Stone Soup is a comforting dish based on the folktale that is hearty and soothing. It is perfect to warm you up in the chilly Fall months!
Filling and warming Soup Recipes make the perfect family dinner for a Fall or Winter evening. Try Classic Chicken Noodle Soup and Vegetable Soup for more soothing dishes.
Why You’ll Love This Soup?
- A cozy broth based soup packed with veggies and protein made in under an hour.
- Can be made on the stovetop or in the slow cooker for a more hands off preparation.
Sabrina’s Stone Soup Recipe
This soup actually comes from a European folktale. As the story goes, when townspeople wouldn’t share any food with a traveler, the traveler put a pot of boiling water with a stone over a fire. When people came by asking what he was doing the traveler answered that he was making soup from stones and just needed one more ingredient. One by one, villagers offered ingredients to finish the soup until, at last, the traveler removed the stone, having made a full pot of soup to share with everyone. Some versions of the story use different inedible objects in the soup, calling it button soup, axe soup, wood soup, or nail soup, but Stone Soup is the most popular version of the tale. This soup is perfect to serve during the Fall and Winter months.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 6 chicken legs
- 1 yellow onion , diced
- 2 carrots , diced
- 2 stalks celery , diced
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 red potatoes , cut into 1" chunks
- 1/2 cup barley
- 29 ounces canned diced tomatoes , do not drain
- 1/2 pound green beans , cut into 1" pieces
- 2 zucchini , cut into half moons
- 1 cup frozen green peas
Instructions
- Add butter to a large heavy dutch oven on medium heat.
- Sear the chicken legs on all sides until browned, then remove from the pan and set aside, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add in onion, carrots and celery, stir to coat and cook for 5-6 minutes until softened.
- Add in garlic, stir and cook for 30 seconds.
- Stir in chicken broth, salt, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, oregano, bay leaves and bring to a simmer.
- Add in the chicken legs, red potatoes, barley and diced tomatoes.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- Add in green beans and peas, simmer for 5 minutes.
- Serve with crusty bread and minced parsley.
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note
Before mixing the other soup ingredients, sear the meat until it’s crispy and browned on the outside. Then, set the meat to the side. Don’t add the meat back into the soup until you’ve already cooked the other ingredients. This will help maintain the chicken’s flavor and keep it from becoming mushy. Additionally, for extra flavorful soup, you can prepare it with homemade chicken broth or chicken stock.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
This cozy, flavorful, and filling dish is based on the story and has become a popular recipe. But don’t worry, there are no actual stones included in the soup, just comforting ingredients like chicken, potatoes, carrots, green beans, and squash. It’s a delicious mixture of vegetables, meat, herbs, and broth, all simmered together into the perfect medley of flavors.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter: Use butter as the cooking oil to help brown the chicken and add rich flavor as you cook the vegetable mixture.
- 6 Chicken Legs: For the meat in the recipe use chicken legs. Use bone-in or boneless chicken, according to your preference. Bone-in chicken is more flavorful but is less convenient for soup recipes. You could also use chicken breast if you prefer.
- Mirepoix: Mirepoix is a French cooking term for a flavor base made by cooking vegetables in fat. To make a classic mirepoix for this recipe, cook 1 diced yellow onion, 2 diced carrots, and 2 diced celery stalks in butter.
- 3 cloves Garlic: Enhance the aromatic vegetables with more bold, buttery flavor by adding minced garlic to the blend.
- 6 cups Chicken Broth: For the savory liquid ingredient, use chicken broth. The broth will cook down slightly as the soup simmers. As it cooks, the chicken broth will also absorb and help to meld the other soup flavors.
- Herbs: Flavor the soup broth with 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, and 2 bay leaves.
- 8 Red Potatoes: Scrub the potatoes and dice them into bite-sized pieces before adding them to the recipe. The potatoes make the dish more filling, comforting, and they add a subtle sweetness.
