Chicken soup review

These are the 53 chicken soup products we compared in this review:

• Aldi Simplee Soup in a Cup Classic Chicken Flavoured with Noodles
• Aldi The Soup Co Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup
• Aldi The Soup Co Old Fashioned Chicken Soup
• Australian Organic Food Co 100% Australian Organic Chicken, Spelt & Vegetable Soup
• Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Korma
• Campbell’s Chunky Roast Chicken & Vegetable
• Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle
• Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken
• Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken & Corn
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Chicken & Sweetcorn
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Chicken Noodle
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Creamy Chicken
• Coles Chicken & Corn Soup
• Coles Chicken & Vegetable Soup with Buckwheat
• Coles Chicken Noodle Flavoured Soup Mix
• Coles Soup in a Cup Chicken & Mushroom with Croutons
• Coles Soup in a Cup Creamy Chicken & Corn with Croutons
• Coles Soup in a Cup Creamy Chicken with Croutons
• Coles Soup in a Cup Roast Chicken With Noodles
• Continental Chicken Noodle Simmer Soup
• Continental Chicken Noodle Simmer Soup Salt Reduced
• Continental Cream of Chicken Simmer Soup
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Chicken with Lots of Noodles
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Chinese Chicken & Corn with Lots of Noodles
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Creamy Chicken & Corn with Croutons (sachet)
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Creamy Chicken & Corn with Croutons (cup)
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Creamy Chicken with Lots of Noodles (sachet)
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Creamy Chicken with Lots of Noodles (cup)
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Homestyle Chicken
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Homestyle Chicken Noodle
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Chicken Flavours) Roast Chicken
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Classic Flavours) Chicken Noodle
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Classic Flavours) Cream of Chicken
• Continental Nutrish Soup Feeling Clucky
• Hart & Soul All Natural 56 Calorie Chicken Bone Broth Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken & Corn Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken Noodle Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken Noodle Soup Cup
• Heinz Big’N Chunky Chicken & Corn
• Heinz Classic Chicken & Sweetcorn
• Heinz Classic Country Chicken
• Heinz Classic Creamy Chicken & Mushroom
• Heinz Soup of the Day Old Fashioned Chicken
• Heinz Soup of the Day Thai Style Chicken
• La Zuppa Natural Soup for Two Creamy Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup for Two Tuscan Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Chicken Noodle
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Creamy Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Hearty Chicken & Vegetable
• South Australian Gourmet Food Company Creamy Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup
• Well Yes! Chicken Noodle Soup
• Well Yes! Roasted Chicken with Wild Rice Soup
• Woolworths Essentials Chicken Flavoured Noodle Soup

How to make chicken stock

Ingredients

• 1kg chicken wings
• 3 litres water
• 1 tablespoon salt

Method

• Place ingredients in a large 4 litre saucepan.
• Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for roughly 2-4 hours (the longer the better).
• Strain the stock using a fine sieve, discard the chicken wings.
• Stock can be used immediately, or poured into containers and frozen for later.

Tips

• If using stock straight away, let it sit for a few mins to allow the fat to come to the top and then spoon off before using freezer containers and freeze if not using immediately.
• If using from frozen, scrape off and discard the layer of fat that will be sitting on top before defrosting.

Chicken and vegetable soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 carrots peeled, halved and sliced
• 2 celery sticks, finely sliced
• 3 litres chicken stock (store bought, or see our recipe)
• 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cups cooked shredded chicken, or chicken dumplings (see below for recipe)
• Handful of baby celery leaves and parsley, roughly chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese, grated

Method

• Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan on a medium heat.
• Add onions, garlic, carrots and celery and cook for 5 mins to soften.
• Add stock, chicken, mushrooms and half the celery leaves and parsley, and bring to a gentle simmer.
• Simmer for 15 mins.
• Season to taste.
• Serve with a sprinkle of the extra celery leaf, parsley and grated parmesan as desired.

Tips

• Chicken dumplings can be used instead of the shredded cooked chicken. Recipe: combine 250g of chicken mince with 1 egg, salt and pepper, 1 cup of bread crumbs and ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese. Roll into walnut size balls and drop into heated stock.
• Any vegetables, such as sliced green beans, shredded cabbage, diced potatoes and sliced zucchini, can be added to the soup.

Chicken noodle soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 carrot peeled, halved and sliced
• 1 celery stick, finely sliced
• 3 litres chicken stock (store bought, or see our recipe)
• 150g dried egg noodles
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• Parsley, a handful, roughly chopped
• Salt and pepper

Method

• Heat olive oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat.
• Add onions, garlic, carrots and celery and cook for 5 mins to soften.
• Add stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
• Add noodles and chicken and cook for 3-5 minutes
• Add parsley.
• Season to taste.
• Serve topped with extra chopped parsley and grated parmesan as desired.

Serves 6

Tip

• For an Asian flavour, add 1 tablespoon of grated ginger with the garlic, add ½ teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce to the stock, and garnish with chopped green onions instead of parsley.

You know we’re heading into winter when the aisle ends of supermarkets are piled high with packets of soup, bags of lentils and cartons of stock.

Sure, you can make your own, but it’s also handy to have a can, packet or pouch of soup stashed in the pantry to pair with crusty bread for a quick and easy lunch, or for instant warmth during a cold snap.

Chicken soup in particular is a fave, in part because of its claimed cold-busting benefits. It may not cure your cold (the claims are unproven), but a mug of steaming hot chicken soup can certainly make the sniffles more bearable.

