Chicken Ham Macaroni Soup

This easy recipe for chicken ham macaroni soup with tomatoes adds a little cheese and herbs for a lunchtime favorite that is brimming with flavor!

I’m interrupting my parade of St. Patrick’s Day recipes to bring you one of my most beloved soup recipes.

I have had this recipe longer than I have had my house (we’re talking my New Jersey house, not this new North Carolina one), my Southern daughter, and almost everything else except for my Southern husband.  

Yep, he’s the only thing older than this soup, but you’d never know it to look at him.  It probably has something to do with the fact that the guy cannot sit still.  

Here’s a picture of him from one of our vacations up in Vermont.

That’s him.  Reading.  While walking around.  

It’s one of the many mysterious things that makes me crazy about the guy.  Among other things, it DOES keep him in tip-top shape.  But I digress!

As you might have guess from the title, this is not your regular chicken noodle soup, although it does have both chicken and noodles.

For reasons I can’t even remember (but probably have something to do with whatever was hanging out in the leftover area of my fridge when I first made it), this soup also has ham.

Ad tomatoes. And a little cheese. I call it the “something for everyone” soup, and it is always a crowd pleaser, especially if you serve up some nice crusty bread on the side.

Here’s how you make chicken ham macaroni soup!

First up, the ingredients! Make sure you get good chicken broth to make it with (I like the Imagine and Pacific brands, which come in a box, not a can).  

It calls for elbow macaroni, but it also works equally well with any short pasta you have hanging around.  I frequently take this soup as a chance to finally empty out all those pasta boxes with teeny amounts of pasta still lurking in the bottom of them.

Obviously it’s a great use for leftover ham (and Easter is coming!) but you can also pick up a ham steak at the supermarket which will work just fine.

First up, you are going to put some olive oil, some minced garlic and a little dried thyme in a large pot (and pro tip: I always add chopped garlic with oil, before the oil gets hot. That way it cooks up slowly instead of turning into little charred pieces of garlic).

Add in some tomato paste, and then a whole lotta chicken broth and some white wine (and yes, you can use all chicken broth if you are not a white wine person).

When it is nice and simmering, add the chicken breast and let them cook in your glorious broth until they are done, and then take them out and shred them up.

In my house this job belongs to the Southern husband, and he uses his Bear Paws Shredder Claws that my little sis gave him.

While the shredding is happening, add some canned diced tomatoes and the pasta to the soup and let it cook away until the pasta is tender.

All you have left to do now is stir in the chicken and the ham, season it up with a little sea salt and pepper, and ladle it up!

I like to garnish it with a little parsley and a whole lotta grated Parmesan.

I’ll be back soon with my mama’s soda bread, but in the meantime…soup’s on!

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Updated (and made even more delicious!) from a previously published Framed Cooks post!