When my body is tired and achy, or I’m feeling a bit under the weather, I always throw together this Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. The aroma that fills my house as it cooks is absolutely soothing to the soul, and the “from scratch” chicken soup flavor makes it the ultimate comfort food. There’s no bouillon or canned broth here folks, because this chicken soup is the real deal. But don’t worry, despite being made from scratch, this surprisingly simple and easy recipe makes the BEST homemade chicken noodle soup with very little hands-on time!
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Ingredients for Chicken Noodle Soup
Making chicken noodle soup from scratch doesn’t require a lot of complicated ingredients. All you need is chicken, a few simple vegetables, herbs, and spices, and you’re good to go! Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this easy chicken noodle soup recipe:
- Vegetables: I use a simple mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery), plus a little garlic for extra depth. This medley of vegetables simmers with the chicken to create an incredible homemade broth for the soup. The vegetables also add a lot of color and texture to the soup.
- Bone-in Chicken: Using bone-in chicken is critical to creating the most flavorful chicken noodle soup. I use skinless chicken breast (bone-in) so my soup has delicious pieces of white meat throughout. If you’re more of a dark-meat person, feel free to use thighs or drumsticks. I like to remove the skin to reduce the extra fat, but you can leave the skin on while simmering and remove it later if you want an extra-rich soup.
- Herbs and Spices: A combination of basil, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper give this soup its classic warm flavor. And of course, we add some salt to really help the natural flavors pop!
- Water: The chicken, vegetables, and seasoning simmer in water to create a truly amazing homemade broth.
- Noodles: I use wide egg noodles for chicken noodle soup because I love their light texture, but you can use just about any pasta shape you like! Try using stars, alphabet pasta, fideo, or ditalini.
Can I Use Rotisserie Chicken?
You can make this homemade chicken noodle soup recipe even faster by swapping out the raw chicken with shredded rotisserie chicken. Pull the chicken meat from the bones before you begin making the soup, then add the leftover carcass to the soup pot and simmer that with the vegetables instead of the whole chicken breast. Remove the bones before adding the shredded chicken back at the end.
Or, instead of simmering the bones, you can use a pre-made chicken broth and simply add the shredded rotisserie chicken at the end. This is a super fast method for making chicken soup, but the flavor won’t be quite as amazing as making your own broth!
Tips for Making Chicken Noodle Soup More Flavorful
To make sure your homemade chicken noodle soup has the most flavor possible, follow these easy tips:
- Use bone-in chicken, not boneless. The bones give the broth a TON of flavor.
- Make sure your dried herbs are fresh. Dried herbs lose flavor over time, so check those expiration dates!
- Don’t rush it. This soup needs to simmer for quite a while to get the most flavor out of the chicken, vegetables, and herbs. But don’t worry, it doesn’t require much attention as it simmers away.
- Don’t forget the salt. Salt doesn’t just make food taste “salty,” it actually helps our tongue distinguish different flavors. So make sure you salt the soup to taste at the end to get the full effect of all of those delicious flavors.
Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
This recipe adapts very easily to the slow cooker. Click here for our Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup recipe (with step-by-step photos).
Freeze the Leftovers!
This recipe makes a big batch, so I always freeze about half of it for days when I’m really under the weather. A quick reheat in the microwave or in a pot and this soup instantly makes me feel better. To freeze this soup, first divide it into single portions, make sure it is chilled completely in the refrigerator, then transfer it to the freezer, for up to about three months.
Pairs perfectly with homemade No-Knead Focaccia Rolls!
The Best Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Servings 8 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 medium yellow onion ($0.37)
- 3 cloves garlic ($0.24)
- 1/2 lb. carrots ($0.49)
- 1/2 bunch celery ($0.83)
- 2 split chicken breasts, bone-in ($6.64)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp dried parsley ($0.15)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
- 1 bay leaf ($0.15)
- 1/4 tsp Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 2-3 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 6 oz. egg noodles ($1.00)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and olive oil to a large pot and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft and transparent.
- While the onion and garlic are sautéing, wash and slice the carrots and celery. Add them to the pot and continue to sauté for a few minutes more.
- Pull the skin and any excess fat from the chicken breasts. Add the breasts to the pot along with the bay leaf, basil, parsley, thyme, some freshly cracked pepper, and 8 cups of water. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour. Make sure the pot continues to simmer for the whole hour. If the heat is turned down too low and it is not bubbling away, the chicken will not shred easily.
- After an hour of simmering, remove the chicken from the pot. Using two forks, pull the meat from the bone and shred it slightly. Season the broth with salt. Begin with one teaspoon and add more to your liking. I used 2-3 teaspoons. The flavor of the broth will really pop once the salt is added.
- Add the noodles to the pot, turn the heat up to high, and boil the noodles until tender (about 7 minutes). Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Taste and season again with salt if needed (I didn’t need to). Serve hot!
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Nutrition
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Love chicken soup? Then you’ll LOVE my Chicken Stew. It’s like chicken noodle soup’s heartier, more rustic cousin!
How to Make Easy Chicken Noodle Soup – Step By Step Photos
Begin by dicing one onion and mincing three cloves of garlic. Place them in a large pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent.
While the onion and garlic are cooking, clean and slice 1/2 lb. carrots and 1/2 bunch celery (3-4 stalks). Add them to the pot. Continue to sauté the onions, carrots, and celery together. You’ll only use half of a one-pound bag of carrots and half of a bunch of celery, but the rest doesn’t need to go to waste. You can clean and slice the rest and freeze them to make another batch of soup later. I do it every (other) time. It takes just a few more minutes and is super convenient later!
