The #1 High-Protein Ingredient to Add to Your Soup

For most of my life, I typically only ate soup when I was feeling under the weather. Noodle-packed Vietnamese pho and collagen-rich Japanese ramen were go-tos, but only when I had a cold. Hearty mulligatawny? Reserved for when I was at an Indian buffet and, even then, only a little bit of it so I wouldn’t fill up on broth in favor of tandoori-blistered meats and warming curries.

It’s only been a recent change, since I’ve become more devoted to fitness and better eating habits, that I’ve realized the positive impact of soup. When I initially lost 30 pounds a decade ago, I did some of it with protein powder mixes. Now that I’m in my 40s and more committed to nutrition, I’ve discovered a variety of soups that are delicious and satiating. But while Creamy Cucumber Soup or Pureed Broccoli Soup may be bursting with flavor and necessary vitamins, I knew I needed to add a protein boost to them to make them more filling.

The #1 High-Protein Ingredient to Add to Your Soup

I’m not a nutrition professional, so I called one to get some advice. Allison Tepper, M.S., RD, owner of Tepper Nutrition in Alexandria and Leesburg, Virginia, was happy to answer my questions. Though she admits that the best ingredients to add to any recipe are dependent on your family’s preferences, her pick is chicken.

“It’s the protein that comes to mind as being most versatile,” Tepper says. “It’s a little bit tricky because I wouldn’t say it’s best. Preference-wise, if you’re feeding the whole family, it’s likely to satisfy everyone.”

A ¾-cup serving of chopped chicken is loaded with a whopping 29 grams of protein. That’s right in line with the 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal that experts recommend to best support muscle mass. With 250 calories per ¾-cup serving, it’s no coincidence that our collection of Soup Recipes for Weight Loss contains plenty of chicken-based options. 

Perhaps even more important, there are real health benefits to eating chicken soup, especially during cold and flu season. Of course, depending on what you add to your potage, you can also benefit from countless nutrients—alongside the immune-supporting zinc that naturally occurs in chicken.

The Best Recipes for Adding Chicken to Soup

Growing up, my ultimate cold-recovery food was my Jewish grandmother’s chicken soup dotted with grated carrots. It was the real deal, with homemade broth strained of fat, then filled with egg noodles. But who has time for that?

I hate to admit it, but I almost always buy ready-made chicken broth for the soups I whip up at home. If I’m feeling ambitious, I like to cube raw chicken thighs and sear them before adding them to dishes like my favorite Chicken Chile Verde. But when I don’t have time for that, I’ll happily grab a pre-roasted rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and take it apart to add to the broth. I just make sure to use it within a few days of buying it, even if that means making more than one soup with it, then freezing it. And I can use the carcass to make more stock! For a pantry-staple option, you could add canned chicken for a quick protein-boost to your favorite soup.

Soups are among the best ways to access global cuisines at home. A recent visit to Morocco led to me becoming enchanted with spice-permeated chorba, a vegetable soup that I now make at home with chicken wings.

Another of my go-tos is Lemony Chicken & Rice Soup, modeled on Greek avgolemono. The part of me that craves the zip of acid digs the pucker of the lemon, but I also can’t get enough of the creamy texture that’s added by tempering the citrus with eggs. 

The Bottom Line

While there are plenty of great ways to add protein to soup, chicken is the one that’s most likely to please a crowd. But I usually make soup just for myself, and I still rely on the meaty texture to placate my meat cravings, paired with the protein burst to keep me full from lunch until dinner. 

There’s a reason that chicken soup is categorized as good “for the soul.” There are few foods as satisfying, even to a formerly soup-indifferent eater like me.