We compare the price, ingredients, nutrition details and country of origin of 53 supermarket chicken soup products from brands including Campbell’s, Continental and Heinz – and share our top picks for your pantry.

Cheapest chicken soup

• Coles Chicken Noodle Flavoured Soup Mix ($0.45 per 4-pack)
• Woolworths Essentials Chicken Flavoured Noodle Soup ($0.45 per 4-pack)

These two products were the cheapest in our review, working out at just $0.11 per serve (or $0.05 per 100mL) when prepared with hot water, as directed.

At the other end of the price scale is Australian Organic Food Co 100% Australian Organic Chicken, Spelt & Vegetable Soup, which costs $4.50 for a single serve pouch ($1.36 per 100mL).

Lowest salt

• Continental Chicken Noodle Simmer Soup Salt Reduced

This was the only product in our review with a sodium content of less than 120mg per 100mL (as prepared), a level considered to be ‘low salt’ according to the Food Standards Code.

Although it’s the only product specifically marketed as low salt, the sodium content of the other products is still fairly moderate, all sitting below 400mg per 100mL (as prepared).

Most chicken

• Australian Organic Food Co 100% Australian Organic Chicken, Spelt & Vegetable Soup (11% chicken)
• Heinz Classic Country Chicken (11% chicken)

These are the meatiest soups in our review, both weighing in at 11% chicken.

This might not sound like a lot – chicken is the key characterising ingredient of chicken soup, after all – but it’s significantly more than 0%, which is the chicken content of nine of the 53 products in our review. That’s right, some chicken soup products are simply chicken-flavoured.

And although you may feel ripped off, tucking into chicken soup only to find it’s chook-free, there is a silver lining. Because these products are suitable for vegetarians, you can serve them up on meat-free Monday!

In fact, two of these soups – also the cheapest products in our test – are free from animal products altogether, making them suitable for vegans too.

Most sweetcorn, vegetables and noodles

Soup described as ‘chicken & corn’ can contain as little as 1.5% corn. Craving corn? These soups are top of the crops:

• Aldi The Soup Co Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup (35% corn)
• Heinz Big’N Chunky Chicken & Corn (35% corn)

Of all the products described as ‘chicken & veg’ (or whose packs claimed vegetable content), these had the most vegies:

• Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Korma (48% veg: potatoes, carrots, tomato puree, green beans, peas, onion, spinach)
• La Zuppa Natural Soup for Two Tuscan Chicken & Vegetable (40% veg: cabbage, potato, carrot 6.9%, borlotti bean, zucchini, onion, lentils 2.2%)

The noodle content of the chicken noodle soups we reviewed ranged from 1.6% up to 77%. If you’re after oodles of noodles, look no further than this soup:

• Continental Chicken Noodle Simmer Soup Salt Reduced (77% noodles)

Most Australian ingredients

At least a third of the soups in our review contain no Australian ingredients at all. For those looking for significantly more local flavour, the following products topped the list for Australian ingredients, all with more than 90%:

• Australian Organic Food Co 100% Australian Organic Chicken, Spelt & Vegetable Soup (100%)
• South Australian Gourmet Food Company Creamy Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup (96%)
• Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken (95%)
• Coles Chicken Noodle Flavoured Soup Mix (91%)

Best value

Are you after a good all-rounder that offers value for money? The following 12 chicken soups get a tick for both price (they cost just $0.70 or less per 100mL as prepared) and ingredients (they all contain at least 5% chicken and have a higher than average sweetcorn or vegetable content, where this applies)

• Aldi The Soup Co Old Fashioned Chicken Soup
• Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Korma
• Campbell’s Chunky Roast Chicken & Vegetable
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Chicken & Sweetcorn
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Chicken Noodle
• Campbell’s Country Ladle Creamy Chicken
• Coles Chicken & Vegetable Soup with Buckwheat
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken Noodle Soup Cup
• Heinz Classic Country Chicken
• Heinz Classic Creamy Chicken & Mushroom
• Heinz Soup of the Day Old Fashioned Chicken
• South Australian Gourmet Food Company Creamy Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup

Which chicken soups are gluten-free?

Twelve of the 53 products we looked at are gluten-free:

• Aldi The Soup Co Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup
• Coles Chicken & Corn Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural 56 Calorie Chicken Bone Broth Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken & Corn Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken Noodle Soup
• Hart & Soul All Natural Chicken Noodle Soup Cup
• Heinz Soup of the Day Thai Style Chicken
• La Zuppa Natural Soup for Two Creamy Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup for Two Tuscan Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Chicken Noodle
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Creamy Chicken & Vegetable
• La Zuppa Natural Soup in a Bowl Hearty Chicken & Vegetable

Avoiding MSG?

A very small number of people who have food allergies and intolerances, especially those with asthma, may be sensitive to glutamate. These people need to avoid glutamates in food – both those that occur naturally in foods such as parmesan cheese or tomato, and those such as monosodium glutamate (also known as MSG, or additive 621), which have been added to food as flavour enhancers.

The following four soups do contain additive 621, so are probably best avoided by people who are glutamate sensitive:

• Continental Chicken Noodle Simmer Soup Salt Reduced
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Classic Flavours) Chicken Noodle
• Continental Cup a Soup (Our Classic Flavours) Cream of Chicken
• Heinz Classic Country Chicken

Chicken soup recipes

Prefer homemade? Pull out your stock pot and get your cook on with these simple chicken soup recipes – stock recipe included – from Fiona Mair, CHOICE home economist.