This chicken carcass soup is a great way to use up leftovers from a roasted or rotisserie chicken. It’s from-scratch chicken noodle soup that is easy, warming, and completely delicious.
Hey, friends. Yesterday, I published a complete guide to Roasted Chicken (if you haven’t read it yet, go check it out!), and today, I have a follow-up recipe for you.
This recipe is for the day after (or the day after the day after) you’ve roasted a chicken. When the carcass is picked bare and your beautiful golden bird is mostly just a pile of bones.
Time to make some chicken carcass soup.
This recipe is great for so many reasons. First, because the name is just deliciously gruesome and second, because there is something *so* satisfying about making a pot of soup from scratch without even a can of broth.
You’ll walk around with a smile, feeling capable and accomplished the entire rest of the day. (Okay, maybe that’s just me.)
On top of the ego boost, this is just some really good soup. Soup started from bones simmered into stock beats the canned stuff every time.
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken carcass: The larger your chicken, the more flavor your chicken stock will have. If you have a particularly small rotisserie chicken, you can save it in your freezer until you have another one and cook two at once for maximum flavor. This recipe will also work with a turkey, though if you like, you can double the rest of the recipe because of the significantly larger carcass.
- Filtered water: You don’t *have* to use filtered water for your stock, but if you don’t like the taste of your tap water, don’t use it in your soup. 😉
- Two sets of carrots, onions, and celery: You’ll use two sets of vegetables in this soup. The first will simmer with the stock to help flavor it and then be discarded (the veggies will be mushy and flavorless after the long simmer), and the second set will be added to the soup.
How to Make Chicken Carcass Soup
1. Prep your chicken: To start, take your chicken carcass and remove and reserve any leftover chicken meat from the bones. If there are more than two cups of meat, great. You’ll use that in the soup. If not, we’ll cook some chicken later to add to it.
Use a pair of good kitchen shears, a sharp chef’s knife, or cleaver to chop up the carcass just enough so that you can lay the bones mostly flat.
Then heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and add your bone pieces.
2. Brown the chicken bones: Cook, using cooking tongs or chopsticks to turn the pieces occasionally, until bones and remaining skin are browned. Any meaty bits still attached won’t brown much, but the fat and the bones should turn nicely golden.
3. Add the rest of the stock ingredients: Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan and scrape all the browned bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon.
Then add a couple of roughly chopped carrots, celery ribs, and half an onion, along with about 10 cups of water and a little salt.
Bring the water to barely a simmer (watch closely to make sure it never comes to a boil as that can make your soup cloudy), and then turn the heat down to keep it there.
4. Simmer: Simmer for 90 minutes, scraping fat off the surface of the water occasionally, and checking to make sure your broth has not started to boil.
If there were less than two cups of meat remaining on your chicken, now’s a good time to cook a couple of chicken breasts.
If you don’t have a go-to chicken-cooking method, try the posts How to Cook Shredded Chicken or How to Cook Chicken Breasts if you prefer cubed meat.
5. Finish stock: You’ll know your stock is done when it has a good chicken flavor. If it still tastes too watery after 90 minutes, simmer it a little longer.
Once the stock is done, use a large slotted spoon to remove and discard large pieces of bone and vegetable before straining broth through a fine-mesh strainer.
6. Start your soup: Rinse pot to remove any chicken or vegetable remnants and return broth to pot. Bring to a simmer and add chopped carrots, celery, onion, and spices. Those simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until tender.
While your vegetables cook, cook 1 to 1½ cups of noodles (depending on your preferred broth to noodle ratio) in a separate pot until just al dente.
Cooking your pasta separately keeps it from soaking up all your broth and gives you complete control of the cooking time. I like egg noodles in my chicken soup, but you can use whatever pasta you like best.
7: Add pasta and chicken: When noodles and veggies are done, add cooked (and drained) pasta and chicken to the pot of broth.
Stir everything together and add more salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute longer to make sure the chicken is heated through.
8. Enjoy: And that’s it. Serve and enjoy.
FAQ
What to serve with chicken carcass soup?