- ½ cup Barley: Barley is a cereal grain similar to rice. It’s great for adding to soup because it makes the meal more filling, and becomes tender and flavorful while cooking in the broth.
- 29 ounces canned Diced Tomatoes: Add a can of tomatoes along with the tomato juice. The canning juice will mix with the chicken broth for a fresh, lightly tangy flavor addition.
- Vegetables: Finish the soup with green beans, yellow squash, and frozen peas to add color, flavor, and nutrients to the hearty dish.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Dutch Oven: You can cook this entire soup recipe in one large pot. A Dutch oven is the perfect kitchen appliance, but you could also use any large, heavy-bottomed pot that you have.
- Tongs: Use heat-safe chicken tongs to turn the chicken as you cook.
- Spoon: You’ll also want a wooden spoon to stir the vegetables and other soup ingredients as you bring the recipe together.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes. This wonderful soup is an excellent make-ahead recipe, as the flavors will develop over time. For meal-prepping, you can divide the homemade soup into serving-sized containers and reheat one portion at a time. The premade soup can stay good in the fridge for 3 days, or you can freeze it for a few months.
Pairing Suggestions
A soup and sandwich combo is a great way to make this into a satisfying lunch or dinner recipe. Serve up a small bowl of Stone Soup with a Grilled Cheese, Grilled Vegetable Sandwich, or classic BLT Sandwich. This soup also makes a delicious main course. Serve it up with a side salad and crusty bread like French bread, Italian Bread, or Herb Bread to dip into the broth.
How to Store
- Store: This homemade soup will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days. Wait for your leftover soup to cool, then transfer it to an airtight container to keep fresh in the fridge.
- Reheat: When ready to serve, pour the soup into a large soup pot to reheat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until warmed through.
- Freeze: Seal the soup in freezer bags to keep frozen for up to 3 months. Let the frozen chicken soup thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating the recipe.
Ideas to Serve
Ladle hot soup into serving bowls and garnish with fresh parsley leaves or other fresh herbs. You can also top it with crackers, cheese, additional salt, and pepper, or any of your other favorite soup add-ons.
Slow Cooker Method
- Instead of making your Stone Soup recipe on the stovetop, you can prepare it in a slow cooker.
- Start by searing the chicken and preparing the carrots, onion, and celery mixture in a large skillet.
- Add the mirepoix, broth, and other soup ingredients to the crock pot.
- Then, cover the soup pot and cook on Low for 8 hours, adding the chicken, green beans, peas during the last couple hours of cooking.
Frequent Questions
If you want to copy the stone soup story, it may be a better idea to throw a party and ask your guests to all contribute one of the ingredients. This copies the theme of the story without actually adding an inedible ingredient to the fabulous soup.
There are different versions of the fable coming from different parts of Europe, including France, Russia, Hungary, and Germany.
Variations
- Vegetables: This classic soup recipe can be made with a wide variety of ingredients, depending on what you have on hand. Try adding different types of vegetables like bell peppers, sweet corn, broccoli, or cauliflower.
- Broth: You can make your soup recipe with different kinds of broth or stock. Vegetable broth, beef broth, or beef bone broth can all make a flavorful and comforting Stone Soup.
- Meat: You can also make the recipe with different types of meat. It’s an especially great option to use up leftover turkey, pork, or beef and turn the meat into a new, delicious meal.
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I made this for supper and my family raved over it. This is so homey and satisfying, thanks for sharing
You’re welcome Brinna and thanks for the five star review.
Hi Sabrina,
Love your recipes and giving this a try because of the use of chicken legs, which for now at least are still relatively inexpensive. It’s nice to see them used!
You don’t specify, but could quick pearled barley be used? Also, I noticed yellow squash in recipe but zucchini in photos? No prob, I’m gonna use both! Keep ’em coming!
Hi Dawn, I changed the yellow squash to zucchini in the recipe card, but either or both works. Sorry for the confusion. As for the quick pearled barley, add to the simmering soup when there’s 15 minutes left in the cooking time.