How to make 'marry me' chicken soup

It’s the new soup for the season.

Marry me chicken soup split screen hero

I love both tomato and creamy dishes in equal measure, which always makes it hard to choose between the two. That’s why I love the viral ‘marry me’ chicken dish so much. 

What is ‘marry me’ chicken? 

Named because it’s supposedly so good it will inspire a marriage proposal, this creamy sun-dried tomato chicken recipe (or ‘marry me’ chicken soup) has been all over our social media feeds for a while now. It’s usually made with chicken breasts and lots of Italian-esque ingredients like garlic, basil and even pasta.

It gives me everything I love about a tangy tomato dish, along with the richness of a creamy sauce. It also looks so good with its bright rose-red coloured sauce and golden chicken, I just want to dive right into it. 

A new twist on ‘marry me’ chicken

Now that we’re well and truly into the cooler months, I thought: why not transform this main meal into a hearty soup? You don’t even need to serve it with bread (although that’s totally an option, too), because it’s jam-packed with pasta and chicken, as well as baby spinach for a little extra goodness. There’ll be no complaints about being hungry after a bowl of this.

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How to make ‘marry me’ chicken soup

We’ve cooked a large chicken breast in the soup, but this recipe is also a great way to use up leftover roast chicken or even a barbecue chicken from the supermarket. Just add in your chopped or shredded chicken at the end to heat it through. 

If you’re vegetarian, swap out chicken stock for vegetable stock and substitute the chicken for extra green vegies, such as green beans or broccolini. You can add them in along with the sun-dried tomatoes and cook until tender, before adding the spinach.

Cream cheese: our secret ingredient

Instead of regular thickened cream, we decided to add cream cheese to our soup. It adds a slight tanginess, plus extra deliciousness, that cuts through the richness. My top tip for this is to make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature and turn down the heat on the soup before adding the cream cheese. 

It definitely takes a little stirring to melt the cream cheese and combine the mixture, but I promise you it will all come together. If you’re having any trouble (or, like me, get a little impatient), you can also use a whisk to gently whisk the soup to bring it together. 

It’s the ideal dish that serves four generously, but if you’re not going to eat it all straight away, I think the flavour improves the next day so the leftovers are also great for lunches.

I’m not going to promise you’ll get a ring on that finger when you make it, but you will definitely get two thumbs up.

Originally published as How to make 'marry me' chicken soup