Quick & easy chicken lasagna soup is a perfect combination of hearty but not heavy with cream, and is ready to be piping hot and delicious on your table in 30 minutes.
Quick and easy chicken lasagna soups lives up to the name. This recipe will be on your table for a comforting meal (without the heavy cream base) in 30 minutes.
Why turn lasagna into a soup?!
The flavors of lasagna are classic comfort food feels. But, to boil noodles, then layer a pan, then bake the pan for nearly an hour is just a lot of work.
This chicken lasagna soup is my go to because:
- ONE POT to clean!
- Added veggies!
- 30 minute start to finish
- hearty and filling, but not heavy with cream.
Can I make this in an Instant Pot
You can, technically... but I find pasta noodles in a soup, in an instant pot, over cook easily, and I don't see any time saving doing this in the Instant Pot.
Not to say I don't love pasta in the Instant Pot, because I do (hello Instant Pot lazy lasagna, and Chicken Parm Penne), I just find that because the volume of liquid in this soup, the pot takes nearly 20 minutes to come to pressure and then at least 5 -7 minutes to depressurize - which can cause the noodles to over cook if you are not careful.
The other Instant Pot pasta recipes on the blog have less liquid, meaning less pressure up and pressure down time, and thus less risk of over cooking.
So, you could cook this in the Instant Pot, but I think it might even take longer than stove top, and risk over cooking the noodles.
How does this soup hold up for reheat and freezing?
Chicken lasagna soup reheats well, but cannot be frozen.
Freezing pasta noodles in a soup is a bad combo.
The noodles absorb so much of the broth that the noodles bloat and change texture. The soup also becomes less soupy because the noodles take on so much of the broth.
Leave this one out of the freezer, but definitely take the leftovers for lunch!
Chicken Lasagna Soup Ingredients (and ingredient swap options!)
- Ground Chicken - You could swap for ground turkey quite easily in this recipe. You could also cut up chicken breast or thigh into cubes, but you will end up with a bit of a different (yet equally delicious) soup.
- Onion, Carrot, and Celery - aka a the mirepoix. This is the base in many many many soups. For good reason! To save time, you can buy frozen mirepoix mix in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
- Garlic - do not swap in garlic powder for this recipe - it doesn't compare to fresh garlic in soup recipes.
- Flour or Cornstarch - This is added in the saute phase of the soup. It adds a bit of texture to make the soup very thin broth soup, but not as heavy as a creamy soup.
- Broth - chicken works best here, but you could easily use vegetable broth too.
- Mafalda noodles - these noodles look like mini lasagna noodles and I love to use them because they give the lasagna texture and feel to soup, but in mini form. You can break up regular lasagna noodles but I find them hard to get on a spoon and not fall off. I am in Canada where Mafalda noodles are everywhere, but my American readers have told me that mafalda noodles are almost impossible to find.Great substitutions for mafalda noodles are:
-
- Trader Joe's Gigli pasta
- Campanelle Pasta
- Penne
- Bowtie
- Fusilli
-
- Ricotta or Cottage Cheese - oh the great debate! You choose which you prefer. I use cottage cheese because I like the saltiness and the texture better.
- Mozzarella & Parm - Do not use pre grated. It is covered in cellulose to prevent clumping. It doesn't melt nearly as nice. Always fresh grate these.
- Spinach - take it or leave it in your version, but I am a huge fan.
Let's see how easy this Chicken Lasagna soup is to prepare!
With essentially only 4 basic steps, this hearty soup will be on the table in 30 minutes!
Are you ready to add Quick and Easy Chicken Lasagna Soup to your meal plan!?
When you make this recipe, I want to see your version! Tag me @mealplanaddict on Instagram or even better, come post a photo over in the Meal Plan Addict Community.
Recipe
Quick & Easy Chicken Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground chicken
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbs flour
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups dry mafalda noodles (or 8 regular lasagna noodles broken up)
- 2 tbs Italian seasoning
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- ½ cup fresh grated Parmesan
- 2 handfulls ripped spinach
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large stock pot on medium heat.
- Once the oil is heated, add the ground chicken and break it up as it cooks.
- Once the chicken is broken up, add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and Italian seasoning. Saute for 2-3 minutes until the onion is translucent.
- Add the flour to the meat and veggie mixture and mix to combine.
- Add the broth and turn up the heat until the soup gets to a boil.
- Return to medium heat and add the noodles.
- Simmer for 20 minutes until the noodles are cooked.
- Remove the soup from heat and stir in the spinach and cheeses.
- Serve immediately.
- Store in the fridge (after cooling) for up to 4 days. Do not freeze.
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