Easy Caldo de Pollo is a simple, one pot chicken soup recipe made from scratch! This soup is a classic with juicy chicken, a flavorful broth and lots of tender veggies!
Caldo de Pollo:
Caldo de Pollo is a traditional Mexican chicken soup recipe! The ingredients used can vary, and there are lots of different ways to make this soup. This is my personal spin on the classic. This soup starts with a really simple but flavor packed, clear broth.  Then, it’s loaded up with really tender shredded chicken and vegetables. For the veggies, I use carrots, celery, corn, potatoes, and zucchini! We love this soup because it’s so hearty and filling, so it warms you up all fall and winter long. The bonus is that it’s also a nice healthy dish the whole family can get behind, love healthy comfort food! I am always craving a good creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup, but sometimes I want something warming that makes me feel good too. This soup reheats really well, so it’s something you can easily pack up for lunches during the week!
How to Make Caldo de Pollo from Scratch:
A lot of times this soup is made with a whole chicken, or bone in chicken pieces. I chose to use boneless skinless chicken breasts, to save on time. However, if you prefer dark meat, you can definitely make this with chicken thighs too! Bone in or out is fine, just shred the chicken from the bones and discard them. This soup starts with a base of olive oil, garlic, onion, and lots of spices! We just cook them all together until the spices are fragrant. Then, you can add in your chicken and veggies, minus the potatoes and simmer until your chicken is cooked through. You will remove the chicken and shred at this point, adding the potatoes to the broth and letting them cook until tender. We serve this by ladling the soup into the bowl, topping with the chicken, cilantro, and lime!
Caldo de Pollo Recipe Notes and Tips:
- If there is a vegetable in this soup that you don’t like, you can just leave it out. I know a lot of people don’t do celery for instance, just leave it out or feel free to add more of one of the other veggies.
- This soup traditionally uses corn on the cob, but you can swap it out if you want! I know that fresh corn on the cob can be harder to find during fall and winter. If you can’t find it, use frozen corn on the cob instead. Or, you can just throw in a cup or two of frozen/canned corn.
- Like I said above, I use chicken breasts in this recipe and find it still has great flavor. However, you can use bone in chicken if you wish. Just remove the skin and bones from the cooked chicken as you shred it up.
- I use water as the liquid for this soup, and find the flavor to be great. If you want a stronger chicken or veggie flavor, you can use stock or broth. Low sodium will be best here, and then you can salt to taste.
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Easy Caldo de Pollo
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 Large White Onion Diced
- 3 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt and more to taste
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 4 Stalks Celery washed and diced into ½ inch pieces
- 3 Large Carrots peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
- 2 Pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts or Thighs
- 1 15 Ounce Can Sweet Corn or 2 – 3 Corn on the Cob, peeled and cut into 3 pieces
- 2 Medium Zucchini quartered and cut into ½ inch pieces
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 8 Cups Water
- 1.5 Pounds Russet Potatoes 3 ½-4 cups once diced, peeled and roughly diced
- For serving: Lime Wedges and Cilantro
Instructions
- Heat a large soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil and onion and cook until the onion becomes translucent.
- Then add the garlic, cumin powder, salt and pepper, stir and cook until the garlic becomes fragrant.
- Add the celery, carrots, chicken, corn, zucchini, bay leaves and pour in the water.
- Stir and bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat to medium heat and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the squash is soft.
- Remove the chicken from the broth and add in the potatoes.
- Stir and let the potatoes cook until they become soft.
- In the meantime, roughly shred the chicken then set aside.
- Once the potatoes have cooked, add more salt to taste and remove the pan from the heat.
- Serve by pouring the broth into a deep bowl and adding some of the shredded chicken to the top of the soup and garnishing with cilantro and squeezing over fresh lime juice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Are the chicken breasts cooked whole or chopped?
Put a Navajo twist on it used mutton back bone and mutton stew meat served it with frybread
I also making it with chicken wing drumettes and flats. That way I can enjoy eating the juicy meat straight from the bone.
Looks so pretty and delicious. My question is, how do you eat the corn if you use corn on the cob? Fish it out of the soup and hold it in your hand? Or cut off the kernels ahead of time, just like you are taking the meat off the chicken if you use bone-in?
Pick it up with your fingers (or a fork) then eat it like you would any corn on the cob.
Fish it out with your spoon and use your fingers to hold it as you take bites.
Very good and super simple! Surprisingly, I didn’t care for the potatoes but the fresh cilantro and lemon in a pinch made it VERY tasty!
My bf and are Mexican and we both grew up with this soup. I made this recipe for him and we both couldn’t stop eating it!! It is so good and taste exactly how we remember it as children. I followed the recipe exactly. Only difference is I put the chicken back in the soup towards the end of cooking because that’s how our parents would do it. It stays tender as long as you let the chicken cool before putting back in.
That’s what I want to do. Did you shred the chicken before you put it back in the soup? Did you use chicken breast? Boneless? I don’t want to have the chicken separate
This was delicious. My whole family loved it. Thank you!