Remove the skin from two split chicken breasts (2.5-3 lbs. total). Split chicken breasts come with bones and rib meat, both of which add a LOT of flavor to the broth. They will also sometimes be labeled “bone-in chicken breast with rib meat”.
Add the chicken breasts to the pot along with 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1 Tbsp dried or fresh parsley, 1 bay leaf, and about ¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper.
Add eight cups of water, cover, and bring up to a boil over high heat. As soon as it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for one hour. Make sure that you don’t turn the heat down so low that it stops simmering. It needs to simmer the whole time.
After an hour, it will look something like this. Pull the chicken out of the pot…
Use two forks to pull the chicken from the bone and shred it into bite-sized pieces.
Add 6oz. egg noodles to the pot while you’re working on the chicken, turn the heat up to a boil, and cook until tender (about 7-10 minutes). You can use any noodle that you like, but I really like egg noodles for this soup. They have a nice firm texture and they don’t disintegrate in the soup. Season the broth with salt, beginning with one teaspoon and adding more until the flavor of the broth really pops (2-3 teaspoons).
Add the shredded chicken back to the chicken soup, stir to combine, and you’re ready to eat! It’s never a bad idea to give it one last taste and adjust the salt if needed.
This chicken noodle soup recipe makes about 12 cups, so it’s not a bad idea to freeze some for later. Always refrigerate the chicken noodle soup fully before transferring it to the freezer. When making big batches, it’s a good idea to divide it up into smaller portions before refrigerating. This helps the hot liquid to cool down faster once in the refrigerator.
What additional seasonings should I put in if I use boneless skinless chicken breast? I have a lot of those in my freezer, got a group deal from a distributor so that is what I will use.
I HAVE made this several times before with the bone in chicken and it is always a kit.
Thanks for the help and this great, easy recipe.
I’ve made it with skinless, boneless breasts before and it was still good. The flavor won’t be quite as rich because the bones weren’t boiled, but that’s not something you can fix by adding more seasoning.
Made this tonight with a few substitutions – minced onion and celery seed b/c I didn’t have any fresh on hand. Used GF noodles. It turned out beautifully.
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This soup was very good! I did double it to make a large pot for my family and everyone lived it. The flavors come together so well. I used dark meat instead of chicken breast.
I always make my chicken broth in the crockpot and no matter what type of bone chicken I use I can never get the flavor I want. I saw someone wrote that thighs worked. My question is. What type of chicken will give me the best flavor if I’m making it in the crockpot. P.S. I don’t want to use bouillon or store bought stock. Thanks.
The best flavor will always come from bone-in chicken. Luckily, after cooking it for a long time in the the slow cooker, the meat just falls off the bone so it’s really easy to remove them later.
Thank you for this wonderful and easy recipe. I was looking for a chicken soup that was completely homemade (no canned chicken broth) and this is it! I followed exactly as it and will make this again and again.
Thanks for posting this! Made this for my family tonight and it was great. I shared this with our page at http://www.smallchangesbigpicture.wordpress.com
I agree that the soup lacked some broth, even when I added an extra cup at the end. However, I also used an extra half chicken breast and the entire 12oz package of noodles, so it was super chicken-y and super noodle-y. Nothing wrong with that, though!
Next time will probably stick to about 1-1.5 lbs chicken and maybe 3/4 of the package of noodles.
My kids loved it! Another winner!
I’ve made this and it is absolutely delicious. So clean tasting. You really feel you’re eating something wholesome.
Thank you for the recipe.
Bayushizero – The amount of salt you add can be completely up to you :) You can make it salt-free, but I find that it needs at least a little just to make the flavors pop. It’s a big batch of soup, so even if you add a teaspoon or two, it will still be a very low sodium content per serving. Good luck!
Miss Beth, a question.
Is the salt necessary?
Unfortunately, I am on a very-low/no sodium diet as ordered by my Nephrologist; as I have a really dire kidney condition.
It’s to a point where can soup is just plain not possible, given how much sodium they pack into those little cans. I’m a summer-loving person, and don’t do well in the cold, and can’t even have most soup(s) in the cold months. I miss a good hot soup. =(
I made this soup today and it’s fantastic! I agree that the seasoning is absolutely perfect (especially for someone who isn’t fond of thyme). I will make a slight change in that I’ll either cook the noodles first then add them to the soup or add less because they’ve completely taken over the soup. I had to add a third up of water and even then it’s still lacking broth.
Regardless, it’s amazing soup that is wholly worth the effort of working out my issues with the noodles. It just means I’ll have to make it several times until I get it right. Darn.
I had a roast turkey leftovers so decided to mashed up this recipe with another I found about how to make turkey stock from a turkey carcass: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_turkey_soup/. Follow this soup recipe as usual, only substitute the stock for the water and the leftover turkey meat for the chicken. It won’t need to boil an hour since the turkey is already cooked.
Un-freakin’-believable. This recipe provides the perfect seasoning.
It’s a good recipe but, for full flavour, taking off the skin after it cooks gives a better broth. This recipe can be made with rice noodles to make it gluten-free.
That’s what I did. It’s still delicious.
I made this soup a few days ago and it is absolutely wonderful!!! It’s as close as you can get to my grandmother’s amazing chicken noodle. Thanks so much for the recipe– I cannot wait to make it again!