Chicken and Farro Soup with Vegetables Recipe

Jennifer Lamb

4 years ago

The perfect freezer friendly recipe: Chicken and Farro Soup

Have you ever made soup and just ended up with too much leftover? Well, this Vegetable Chicken and Farro Soup Recipe is the perfect Freezer Friendly Recipe. Unlike typical Chicken and Rice soup, the farro doesn’t soak up all the liquid when being reheated the way rice does. Making this the perfect make-ahead meal!

Fall-inspired Chicken and Farro Soup: A great dish for meal prepping, easy to adjust protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.

How to make this freezer friendly Chicken and Farro Soup:

Equipment:

Heavy Bottom Stock Pot

Ingredients:

½ tbsp Avocado Oil or extra virgin olive oil
8 oz Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Garlic Powder
½ tbsp Avocado Oil or extra virgin olive oil
½ cup Red Onion diced, (½ a large onion)
2 cloves Fresh Garlic diced
½ cup Farro dry
5 cups Water
3 tsp Reduced Sodium Chicken Base
¾ cup Carrots chopped, (2 large carrots)
½ cup Celery diced, (1 stalk)
¼ cup Jalapenos diced, (1 small pepper)
1 tbsp Red Pepper Flake

Instructions:

Heat a saute pan with a lid to medium heat. While waiting for the pan to warm up season the chicken breast with black pepper and garlic powder. Once the pan is hot add ½ tbsp oil to the pan.’
Place the chicken immediately in the pan with the oil, leave it there on medium heat for 2 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Both sides should start to become golden brown, but the center will still look uncooked…if not golden, give each side another minute…your pan wasn’t hot enough.’
After both sides are golden brown, turn the heat down to low and cover the chicken with a lid. Let it cook for about’ 8′ minutes, then flip and cover again for another’ 8′ minutes on the other side.’ This cook time is based on an’ 8′ oz breast, if you are using another size breast, cook your chicken for 1 minute per oz, per side covered.’
After’ 8′ minutes on each side covered, the chicken should be done. But this does depend on the size of the chicken breast, it is always best to check the internal temperature of chicken before serving.’
Once the chicken is done remove it from the pan, saving the juices from the chicken in the pan. Allow the chicken to rest while you begin to cook the remaining ingredients.’
Leaving the pan on the stove at medium heat, add the diced onion, jalapeno, and garlic to the chicken juices. Cook down for 3-5 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed, stirring often.’
Now add the additional ½ tbsp oil to the pan, then add the farro. Cook the farro with the onion mixture for 3 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the farro from burning. During this 3 minutes you are just toasting the farro to help bring out its flavor.’
Now transfer the ingredients from you saute pan to a medium stock pot. Add your 5 cups of water and 3 tsp chicken base to the pot and bring to a boil.’ If you do not have chicken base, you can replace the water and chicken base with 5 cups low sodium chicken stock.’
While you are waiting for the chicken stock to boil, use a fork and knife to shred your chicken breast into smaller bite size pieces.
After your farrow has boiled for approximate 15 minutes, add the shredded chicken, chopped carrots and diced celery to the pot, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for an additional 10 minutes.’
After 10 minutes your carrots should be fork tender but not mushy. Season with red pepper flake and enjoy!

Notes for Meal Prep:

This Chicken and Farro Soup is a wonderful recipe for meal prepping. You can store each serving in the fridge for up to 1 week and eat it as it fits your meal plan.

Or freeze this recipe in individual portions and eat within the next 6 months. Check out my Tips for Freezing Food.

Notes for Counting Marcos:

PROTEIN:

You can easily adjust the protein macro by adjusting the portion of chicken breast used.

For every 1 ounce of chicken you can increase or decrease your protein intake by 8.8 grams.

CARBOHYDRATE:

Farro is an ancient grain that is packed with nutrients and healthy carbs.

As little as a 1/4 cup of dried farro can increase or decrease the carb macro by 32 grams. You will want to add 1/2 cup water or chicken stock for every 1/4 farro added.

FAT:

There is not a lot of fat in this dish, but you can adjust the fat levels by switching from chicken breast to chicken thighs.

Every 1 ounce of chicken thighs increases or decreases your fat macro by 1 gram. But it is important to keep in mind that by switching to this different cut of chicken you will also be decreasing your protein by 1.8 grams for every 1 ounce of chicken thigh vs chicken breast.

My suggestion would actually be to, not adjust the fats in this recipe and enjoy a few extra nuts or something else you love today!

Tip:

If you do choose to make this change from chicken breast to chicken thigh, you will cook the chicken thighs following the same chicken breast directions.

When making adjustments to the macros you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.

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