Serve your soup with a slice of crusty bread, some Cheddar Scones or quick Cream Biscuits, and a simple veggie side like Oven-Roasted Broccoli, Butter and Garlic Green Beans, or Roasted Zucchini.
Can I make this in advance?
Yes. You can make the soup or just the stock up to 48 hours in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator and reheat gently over medium heat. For best results, make and add the noodles just before serving, but this is optional.
Can I freeze this soup?
Yes, with some modifications. I don’t love freezing soup with noodles in it, so I recommend freezing the soup before you add the noodles. So if you know you’re going to eat only half the soup, add the chicken and then divide the soup and freeze half before you add the cooked noodles.
That being said, if you usually freeze soup with noodles and want to do it, you can.
For more tips and tricks on freezing soup, check out my post How to Freeze Soup.
More Favorite Soup Recipes
Chicken Carcass Soup Recipe Notes
- Small-batch instructions: This is a full batch of soup that makes about four servings. It is great as leftovers, but if you’re part of a small household and want to make it Chicken Carcass Soup for Two, you can freeze half of the broth after straining and cut the rest of the recipe in half. Broth will keep in the freezer for about 3 months.
Chicken Carcass Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
Chicken Stock
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 chicken carcass picked clean of meat and cut into pieces
- 10 cups filtered water
- 2 large carrots roughly chopped
- 2 celery ribs roughly chopped
- ½ large onion roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
Chicken Noodle Soup
- 2 large carrots chopped
- 2 celery ribs chopped
- ½ onion diced
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ heaping teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ heaping teaspoon dried basil
- ⅛ teaspoon ground thyme
- 1 to 1½ cups pasta
- 2 cups cooked chicken shredded or chopped
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add chicken carcass pieces and cook, turning occasionally, until bones and any remaining skin are browned.
- Add a splash of the water to deglaze the pan and scrape all the browned bits off the bottom. Add the vegetables, remaining water, and salt. Bring to barely a simmer (watch closely to make sure it never comes to a boil as that can make your soup cloudy).
- Simmer for 90 minutes, scraping fat off the top occasionally, and checking to make sure your broth has not started to boil.
- Discard large pieces of bone and vegetable before straining broth through a fine-mesh strainer. Rinse pot to remove any chicken or vegetable remnants and return broth to pot. Bring to a simmer and add carrots, celery, onion, and spices. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
- While your vegetables cook, bring a pot of generously salted water to boil and cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Stir cooked, drained pasta and cooked chicken into the broth and vegetables. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute to make sure the chicken is heated through.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
- To substitute a turkey carcass: Double the rest of the ingredients.
- Freezing: Stock or finished soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Recipe Adapted From Chowhound
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Kelly says
It was good, light in seasoning, ended up throwing in a bullion cube (or two) but our chicken was organic and thus very small, maybe that’s why? Anyways it was a nice classic soup and warmed us up while our heat was out, thank you! 🙂
Tracy says
Thanks for the feedback, Kelly! A smaller chicken could definitely affect the amount of flavor, but glad you made it work for you, and hope your heat came back quick!
Cindy says
what size chicken is ideal? I also use organic ad typically have a 4 lb chicken for roasting.
Tracy says
That should work perfectly.
Sandra says
Thanks for the recipe. I’m going to try this. The only thing I don’t like is the egg noodles. I prefer a smaller pasta so you can taste the “chicken soup.”
Tracy says
Hope you enjoy it, Sandra. And definitely use the pasta you like best! 🙂
Kathy says
I’ve been cooking for years and never successfully created a good chicken soup…shortcuts do NOT make a good chicken soup. Well, today, I came across your recipe and it made so much more sense then any that I’d read, I followed it to the T.
Great! Just great! And, if you want to just make broth, stop after discarding all the cooked vegetables! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Really, thank you, sooo good! As written! No changes!
Tracy says
Kathy, you just made my evening! SO happy the recipe worked out for you. Thanks so much for letting me know!
