Ingredients To Make Chicken Noodle Soup

Is Chicken Noodle Soup Really Good For You

Chicken soup is a well-known comfort food, especially when you are sick. So is chicken noodle soup really a good fix when a cold hits? The answer is yes! And heres why:

• The warm broth can help with congestion. Plus if you use a whole chicken you get some of those nutrients from the bone as the broth simmers.
• The salt can soothe a sore throat.
• Youve got protein from the chicken and some nutrients from the veggies.

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

After Halloween, I usually never want to eat again. At least thats what I tell myself and then at 4 pm Im like hmm, I could go for a Twix. What is wrong with me?

Of course this pattern isnt new. Ever since I was a little girl I would eat my candy as I went trick or tricking until I had a stomachache and my mom would fix me chicken noodle soup at the end of the night.

Can I tell you that homemade chicken noodle soup has always been super intimidating to me?

My mother-in-law has always killed it this department, whipping it up like it was taking the dishes out of the dishwasherjust something you do.

But for some reason I could never get it right. The broth/chicken ratio. The noodles. I tend to do this with cooking. For instance, cooking rice was super intimidating to me 10 years ago. Something so simple yet I always under or overcooked it.

Turkeys are still overwhelming to me. Doesnt help that my oven is tiny and I cant really fit anything in it, even the smallest turkey. That will be my next thing to conquer.

Today, its this soup. I dont know why I complicated it so much. Its veggies, broth, and some seasonings not rocket science.

I always felt like an ingredient was missing but now Im completely satisfied with this chicken recipe.

Tips For Making Homemade Turkey Soup

If you have leftover cooking juices from your turkey, you can use that in place of the broth. The cooking juices are full of flavor, so you definitely dont want them to go to waste!

Also, I recommend buying low-sodium broth, that way theres no chance of your turkey noodle soup turning out too salty. I prefer to control the amount of salt that goes into my food, so I always buy low-sodium options whenever I can.

Finally, if the overall liquid level is lower than youd like at any time while making the soup and you prefer more broth, adding a cup or two of water to this homemade turkey soup is okay. The noodles soak up a lot of water and continue to do so for a few hours as the soup cools, so adding more liquid may be necessary.

Cuisine:Category:

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Can This Soup Be Made Ahead Of Time

Yes, you can make this soup ahead of time and store it in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. If you make this soup ahead of time, I recommend waiting to add in the noodles until you are ready to serve. The noodles will soak up the broth as it sits and they may become soggy

Then when youre ready to enjoy the soup, heat it up in a large pot on the stoveop and then add in the dried noodles and cook until the tenderness that you prefer.

Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:

To make ahead: This soup is best made ahead of time when you are using homemade egg noodles, since they dont get soggy and overcooked like regular store bought noodles. If you wanted to use regular noodles, I recommend making the broth first, and then boiling it with the noodles, and adding the chicken, the day of serving.

To store: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, depending on the freshness of the chicken used.

To freeze: Allow the soup to cool completely and store it in a freezer safe container for 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, or over medium heat on the stove. If using store bought noodles I would suggest undercooking the noodles before freezing the soup, to avoid them getting soggy upon reheating.

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Classic chicken noodle soup that will leave you feeling so good, so warm, so cozy. Perfect for sick days and cold nights!!!

Its the dead of winter. 33 degrees F all week. Snow and ice piles everywhere. And its only January, meaning we basically have about 3-4 months of winter left.

And now that I am officially a Midwest resident, that basically translates to having this chicken noodle soup on the regular all. winter. long. Its so warm, so cozy, and so soothing during these chilly nights.

Now this recipe uses bone-in, skinless chicken breasts which means it will take a little longer than usual for the chicken to cook through.

But dont worry, it yields the most flavorful stock and the most tender chicken bites , doctored up with fresh dill and freshly squeezed lemon juice for a little bit of jazz. SO SO GOOD.

Variation Ideas For This Soup Recipe:

• Make it creamy Add in a cup of heavy cream or whole milk into the soup for the last 5-10 minutes of the cook time to make a creamy chicken noodle soup.

• Add more veggies This soup is a great way to get in some of those healthy veggies. You can add in your favorite type. Stirring in fresh spinach or kale toward the end of the cook time is an easy way to add in my nutritional vegetables to this recipe.

• Add a little bit of lemon If you love lemon, add a small amount of lemon juice right before serving to give this soup a delicious and sweet lemon flavor.

• Use Potatoes or Rice If you dont love noodles or maybe your family cannot have gluten, this soup is delicious with diced up potatoes or cooked rice stirred into it instead of the noodles.

