Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup is soothing, comforting and a favorite in almost every cuisine. Onions, carrots, celery and garlic provide the aromatic flavors to the rich, concentrated and golden broth, and tender chicken pieces and potatoes make it hearty and filling. 

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Chicken noodle soup is comfort in a bowl. It all starts with a rich, concentrated and flavorful broth that is perfectly clear and golden. The onion, carrots, celery and garlic permeate the soup, and add more phenomenal taste. Tender morsels of juicy chicken are in each spoonful. I also think that potatoes are a wonderful addition and you can use any form or pasta or noodles that you like. My personal favorites are fusilli or angel hair broken into 2 inch pieces.  In our family I make a variation of this a few times a month.
There is nothing more soothing than a pot of Chicken Noodle soup to share with your family. My boys and my husband all love it and will devour it anytime. It’s perfect for cold, rainy days, in the middle of the summer, when you are under the weather or when you need a taste of home. 

How to Make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Video

What kind of chicken to use for Chicken Noodle Soup:

I find that chicken drumsticks are the perfect option when making chicken soup. They are so easy, inexpensive and produce a good amount of meat.

You can use just about any combination of chicken though – chicken wings, chicken thighs, chicken breast. Make sure to save the chicken backbone, wing tips and other parts of the chicken any time you are cutting up chicken for other recipes, put them in the freezer and any time you are making Chicken Broth or any kind of chicken soup, you can add it to the broth.

If you are using chicken breast, make sure to use a meat thermometer and take it out of the broth as soon as it reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, to make sure it remains tender and doesn’t become dry and overcooked.

Cooking the Chicken and the Broth

  1. Place the chicken, onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, season with salt and cook until the chicken is tender and the meat is falling off the bone, about 40-50 minutes.
  2. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a cheesecloth or a paper towel.
  3. When cool enough to handle, take the meat off the bone. Set aside.

Shortcuts To Flavorful Chicken Soup Without Making Broth From Scratch

To make Chicken Noodle Soup quickly, you can skip making the broth from scratch and cooking raw chicken. This will significantly cut down on the time and effort to make the soup from scratch.

I often make big batches of Chicken Broth and freeze it, which comes in really handy when I want to make a pot of soup quickly. You can also use store bought chicken broth, if you don’t want to make your own.

Start the soup with sautéing the vegetables and then adding the broth.

You can add any cooked chicken to the soup at the very end, just heating it through. You can use leftover chicken, such as a from a roast chicken dinner or a rotisserie chicken.

Making the Chicken Noodle Soup

  1. While the chicken broth is cooking, prep all the vegetables.
  2. When the broth is cooked, use the same pot to cook the soup, rinsing it out first.
  3. Sauté the aromatic vegetables (onion, carrots, celery and garlic) until they have softened. Season the vegetables to taste with salt and ground black pepper.
  4. If you want the soup to be a bit creamy, you can add 1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoon of flour and mix it in, until it’s absorbed completely in the vegetables, about 1 minute. I like the soup to be clear and broth, so I usually omit it in this soup.
  5. Pour in the chicken broth and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
  6. Add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.
  7. At this point, you can add an additional 2 cups of water. However, if you like your soup on the thicker side with more of a stew consistency, you can choose not to add the additional water. I always add more water, sometimes even more than 2 cups, but it’s completely up to you. Keep in mind that the pasta/noodles will also soak up a lot of the liquid. Adjust the seasoning of the soup, adding more salt, if needed.
  8. Add the pasta to the soup, as well as the cooked chicken. Keep cooking at a simmer until the pasta is cooked through, about 8 minutes. You can also use noodles instead of pasta, in which case they cook a lot faster, so keep that in mind. Use any pasta that you like. My favorites are fusilli, angel hair pasta broken into 2 inch pieces, orzo and ditalini.
  9. You can also cook the pasta separately and add it to the soup when serving. That’s a great way to keep the pasta from soaking up too much broth and from overcooking. This works especially well when you are reheating the soup the next day.
  10. Garnish the soup with fresh herbs.

Serving Chicken Noodle Soup, Reheating and Freezing

Chicken Noodle Soup is amazing served with Homemade Bread, Cloverleaf Rolls or Cheddar Biscuits.

