrots and zucchini in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 5-10 minutes
3. Next, pull the chicken off of the bone. I put it all on a cutting board and then cut the meat into smaller pieces before putting it all into the pot. The skin, bones, drumsticks, and wings all go into the pot. Please don’t skip that step. It adds a lot of moisture and, most importantly, taste. This bone broth will have more health benefits and better flavor. Win-win!
4. Go ahead. Close your eyes and put the drumsticks and wings in.
5. Once the veggies are done cooking, add them and the the pepper to your pot.
6. Finally, you will add the rice.
7. Over high heat, bring your pot contents to a boil. Let it simmer (slow boil) for an hour. However, it can go for longer than that too.
8. When it’s time to eat, use tongs to pull out the skin and bones. I fill the bowl with everything but broth at first and add cheese on top. After the cheese has a few seconds to melt, I add the broth on top.
9. Garnish with chopped avocado, flour tortilla strips, or both!

Recipe Tips

• Tips for removing bones: push the bones and skin of the chicken to the same side of the pot then remove them after the cook time is done and before stirring. However, you may also put the bones and skin in cheesecloth or a mesh cooking bag for easy removal.
• If you’re concerned about the fat, skip adding the skin and just use the bones to make nutrient-dense bone broth with great flavor.
• You can make our easy rotisserie chicken noodle soup just by adding noodles to this recipe and omitting the rice. Simply add your uncooked pasta to your pot 30 minutes before the end of your cooking time. If you decide to use egg noodles, I would suggest cooking them separately to al dente and add them at the end.
• If you have any leftover soup, store it in an airtight container and then reheat when you are ready to eat. This recipe also freezes really well – be sure to store the soup in freezer-safe containers. Add fresh toppings after reheating the leftovers.

Healthy Eating Plans

21 Day Fix

• Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups chicken and veggies, 1 cup broth
• Entire recipe: 6 red containers, 4 1/2 green containers, 1 yellow container
• Per Serving (about 3/4 cup of chicken): 1 1/2 Red container, 1 Green container, 1/4 Yellow container

Weight Watchers

• 3 Points on the 2023 Plan | 3 Blue Plan Point | 5 Green Plan Points | 0 Purple Plan Points

2B Mindset

This recipe is the perfect lunch!

Trim Healthy Mama

This is a Crossover recipe for THM and you’ll need eliminate the carrots since they’re not on plan. I made this recipe before I knew about those guidelines but you won’t miss them. The recipe is still delicious without the carrots.

More Healthy Soup Recipes

• Crack Chicken Soup
• Healthy Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Crockpot Egg Drop Soup
• Gazpacho Soup

3.95 from 18 ratings

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Rotisserie Chicken Soup

Created by: Becca Ludlum

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings 4 people

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This is a simple and healthy soup recipe that uses homemade or store bought rotisserie chicken, veggies, brown rice, and a jar of salsa.

Equipment

• Instant Pot 6 qt
• Crockpot
• Le Creuset Cast Iron Pot

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• ▢ 1 chicken rotisserie
• ▢ 64 ounces chicken stock low sodium, or if you're fancy and you make your own, 64 oz.
• ▢ 2 cups zucchini diced small
• ▢ 1 cup carrots diced small
• ▢ 1 tsp pepper
• ▢ 1/2 cup brown rice (dry for IP, cooked for stovetop or Crockpot)
• ▢ 1.5 cups salsa

Instructions

Instant Pot:

• Pull the meat from the rotisserie chicken and chop it into bite sized pieces.
• Add the meat, bones, and skin to the Instant Pot. I grouped the bones and skin on one size of the Instant Pot so that they were easier to remove later.
• Pour the rest of the ingredients to the Instant Pot. Close the lid and turn the pressure valve to sealing. Remember to use dry rice when cooking in the Instant Pot.
• Cook on high pressure using the soup setting for 25 minutes. When the Instant Pot is done cooking let the pressure release naturally or release the pressure by turning the valve a little then closing it again. This will release a little pressure at a time and prevent the soup from shooting out of the valve.
• Remove the bone and skin from the soup the serve. Garnish with chopped avocado, cilantro, and/or tortilla strips and cheese.

Stove Top:

• Pour the chicken stock and salsa into a stock pot on low heat.
• Cook the carrots and zucchini in 1 T olive oil for 5-10 minutes
• Next, pull the chicken off of the bone. I put it all on a cutting board and then cut the meat into smaller pieces before putting it all into the pot. The skin, bones, drumsticks, and wings all go into the pot. Please don’t skip that step. It adds a lot of moisture and, most importantly, taste. This bone broth will have more health benefits and better flavor. Win-win!
• Add the pepper, and the veggies when they're done.
• Add the rice. Cooked rice is needed here! 
• Let it simmer (slow boil) on the stove for an hour. Or two. Or three.
• When it’s time to eat, use tongs to pull out the skin and bones. I fill the bowl with everything but broth at first and add cheese on top. After the cheese has a few seconds to melt, I add the broth on top
• Garnish with chopped avocado, flour tortilla strips, or both!

Slow cooker:

• Pull the meat from the rotisserie chicken and chop it into bite sized pieces.
• Add the meat, bones, and skin to the slow cooker. I grouped the bones and skin on one size of the slow cooker so that they were easier to remove later.
• Pour the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker. Cooked rice is fine here as well! 
• Place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the soup on high heat for 2-3 hours or low heat for 4-6 hours.
• When it’s time to eat remove the bone and skin from the soup the serve. Garnish with chopped avocado, cilantro, and/or tortilla strips and cheese.

Video

Notes

21 Day Fix containers:

Serves: 4
Serving Size: 1.5 cups filling, 1 cup broth

Entire recipe: whole chicken = 6 red containers, 4 1/2 green containers, 1 yellow container

1 Serving with 3/4 cup chicken: 1 1/2 Red container, 1 Green container, 1/4 Yellow container

Weight Watchers:

3 Points on the 2023 Plan | 3 Blue Plan Point | 5 Green Plan Points | 0 Purple Plan Points

Nutrition

Calories: 568kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 48g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 143mg | Sodium: 888mg | Potassium: 1315mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 6205IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 92mg | Iron: 4mg

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