Also Check: Campbell’s French Onion Soup Gluten Free

How To Make It Step By Step:

To get started, chop some carrots, onion and celery:

I include more carrots and celery than what is traditional for a mirepoix because I love tasting the carrots and celery in every bite.

Sweat the carrots, onion, and celery in a large soup pot with a little bit of fat, salt, and pepper:

Cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables have softened:

Next add chicken broth, and your fresh herbs of choice:

Make sure to buy a really good quality chicken broth for this, as the available options vary hugely in quality.

If you google best tasting chicken broths you will see lots of posts where people did blind taste tests. My favorite brands are Imagine and Swanson, and Ive noticed that these tend to rank well for others too.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce to a simmer:

After 10 minutes of simmering time, I add some finely chopped chicken seasoned with salt and pepper, which cooks very quickly.

Im using the breast meat here, but boneless skinless thighs are great too, and will be a little bit more tender:

Simmer the chicken for just a couple minutes, until fully cooked through.

You can also just add pre-cooked shredded chicken, either from a store-bought rotisserie chicken, or Crockpot Chicken Breast, which I often keep on hand.

As far as the pasta goes, I boil the noodles separately and also store them separately from the liquid, to avoid that mushy disintegrated noodle texture.

You can also use gluten-free pasta, or simply omit the noodles to make it low carb. Enjoy!

Storing Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup

We love making a big pot of chicken soup and enjoying it throughout the week. Keep in mind, if the soup is stored too long, the noodles will turn mushy. If storing longer than 1-2 days, its best to store the soup and the noodles separately and recombine right before serving.

• Refrigerated: Cool the soup completely and store covered in the refrigerator. Once noodles are in, the soup should be enjoyed within 2 days. The soup will keep up to a week if you store the noodles separately and combine when reheated.
• To Freeze: If you plan to freeze the soup, wait to add the noodles when you reheat the soup. Chicken soup can be frozen up to 3 months.
• Reheating: Recombine noodles and soup in a pot or microwave-safe bowl and heat to the desired temperature on the stovetop or in the microwave. If using uncooked noodles, reheat on the stove until the mixture boils and noodles are tender.

Also Check: Potato Soup With Hash Browns Weight Watchers

How To Ensure Your Soup Broth Is Clear

One of the things we all love about a great chicken noodle soup is how clear the broth is. Transparent yet full of flavour! Theres a few tricks to the clear broth:

• Simmer the chicken really gently. Harder boil gets the chicken jiggling around = murkier broth

• Scoop the scum off the surface

• Let the broth settle . Youll find that the bottom of the broth becomes darker as stuff settles on the base of the pot. Then gently pour the broth into the soup pot, leaving behind the darker broth that settled to the bottom of the pot

• Dont brown the sautéed onion, carrots and celery. Brown veggies = brown broth!

• Dont stir the pasta while it boils. That activates the starch in the pasta, making the broth cloudier.

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

When you want a hot bowl of comfort but dont want to slave over the stove for hours, this quick and easy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe is the perfect choice. It has the simple, clean flavors you expect from this classic, and its ready in 30 minutes.

Theres something to be said for the chicken noodle soup that takes 2 days to make, and starts from scratch with the whole bird. But when youre sick and also the cook of the household, thats typically not in the cards. You need something easy!

For the past week Ive been the kind of sick where at times you dont even feel like you can watch TV on a laptop in bed, and this quick Chicken Noodle Soup has helped me get by. Its delicious, still homemade, and free of preservatives!

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Variations Of Chicken Noodle Soup

I love my chicken noodle soup simple and complete with just a few ingredients and all the flavoring.

Here are more adventurous ways of making chicken noodle soup recipe.

Substitute or add in to make this chicken noodle soup recipe your own.

• Oil: instead of oil you can use butter to sauté the vegetables.
• Vegetables: spinach, green beans, peas, zucchini, canned tomatoes, corn or even potatoes are some things to try.
• Seasoning: try adding or substituting any herbs to fresh or dry.
• Meat: leftover meat is always best and trying turkey, variations of chicken or shredded ham are always great.
• Broth: switch out your chicken broth for turkey broth or bone broth for different variations.
• Noodles: tortellini, bowtie pasta, small shell pasta or even spaghetti noodles are great to have if you dont have egg noodles on hand.

Ingredients Needed To Make This Recipe

We will be using a long list of veggies paired with a bunch of seasonings for a soup full of flavor and heartiness! The veggies are flexible, so feel free to mix and match amounts and types if youre trying to use up what you already have.