Store the soup in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Chicken Soup can be frozen, from 4-6 months, but the potatoes and pasta will absorb a lot of the liquid and will become very mushy. If you want to freeze Chicken Noodle Soup, I recommend leaving out the potatoes and pasta and adding them to the soup after thawing when you are ready to serve it. You may need to add more broth to the soup after you thaw it and reheat it.

Reheat Chicken Noodle Soup on the stovetop or microwave.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

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5 from 3 reviews

Chicken Noodle Soup is soothing, comforting and a favorite in almost every cuisine. Onions, carrots, celery and garlic provide the aromatic flavors to the rich, concentrated and golden broth, and tender chicken pieces and potatoes make it hearty and filling.

  • Author: Olga’s Flavor Factory
  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 90 minutes
  • Total Time: 115 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: Soup

Ingredients

Scale

Broth:

  • 1 1/2 lbs chicken drumsticks (or any combination of chicken)
  • 1 small onion (cut in half)
  • 35 garlic cloves (whole)
  • 12 bay leaves
  • 1/2 Tablespoon black peppercorns
  • salt (to taste)
  • 1012 cups water (+2 additional cups of water to add to the soup later)

Soup:

  • 1 large onion (chopped)
  • 3 carrots (peeled and sliced (or grated, or chopped))
  • 3 celery stalks (sliced (or chopped))
  • 35 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 11 1/2 Tablespoons butter or oil
  • salt (ground black pepper)
  • 3 medium potatoes (peeled and chopped)
  • 2 cups noodles or pasta (my favorite is fusilli or angel hair pasta broken into small pieces)
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh herbs (each (parsley, dill, green onion))

Instructions

  1. Place the chicken, onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, season with salt and cook until the chicken is tender and the meat is falling off the bone, about 40-50 minutes.
  2. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a cheesecloth or a paper towel. When cool enough to handle, take the meat off the bone. Set aside.
  3. While the broth is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients.
  4. Rinse out the same pot that you used to cook the broth. Melt the butter (or use oiover medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 7 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
  5. If you want the soup to be a bit creamy, you can add 1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoon of flour and mix it in, until it’s absorbed completely in the vegetables, about 1 minute. I like the soup to be clear and broth, so I usually omit it in this soup.
  6. Pour in the reserved broth and bring the soup to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.
  7. Add an additional 2 cups of water. However, if you like your soup on the thicker side with more of a stew consistency, you can choose not to add the additional water. I always add more water, sometimes even more than 2 cups, but it’s completely up to you. Keep in mind that the pasta/noodles will also soak up a lot of the liquid. Adjust the seasoning of the soup, adding more salt, if needed.
  8. Add the pasta to the soup, as well as the cooked chicken. Keep cooking at a simmer until the pasta is cooked through, about 8 minutes. 
  9. Garnish the soup with fresh herbs.

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10 Comments

  • Aly

    Hi Olga,
    I made broth a week ago and wanted to make this soup out of it.
    Would I cook the chicken separately just in plain water and add it to the end of the soup as you did? Wasn’t sure if it would be as flavorful and if I can add something to it.
    Also, I put the broth in mason jars so could I just use 2 of the jars and add water, will it taste any different?
    Thankyou so much, Katie.

    • olgak7

      Hi Aly,
      The soup will have plenty of flavor if you made the broth separately before – I actually do this all the time.
      You can cook the chicken separately and then add it to the soup or even add leftover cooked chicken, if you have it.
      Taste the soup and see how you like it. If your broth is concentrated, you can add water. If your broth is not very concentrated, you don’t need to dilute it with water.

  • Julia Hersch

    Hi Olga,
    I made this soup and the broth tasted sweet, I used red potatoes. I am not sure why it tasted sweet.
    I followed your recipe exactly.

    Please help,
    Julia

    Thanks!!!

  • Margaret Chapman

    Hello – the recipe doesn’t state “cooked” or “uncooked” pasta. I’m guessing from the measurements it’s already cooked. If you are not an experienced cook you may not know. 2 cups of uncooked pasta in the soup would be wild!






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