The BEST Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup! This version was made from the ground up, so it’s lightweight and low-maintenance. All the goodness of chicken in one pot of soup. Just the thing to recover from a cold or flu.
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Is there anything more comforting than homemade chicken noodle soup?
Video: How to make chicken noodle soup
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chicken noodle soup
The secret is in the stock
The key is homemade broth made from chicken parts or a whole chicken. The rich gelatin found in chicken bones, gristle, and tendons is good for you and one of the reasons homemade chicken broth is so beneficial.
If you don’t already have homemade chicken broth, below is a recipe to make the entire soup from scratch, starting with a whole chicken that’s cut up.
Do you already have chicken broth? This recipe also includes instructions for a 30 minute shortcut version.
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch
If you have a few hours, it’s best to make chicken noodle soup completely from scratch. All you need is a whole chicken (cut into pieces), water, celery, onions and carrots, spices and egg noodles.
The recipe essentially consists of two parts:
- First you make the stock.
- Then you sift off the bones and make the soup.
Do the stock first
Some recipes require you to cook the chicken you use as the meat in your soup the whole time you cook the bones for the broth. This will result in dry, overcooked pieces of chicken.
To avoid dried out chicken in our soup, we included in our recipe Remove the breast and leg meat from the bones that we want to use in the finished soup. We make the broth first and later add the raw chicken to cook towards the end of the soup making process. You can also cook the chicken breast and thigh pieces whole in the broth and remove after about 15 minutes of cooking time, cool and shred to add when serving.
To make the stock, we first Pre-boil broth with meat and bonesCook over high heat for 3 minutes, then discard the boiling water. This hard boiling forces the foam to the surface in one fell swoop. This is a classic broth technique that helps create a clear, clean-tasting broth. (You still get all the nutritional value of the chicken during the subsequent long boiling step.)
We then return the pre-cooked meat and bones to the pot, add some celery, carrots, onions, garlic and herbs, cover with water and simmer for 1 1/2 hours to make the broth.
Second, make the soup
When the broth is ready, we strain out the solids and add fresh vegetables to the broth. Any veggies you used to make the broth will have depleted their entire nutritional value after an hour, so we’re going to add fresh veggies.
When the soup and vegetables are simmering, we shred the raw chicken breasts and thighs that we deboned in the first step and add them back to the soup. Next we add the dry noodles and the soup is ready when the noodles and chicken pieces are cooked!
The quick version: 30-minute chicken soup
If you already have chicken broth (again, homemade is best), you can make this chicken noodle soup in 30 minutes or less; Just start at step six.
Add chopped carrots and celery to the broth and bring to a simmer. Then add chopped chicken breasts or drumsticks and bring to a simmer again. Then add dry noodles. When the pasta is done, add seasonings like parsley, salt, pepper, and thyme and you’re done!
How to store and freeze chicken soup
Store the finished soup in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and gently heat over low heat. Note that the egg noodles will expand quite a bit in the soup. If you don’t like that, cook the noodles separately and add them to each bowl.
The soup also freezes well for up to 3 months. We recommend adding the pasta to the soup until ready to serve.
More ways to cook chicken soup
- How to make chicken soup in the pressure cooker
- One pot chicken and rice soup
- Fast Chicken Pho
- Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken soup with ginger and shiitake mushrooms
Homemade chicken soup with noodles
Prepare the veggies for the broth, then prepare the veggies for the soup while the broth simmers to save overall time from start to finish.
While this recipe shows the steps for a completely homemade chicken soup, you can also easily make this chicken noodle soup by starting with already made broth and some raw chicken. Use about 2 liters of chicken broth and 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts and 2 chicken thighs and skip to step 6. It takes about 30 minutes to make the soup this way.
ingredients
For the share:
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one 3 1/2–lb chickencut into parts – chest, thighs, back, wings and neck (if any)
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2 carrotsscrubbed clean, unpeeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
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2 celery ribscut into 2 inch pieces (including celery tips)
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1 Onion, quartered (remove is okay)
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3 cloves Garlic, cut in half (peel on is ok)
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2 to 3 branches fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
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1/2 bunch Parsely
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5 all peppercorns
For the soup:
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3 carrotspeeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
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3 celery ribs cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
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4 to 8 ounces egg noodles (depending on how noodley you want the soup to be)
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Fresh chopped parsleybreak up
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Freshly ground black pepperbreak up
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Fresh thymebreak up
method
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Separate the meat from the bones:
Separate the breast meat from the breast bones and the leg meat from the leg bone, place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until needed towards the end of the soup.
Remove and discard the largest pieces of breast and thigh skin. Trim and discard excess fat from chicken pieces.
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Pre-cook bones for 3 minutes:
Place breast and thigh bones, back, legs, neck and wings in a large (8 quart) saucepan. Cover with water. Bring to a full boil. Boil 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, remove from heat, drain water, rinse bones and pot.
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Make the stock:
Return the now parboiled bones to the clean pot. Add the carrots and celery ribs and some celery tips, if any, to the pot with the chicken. (Fennel tips or leeks can also be added if you have any.)
Add the quartered onion, garlic cloves, thyme, half the parsley and peppercorns to the saucepan.
Cover with an inch or two of water (about 3 liters). Simmer on low (about 185°F) and simmer for 1 1/2 hours (the broth should be just slightly bubbling).
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Strain the bones and solids from the broth:
After 1 1/2 hours, strain the bones and vegetables, reserving the broth. Rinse the pot and pour the broth back into the pot.
Set aside if you like and remove the bones from any remaining meat. After parboiling and cooking for 1 1/2 hours, the meat is quite dry and flavorless, but you could use it in a chicken salad.
5 salt broth: Taste the broth. It should be on the mild side as no salt has been added yet. Add salt to taste. As a guide, add 2 teaspoons of salt for every liter of broth.
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Add the chopped carrots and celery to the broth, bring to the boil
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Add the reserved raw chicken to the broth:
Cut the chicken breast and leg meat into bite-sized pieces. Add to the pot with the carrots, celery and broth. Return to a low simmer.
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Add pasta:
Add the egg noodles and return to a simmer. Simmer until the egg noodles are just cooked through, al dente (about 5 minutes or so depending on your pasta package) and the chicken is just cooked through.
Note that the noodles will expand a lot as they cook in the broth.
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Finish and serve:
Stir in a handful of chopped fresh parsley. Add freshly ground black pepper, more thyme and more salt to taste.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 361 | calories |
| 19g | Fat |
| 9g | carbohydrates |
| 38g | protein |