• Chicken: Start with 1 whole chicken. It should be around 3.5 to 4 lbs and will contribute to 10 1 cup servings of soup!
• Butter: Next, you will need 2 tbsp of butter. You can use olive oil if preferred.
• Veggies: For the veggies, prepare the following: 1 large onion, 5 stalks of celery, 5 large carrots, and 2 large parsnips. These load up the soup with bulk and flavor!
• Garlic: Season the soup by including 5 cloves of minced garlic. If you dont have fresh cloves, you can use 1 1/4 teaspoons of garlic powder.
• Chicken broth: Bulk up the soup and add liquid with 4 cups of chicken broth.
• Water: Do the same with water, and add 8 cups.
• Seasonings: Seasonings are everything in chicken noodle soup! Add 1/4 cup of fresh, chopped dill, 1/4 cup of fresh, chopped parsley, 2 tsp of celery salt, and 1 tsp of pepper.
• Lemon juice: 2 tsp of lemon juice will add a dash of zingy flavor.
• Salt & pepper: Add extra salt and pepper to taste after simmering. I typically find that another 1/2 tsp or more of each does the trick!
• Egg noodles: As for the noodles, use 10 oz of your favorite egg noodles.
• Corn or peas: Last but not least, include 1 cup of either frozen corn or frozen peas!

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Chicken Noodle Soup Ingredients:

• cooked shredded chicken I usually use chicken breasts for this recipe but chicken thighs would work great too. You can use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken or boil some chicken if you dont have either of those on hand.

• chicken broth or chicken stock would work great as well.

• carrots whole carrots that have been peeled and diced. You can use baby carrots. If you use baby carrots, ensure that you dice them up so that they are easy to eat in this soup.

• onion I usually dice them small

• celery I usually dice them small so that they easily fit on a spoon for serving.

• thyme

• bay leaf

• garlic salt minced garlic or garlic powder would work great too if you dont have any garlic salt on head.

• salt and black pepper to taste

• egg noodles I prefer egg noodles but rotini would work great too. Check the cook time on the pasta that you use in this recipe as more time might be needed.

How To Make The Best Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is very easy to make! The whole process is done in one pot on the stove which makes for a simple prep and an easy cleanup.

Begin by cleaning the whole chicken. Pat it dry.

Prepare the veggies by dicing and slicing them into bite-sized pieces.

In a large stockpot, heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, and parsnips. Let cook for 4-5 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.

Next, add the whole chicken to the stockpot followed by the broth and water. Bring everything to a simmer, and then reduce the heat to medium.

Let the chicken and veggies cook for 45-60 minutes, or until the chicken temperature reaches 165°F throughout.

Once fully cooked, take the chicken out to cool and turn the stock heat down to low.

Add the dill, parsley, celery, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to the stock. Stir and simmer on very low heat for 30 minutes.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle , pull the meat off of the bones and break it into smaller pieces and chunks. Add the pieces back into the stock.

Bring the stock back to a light boil.

Finally, add the noodles and corn or peas to the stock and cook for an additional 15 minutes on medium heat.

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Chicken Soup With A Whole Chicken

Chicken isnt one of my favorite meats to work with, but for some reason when I buy a whole chicken and boil it down for that delicious fork-tender meat, it isnt so bad. This homemade chicken noodle soup starts with a whole chicken, about 4-5 pounds. I find whole chickens to be one of the cheapest ways to buy chicken. And the meat is soooo good because you get both that dark and white meat.

Stock up on those whole chickens when they are on sale. They are great for so many things!

**Pro Tip: Look for a chicken that is labeled roasting hen or stewing hen. They have more fat and will make a more flavorful broth.**

The Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

The ultimate comfort food Chicken Noodle Soup! We used homemade egg noodles as a super special way to make this soup over-the-top amazing!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I definitely consider this recipe one of the ultimate comfort foods. As we are a homesteading family, it gives me a chance to incorporate everything from our land and the satisfaction of knowing that everything I am feeding my kids is real good food.

It is a staple around here in the winter months because not only does it taste amazing but it adds vital nutrients to our diet.

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

This recipe is a keeper! Not only is it easy, but you can customize it to fit your tastes. For instance, we loved the added flavor that the dried thyme adds, but some folks prefer their soup without. Some folks prefer to use shaved carrot instead of the round slices. But having a great base recipe to work from is essential.

We have changed it a lot from when my Great-Grandma made it. She would add the entire chicken into a pot and do a slow and low boil. Then add in the mirepoix of celery, onions, and carrots. She didnt ever skim off any fat from the top and honestly, her chicken noodle soup recipe was amazing. I put the word recipe in quotations because often times it was her throwing the basic ingredients in a pot and walking away, never measuring anything. She was always creating the best meals!

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