Hearty O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup delivers comforting, slow simmered flavor with tender chicken, vegetables, and a broth that feels like home.
Photo by whitneyinchicago
Copycat O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup
O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup is a classic homestyle soup made with chicken, vegetables, and a lightly seasoned broth served warm and filling.
This copycat recreates the familiar restaurant soup using simple ingredients and steady simmering to match the comforting texture and flavor people expect.
Quick Recipe Overview
- Best For: Lunch, light dinners, cold weather meals
- Flavor Profile: Savory, mild, comforting
- Skill Level: Easy stovetop simmer
- What Makes It Like the Restaurant: Simple seasoning and vegetable forward broth
O’Charley’s
O’Charley’s built its reputation on approachable American comfort food served in a relaxed casual dining setting. Known for homestyle classics like chicken tenders, rolls, and soups, the brand focused on familiar flavors rather than trends. Chicken Harvest Soup became a staple because it fit naturally into that philosophy, offering guests a dependable option that felt homemade. It reflects O’Charley’s emphasis on warmth, consistency, and traditional American cooking.
The Soup Regulars Always Ordered
Chicken vegetable soups are a cornerstone of American comfort cooking, especially in casual dining restaurants. These soups rely on balanced seasoning, tender vegetables, and slow cooking rather than bold spices. The style emphasizes nourishment and familiarity, making it suitable for lunch or a lighter dinner. O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup follows this tradition closely, delivering a straightforward, satisfying bowl that appeals to a wide range of diners.
O'Charley's Chicken Harvest Soup Recipe
Make O'Charley's Chicken Harvest Soup at home tonight. With our Secret Restaurant Recipe your Chicken Soup will taste just like O'Charley’s.
Ingredients
Soup
- 1/4 pound Butter
- 3/4 cup Flour
- 2 1/2 quarts Water
- 2 tablespoons Chicken Base
- 2 quarts Chicken Stock see Chicken Tenders Recipe below
- 1 pound fresh Carrots diced
- 7 ribs Celery diced
- 1 medium Onion diced
- 3/4 teaspoon White Pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- Cooked Chicken Tenders Recipe follows
- 10 ounces Egg Noodles
Chicken Tenders
- 2 quarts Water
- 2 tablespoons Chicken Base
- 1 small Onion cut into quarters
- 1/2 rib Celery cut into 2-inch segments
- 2 1/2 pounds Chicken Tenders thawed
Instructions
Soup
- In a large pot, melt butter. Add flour and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Slowly add the water, stirring constantly. Simmer 20 minutes. Add chicken base and chicken stock. While chicken stock mixture is cooking, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a separate pot. Add carrots, celery and onion. Cook 6 minutes. Drain.
- Add to chicken stock mixture along with white pepper and garlic powder. Simmer 10 minutes. Add diced cooked chicken tenders.
- Cook noodles in a separate pan of boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Add to soup. (Noodles will continue cooking in the soup.) Simmer soup 2 or 3 minutes more and serve.
Chicken Tenders Recipe
- In a large pot, bring water, chicken base, onion and celery to simmer. Add chicken. Gently simmer until done, about 5 to 6 minutes. Do not overcook.
- Drain chicken and reserve stock. (This can be used for the stock in the preceding recipe.) Place chicken in the freezer to stop the cooking process.
- When cool, use a sharp knife to dice into 1/2-inch cubes. Add to soup.
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Questions People Ask
Is O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup creamy
No. It is a broth based soup rather than a creamy one.
Can I make this soup ahead of time
Yes. The flavor improves after resting and reheats well.
What vegetables are typically used
Common vegetables include carrots, celery, and onions.
Can I freeze Chicken Harvest Soup
Yes. Freeze in airtight containers for best results.
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Photo of Chicken Soup is by whitneyinchicago and is used by permission under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) License. Photo of “O’Charley’s” is by raymondclarkeimages and is used by permission under the CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License. Read the Full License Here – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.en. Thank you, Whitney and Ray. Great Pictures. Photos may be representative of the recipe and not the actual finished dish. All photo licenses listed were correct at the time of the posting of the page. Recipe is our adaption of several recipes formally widely-circulated on the internet – courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Additional Information is from original research done by Secret Copycat Restaurant Recipes and/or courtesy of Wikipedia and is used by permission.
February 2, 2014 @ 3:26 pm
This is not the recipe for harvest soup. Just look at the picture…it has wild rice in it and NO egg noodles. NOT A COPYCAT RECIPE
March 4, 2014 @ 6:03 pm
LP
Thank you for the note and for reading our blog.
Okay — You Caught Us!
Really.
But not quite like you think. The exact opposite, in fact.
It’s not the recipe that is wrong. It’s the picture.
The recipe IS a copycat recipe of O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup. The photo is not.
We had a photo. You should see it. Or better yet, you should NOT! Alton took it — and he had to tell us that it was soup. Seriously, we couldn’t tell. It was a mess. He is MUCH better at eating than he is at photography.
Actually, we all are. That is the main reason we primarily use photos from other photographers on this blog. We believe in letting people do what they do best. We eat. They photograph.
On every — EVERY! — page there is an attribution giving credit to the photographer who was kind enough to let us use his or her work along with a link to more their work (if available.) And ALL photos on this blog are always used legally.
Which is a long roundabout way to say we used the photo of “Chicken Soup” by whitneyinchicago – https://whitneyinchicago.wordpress.com/ – on this page because we could not take a decent photo ourselves (Alton!) and could not find a photo of O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup that we could get the rights to use.
I suppose we probably could have chosen a better “stand-in” photo. But, seriously, this is not even close to the most egregious substitution we have made. Look around. 😉
Here is a real shot of O’Charley’s Chicken Harvest Soup from Foodspotting if you would like to see it – https://www.foodspotting.com/places/96630-o-charley-s-nashville/items/121825-chicken-harvest-soup
Thank you for letting us mention this and we hope you enjoy all the recipes. Including this one.
James
December 11, 2022 @ 3:45 pm
I just want to say this recipe isn’t correct. I worked at O’Charley’s and use to make this soup from scratch on certain days. It was by my favorite soup there. It doesn’t have noodles of any kind in it, only rice.
December 15, 2022 @ 4:17 am
Thank you Karimah
We will look into this.
James
February 27, 2023 @ 7:25 pm
I have the recipe book for ocharlies and will gladly check it.