Nikki says
Thanks so much for this recipe! I have made it twice and it was delicious both times! I love the step by step for a newbie like me! I like to add more salt and load it up with the noodles!
Tracy says
Thanks, Nikki! So glad you enjoyed the recipe. And the way you like your soup is the way I like my soup when I make it for myself. 😉
Kathy says
Hello Tracy, well just a note to let you know last night I was deboning our Thanksgiving turkey, and was preparing to make Left over turkey soup when I thought, hey, why can’t I use Tracy’s Chicken Carcass soup for Turkey carcass soup?? Well, long story short, I did and it was fantastic! I might of added an additional carrot and celery, and a small adjustment of the spices since bigger soup, but basically just as your original recipe for the chicken! Thank you so much again, for a terrific recipe.
Tracy says
Yay! So glad to hear this worked out for your turkey. Thanks for reporting back, Kathy!
Jan says
Do you cover the pot for the stock and soup?
Tracy says
No. Simmer uncovered.
Jan says
Thanks for your quick reply. Will be making it shortly.
Tracy says
Hope you enjoy it!
Jen Howard says
Thank you! My broth has just started the simmer. Cannot wait for the end result!
Tracy says
Hope you enjoyed it, Jen!!
Jen Howard says
Thank you. Same question I had!
Pattie says
My exact question, glad i saw her reply!
Sharon says
Thank you! I had this question too.
Vivek Asija says
Why discard the veggies? Wouldn’t it be good to keep them?
Tracy says
The first round of vegetables are quite mushy and give up most of their flavor by the time the stock finishes, so they won’t add a lot to the soup if kept. There’s nothing wrong with them though, so if you taste them and they still taste good, you can pick them out and keep them. Totally up to you!
Karien Downes says
Hi I made this but now my husband is worried about heating up that chicken too many times… It was roasted first, then the carcass went in the soup but we haven’t eaten it yet so it will have to be heated a third time… is it still safe? Many thanks
Tracy says
Hi, Karien, as long as you practiced good food safety at all points, there shouldn’t be any issues. Here’s a good info sheet from the USDA on what that looks like at different stages: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/Leftovers_and_Food_Safety.pdf Hope that helps!
Katie says
Thanks for the delicious and detailed recipe. I changed a few things. I didn’t have celery so I used more onion and carrot, and I added about 12 cups of water because I had a bigger chicken carcass.
Thanks so much! My toddler and husband both loved it.
Marilyn Vandekieft says
You’d think by now (age 80) I’d know how to make chicken broth/soup….and I used to but haven’t done so in years, and needed a reminder.. I froze a great organic chicken carcass a few weeks ago, and my broth is cooking right now, and I’ll be refrigerating it later for use as soup tomorrow. I did skip the browning of carcass pieces ’cause I know I never did that years back. I did add chicken skin, though (to add more flavor) and will be able to skim off the fat after the refrigeration. Oh, it smells so good already after only 3/4 hr of simmering!!! I added dried tarragon because I know it weds well with chicken. This grandma says thanks for your online help.
Tracy says
I hope you enjoyed it, Marilyn!!
Andrea says
Would there be any change in flavor if you cook the noodles in part of the broth you just made?
Tracy says
Not really a flavor change. The noodles tend to suck up the broth, so you have to add canned broth back into the pot to compensate for it. If you have canned broth on hand and don’t mind using it, you can definitely cook the noodles in the soup.
Kyla F says
This Is the best chicken soup using a carcass!! I have made this soup 3 times in the past month! Currently living in a hotel suite and I love that I can make the soup in the same pot and it takes half the time as other soup recipes and it’s delicious! It’s definitely a staple now! Thank you for sharing
Tracy says
Thanks, Kyla! I’m so glad you’ve found the recipe useful!!
Katie Freeman says
Very easy homemade soup! I kept the carrots and served them for dinner and added all new veggies to the soup. Thanks for sharing!
Tracy says
Thanks, Katie! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it!!
