Chicken and Beans Soup
ByCooked with assorted beans and peppercorn melange, this herbed chicken and beans soup is filling and delicious. Comfort food in a pot.This recipe will yield enough soup for six to eight people. If you feel that’s too much, you can always use half as much, or even less, of every ingredient.

Ingredients
- 400 grams dry beans (see notes after the recipe)
- 1 whole chicken about one kilogram in weight
- 1 large onion
- 1 whole garlic
- 10 large tomatoes
- 2 to 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon ground oregano
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- salt
Instructions
- Rinse the beans several times then soak in water overnight.
- Cook the beans in simmering water for about an hour and a half to two hours, or until tender.
- In another pot, drop in the chicken, cover with water, add the whole garlic, onion, tomatoes, bay leaf, peppercorns, rosemary, oregano and salt.
- Bring to the boil, remove the scum as it rises, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half.
- Remove the chicken, garlic, onion and tomatoes from the broth. Cool.
- Discard the bay leaves.
- Debone the chicken; discard the bones. Do not flake the meat; rather, tear them into fairly large pieces. See the photo above to get an idea.
- Peel and mash the garlic, onion and tomatoes.
- Return everything to the broth in the pot, add the cooked beans with the cooking liquid, add more salt if necessary, bring to the boil and simmer for ten to 15 minutes, tasting occasionally and adding more salt, as needed.
Connie’s Notes
Using two pots, one for the beans and another for the chicken, saves time. The chicken will cook ahead of the beans so, while the beans are still simmering, you can cool and debone the chicken.
Assorted beans were used in this recipe. You may use just one kind.
Accompanied by bread, this herbed chicken and beans soup is a complete meal.
Updated from a recipe originally published in November 6, 2007
