Wait until the soup has cooked down to room temperature. Then, put the leftover soup into an airtight container and store it in the fridge. It will last that way for about a week.

If you’re not going to eat it in that time, you can freeze it for up to three months. If you plan to freeze it, you’ll want to defrost it in the fridge overnight before reheating and serving.

Before reheating, add about a quarter cup of chicken broth to the bowl of leftover soup, then stir. The peas will absorb the broth as it sits, so this Split Pea Soup will thicken overnight. If you don’t have broth, you can add water but then add a pinch of salt or your choice of seasoning to add a little bit of flavor back.

You don’t have to use leftover chicken. Chicken that’s already cooked will add extra flavor to the soup that you won’t get from raw chicken. So, we make a whole chicken in the Dutch oven, then use leftover chicken pieces from that to make this soup. Personally, I only use the chicken breast in this recipe (because that’s what I like best), but you could use any leftover pieces (chicken thighs, chicken legs, etc.) to make this soup.

If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can use store-bought rotisserie chicken in this soup.
If you are going to use raw chicken, you want to make sure it’s heated to 165 F. These tips for raw chicken in soup have a few other guidelines to help you.

This is a recipe for slow cooker soup. But, if you’d rather make it on the stove in a large pot, that’s possible.

You would want to sear the chicken in olive oil first, then set it aside. Slightly cook the fresh vegetables so that they’re a little soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer over medium-heat for about 45 minutes to an hour. Add the chicken back and cook it for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken, shred it, then add it back into the soup and mash with either a potato masher or use an immersion blender.

​I have made this version on the stove before. The cooking time is less, of course, than the slow cooker, which does take a lot of time. But the slow cooker version is more hands off and gives the soup time to really sit and cook, which adds so much flavor to the dish. So, if you make it on the stove, that’s fine. But try it in the slow cooker next time.

If you don’t end up with tender split peas after cooking this for eight hours, they might be old. Buying a bag of dried peas specifically for this recipe would insure they’re fresh.

Yellow peas aren’t as sweet as green peas. You can use them, but your soup won’t taste the same.