Renee says
I need to thank you for this easy to manage recipe because it has now become a regular staple in my home. I love that you added the step to brown the chicken skin and bones before starting the broth because it smells so incredibly delicious and I do think it adds a special something to the finished soup. I’ve been experimenting with adding a few extra things to the broth (garlic, parsley, peppercorns and bay leaves in the broth so I don’t have to worry about fishing it out before I serve it.) I also double up on the carrots in the actual soup because I love carrots. My whole body sighs when I eat this soup!
Colleen says
This is a very good recipe, for years have tried unsuccessfully to make flavourful soup from chicken bones aka the carcus, now I have found it! Thanks for the step by step instructions. From here one can adapt it to different flavour profiles. I most certainly will add it to my recipe favorites.
Jennifer H. says
I’ve made this recipe three times. It always works out and is delicious. In the past, I’ve added some tumeric or lemon grass to spice up the flavor a bit.
Tracy says
So glad to hear it!! Love the turmeric and lemon grass idea!!
Joanne Weinberg says
My new go to for soup and stock. Easy and foolproof!
Tracy says
So glad it worked out for you!!
Linda Parker says
Thank you for sharing this excellent recipe! I have tried for years to make a good chicken soup, without success, until I came across your recipe. It takes a little longer because of the 90 minutes to make the stock but it is worth every minute. It makes beautiful chicken soup every time and is my go to recipe now. I like home made best because you know exactly what you have put in it and, even if you don’t want to make the soup, the stock is perfect on its’ own.
Tracy says
So happy to hear it, Linda!!
Sam says
Any recommendations or liquid adjustments if using rice instead of noodles?! (My rice noodles seem to have run away since beginning the carcass broth!) 🙂
Tracy says
I can’t say for sure since I haven’t tested it, but I’d probably just add as much water (or maybe a little less) as you’d need to cook that amount of rice. So if you’d usually use 2 cups of water to cook 1 cup of rice, I’d use 1 1/2 to 2 cups of extra water in the soup. Hope that makes sense!
Marybeth says
In the midst of cooking. Question: in the first set of directions on the stock, what does the amount is the “remaining water”? The 9 cups LESS the splash?
As a newbie, I’d love an estimate on how long the bone sautéing might take.
These cook comments above are very impressive! Thank you for sharing
Tracy says
Hi, Marybeth. Yes the remaining water refers to all the water minus the “splash” used to deglaze the pan. For the cooking time, it’s going to vary depending on a ton of factors, but I’d say 5-8 minutes. Hope you enjoy the soup!
Becci says
English person here!
Despite being vegan I made this for my omni kids using a left over roast chicken from our Sunday dinner.
Was really simple , Used spaghetti as the noodles.
I didn’t taste it for obvious reasons but the kids loved it!
Carol S says
I’ve never made chicken soup before and I’m a boomer. I chose the recipe cause there is only two of us left in the nest! This was a wonderful recipe to use up that chicken carcass. Made it exactly as you said but did add a bit of dry chicken bouillon for a little more flavour. I froze half of the broth. My pasta was about a 1/2 of cooked egg noodles . Wow, it was delicious!! Just enough for the two of us. Thx!!
Stephanie says
I found this recipe a few years ago and have been making it ever since! It really is the best chicken soup I’ve ever made! My picky husband also loves it!
I used the carcass from a supermarket rotisserie. They tend to be small, so I add a little bouillon, but other than that it is perfect! Most times we don’t even add the noodles because it is delicious as is. Thank you for keeping my family happy with a go-to chicken soup recipe! Xo
Debbie says
Great recipe. Soup came out delicious. Definitely a keeper.
Chris says
Made this once before and it was great. Now I’m using the separated fat and drippings. Fat to brown the carcass parts and the drippings for the stock. Its a lot of fat, but ooooh so good.
Candace says
Hi there, making this for the first time tonight. I see you sort of addressed this earlier in terms of total cups of water. I got confused, too, because the ingredient list says to 10 cups of water “divided.” So I have added 5 cups of water to the bones in making the first part of the recipe. When are the other 5 cups added or. Is the other half to boil the pasta? Or do you mean to put in all 10 cups of water to simmer to make the broth?
