This cozy chicken and white bean soup is a one-pot recipe packed with juicy shredded chicken, cannellini beans, and veggies, brightened with fresh homemade basil pesto.
You might also love this comforting chicken orzo soup or a classic tomato soup and grilled cheese.
This chicken and white bean soup perfectly bridges that summer-into-fall time of year, when days are still warm but nights start to get chilly. It’s a delicious and zesty one-pot chicken soup recipe loaded with juicy shredded thigh meat, creamy cannellini beans, tender veggies, and spinach. I include how to make a quick, Italian-style basil pesto that adds a citrusy punch to the broth!
What Makes This One-Pot White Bean Chicken Soup So Satisfying
- Rich Tuscan-style flavors. Basil pesto is zesty, nutty, and the perfect way to bring a burst of bright, fresh Italian-inspired flavors to the soup.
- Easy clean up. Sear the chicken, sauté the vegetables, and prepare the soup in one pot.
- 1-hour cooking time. This soup comes together in an hour on the stovetop, which gives just enough time for all those flavors to mingle. It’s quick enough for weeknight meals, too.
- Use leftover chicken. Whenever I have a rotisserie chicken or roast chicken in the fridge, I love shredding leftovers to add to stews and chili, or soup recipes like chicken noodle or today’s cozy chicken white bean soup. I love turning random fridge scraps and leftovers into something worth bragging about.
Grab Your Soup Ingredients
These are the ingredients you’ll need to make this simple but delicious soup with pesto from scratch. Scroll to the recipe card for the printable recipe with the full amounts and details.
- Olive Oil – Or avocado oil or butter, for sautéeing.
- Chicken Thighs – I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs since they’re flavorful and harder to overcook than chicken breasts. Chicken breasts and bone-in chicken will also work in this recipe, though you’ll need to adapt the cooking time accordingly (less time for boneless breasts, and more time for bone-in chicken).
- Onion and Garlic – These aromatics work together to create the flavor base for the soup. Try to use fresh garlic whenever possible, but if fresh isn’t available, you can substitute one teaspoon of jarred garlic per clove.
- Carrots and Celery – For some classic vegetable goodness.
- Cannellini Beans – You could also use another white bean, like navy beans, great northern beans, butter beans, pinto beans, or chickpeas.
- Chicken Broth – Use more or less broth depending on how thick you like your soup. I recommend low-sodium broth or homemade chicken stock. Vegetable stock will work, too, and you can add a dash of Worcestershire sauce to deepen the flavor.
- Baby Spinach – Other good options include chard, chopped kale, and collard greens.
- Parsley – Freshly chopped. You can also use another herb, like basil or thyme.
Try My Vegetarian Version
If you’d prefer a vegetarian soup, try my white bean soup without chicken. You can stir in homemade pesto toward the end of the cooking time, same as you do here.
5-Ingredient Homemade Pesto
- Cashews – Traditional basil pesto recipes contain pine nuts, but I find cashews are an affordable option that’s more readily available in stores. Feel free to swap cashews for pine nuts or walnuts.
- Olive Oil – Quality counts! Choose a high-quality olive oil with a flavor that you like, since it will stand out. Look for 100% extra virgin olive oil, ideally from a single origin with a harvest date on the bottle. Some larger brands will blend oil from multiple countries, and some may blend in cheaper oils, like canola.
- Garlic – You can adapt the number of cloves to suit your tastes. If you’re using older garlic, you may need more since it tends to lose its flavor with time.
- Fresh Basil – Fresh basil leaves are a must! If you’re lucky enough to grow basil yourself, this is a great way to use up a harvest. Otherwise, choose the freshest store-bought basil you can find.
- Parmesan – Freshly grated for the best possible flavor and texture. You can use Pecorino if needed.
Soup Success Tips
- Preserve your fresh herbs. One of my favorite ways to stretch fresh ingredients, like basil, is to freeze the herbs in olive oil to use in recipes like pesto! Simply thaw out the herbs in the oil, and blend them into your sauce. Easy.
- Substitute the pesto. If you wanted to, you could substitute the pesto recipe here with homemade parsley pesto, spinach pesto, or your favorite jarred pesto from the store instead. Spicy zhoug sauce would add a nice kick of cilantro and chili.
- Make it creamy. You can always add a splash of half-and-half to this soup at the end for a creamy version. Or, an easy hack for a “creamy” soup without cream is to blend a portion of the soup using an immersion blender after you’ve removed the chicken to shred it. Blend some of the beans and veggies with the broth before you return the chicken to the soup and finish the recipe as written.
- Swap chicken with turkey. This white bean soup is also a great way to use up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Shred it into the soup instead of chicken. Another option is to use ground chicken or turkey instead of whole chicken thighs.
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Brown the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper, and cook until browned on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside.
Sauté the veggies. To the same pot, add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 15 seconds or until fragrant. Finally, add the carrots and celery and sauté for 4 minutes or until slightly softened.
Make it soup. Return the chicken to the pot and stir in the cannellini beans and chicken broth. Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
Make the pesto. While the soup is simmering, make the pesto. Combine the cashews, olive oil, garlic, and basil in a food processor or blender. Pulse until almost smooth and then pulse in the grated Parmesan cheese. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.
Shred the chicken. Remove the chicken from the soup, transfer it to a cutting board, and shred it. Then, return it to the soup.
Add the greens. Stir in the baby spinach and cook until it wilts into the broth, about 1 minute.
Add flavor. Stir in ½ of the pesto along with the chopped fresh parsley. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in more pesto if desired.
Simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve. Remove the pot from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes before ladling the chicken and bean soup into bowls and serving.
Serving: 2cups | Calories: 460kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 33g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 84mg | Sodium: 695mg | Potassium: 1237mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 7843IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 177mg | Iron: 6mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Chicken and White Bean Soup
Here’s an easy step-by-step with photos showing how to make this chicken white bean soup in one pot:
- Cook the chicken. Start by browning the chicken in a large soup pot with oil.
- Sauté the aromatics. Then, remove the chicken, and sauté the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery.
- Make it soup. Next, return the chicken to the pot and add the beans. Pour in the broth, bring the pot to a boil, and then simmer the soup over low heat for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the pesto. Process cashews, olive oil, garlic, and basil in a blender. Add the Parmesan, and blend again, then season your pesto to taste with salt and pepper.
- Shred the chicken. Now, transfer the chicken from the soup to a cutting board or sheet pan, and shred it using two forks. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup.
- Add the greens and pesto. Wilt the spinach into the soup, then stir in about half of your prepared pesto. Add the fresh parsley, and simmer for another 10 minutes. You can season the soup and add more pesto as desired. Serve warm with extra grated Parmesan and slices of garlic toast or breadsticks.
Storage and Reheating
- Refrigerate and reheat leftovers. Cool the soup to room temperature and store it airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days. Warm up leftovers on the stove or in the microwave.
- Save the pesto. Store any leftover pesto in an airtight jar or container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can use it in more soups, add it to pasta, or use it as a topping for salmon or chicken.
- Freeze. Freeze the soup for up to 2 months and thaw it in the fridge before reheating.
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