Thank you!
Tracy says
Hi Candace. When you see divided after an ingredient, it just means that you’re not going to add the ingredient all at once, not that it’s necessarily going to be split in half. So for this recipe, use a splash of the water to deglaze the pan and then the rest of it once the bottom is scraped clean. Hope that makes sense! I see that phrase is causing confusion here though, so I’m going to update the recipe.
Kathy says
Great recipe! I added a bit more salt (I like salt lol) but did it all the same and the soup came out awesome. So fresh tasting and delicious!
Roy says
Cooking this recipe later on today!
After reading the comments my mouth is watering.
Yummy!
Chris says
So good! I made a roasted chicken this week and got two meals out of it then decided on chicken soup! This recipe is the best, followed it exactly. Thanks!
Nancy says
Hands down the BEST chicken soup! Browning the carcass is a game changer. My chicken carcass was about 3-4 pounds and the flavor was perfect. The only change I would recommend is to double the batch so you have some left over. Thank you for such an outstanding, and easy, recipe!
BARBARA says
In all of the years that I have been making homemade broth I have never been able to get the chicken flavor I desire that you usually can get from a cardboard box broth until today. I made your broth just as described and although it was labor intensive and a lot of work it was quite the experiment because it came out even better than the cardboard box broth. Luckily for me I had lots of leftover chicken carcasses in the freezer waiting for the perfect moment to be used. Today was that day. I will never go back to making broth the way I used to if I have left over carcasses to use. Thank you for such a great recipe.
kevin says
Great idea as i usually just toss the Costco rotisserie carcass. Overall it’s really good with good flavor. First time making chicken soup; I had to just keep adding salt until it had the taste i like. One surprise was from the pics it looked like i would have plenty of trimmings flavor because i had quite a bit more in the pot than was shown in the pic.
I am glad i reduced the water by two cups because it would not have had a strong enough chicken flavor. I figured i could always add more liquid if the broth had too much flavor. I also increased the amount of pasta (online had a 1/2 cup uncooked = 1 cup cooked formula, but that didn’t work out for me cause 3/4 cup uncooked equaled about 1.25 cups cooked).
Kris says
So, this is my sixth time making a turkey/chicken stock. I do like how you suggest cooking off the meat/carcass in olive oil prior to adding everything else. I also appreciate that you suggest a simmer, as opposed to a boil. I believe that made a huge difference. I do prefer my stock a little saltier for sure, so added more. That being said, I am not sure if altitude plays a role in all of this, but it took me way longer to get the desired stock flavor. I am at 2200′ altitude. If I started the clock when it started to simmer, it was twice the amount of time. So, 180 minutes. Otherwise, it is a great recipe. Thank you.
Lauren says
I have made this soup a couple of times now using the leftovers from one of those rotisserie Costco chickens. I love it. My family loves it. Great recipe and thank you!
Izzy says
Man oh man. This was GOOD! I didn’t even happen to have celery and it was still amazing. I will definitely get them for next time though. Everything else I followed exactly. I used leftovers from our Costco chicken and no bit of our rotisserie will ever go unused again!
Stella says
I just have to tell you how much I love and appreciate this recipe, thank you so much!
Just cooked a batch this evening using 2 chicken carcasses.
I cheated and used grocery rotisseries which were pretty small. Had one in the freezer already and picked up another one tonight. Perfect!
I’ve also used turkey carcasses after cooking two bone in turkey breasts over the holidays.
My favorite part is frying up the bones and skin and knowing all that goodness is going into it this delicious soup.
Beth says
My husband told me it was the best chicken soup I’ve ever made! Thanks for a great recipe!
Tracy says
High compliments!! I’m so glad you both enjoyed it!!
DeniseG says
So glad I came across this recipe. I never made my own broth from bones before and it is well worth the time it takes. Absolutely delicious and my whole house smells amazing!! Thank you for such detailed instructions. I added two bay leaves and a few springs of fresh thyme. Perfect dinner on a cold and rainy night.
Tracy says
So thrilled you enjoyed it, Denise!