Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade chicken noodle soup is such a timeless comfort food classic that always manages to make us feel better on dreary days. This is my grandma's recipe, loaded with fresh vegetables, tender pieces of chicken, and egg noodles, all in a delicious broth. It's one of my favorite ways to cook a whole chicken!

I have some great ideas for what to serve with chicken noodle soup, like crusty French bread or fluffy air fryer biscuits.

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup
• 💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes
• 🥡 Storing & Reheating
• 📖 Recipe Card
• 💬 Comments & Reviews

For anyone who hasn't tried their hand at making chicken noodle soup from scratch, it's what I would call a beginner-level recipe. There are lots of ways you can modify the steeps and ingredients, but the simple basics are sometimes the very best!

Of course, you can skip ahead to pulling the cooked meat apart if you bring home one of the grocery store rotisserie chickens, or have leftover chicken on hand. However, I love the enhanced flavors of cooking the chicken carcass down in the broth. It's not a word, but it makes the soup more chicken-ey!

🥘 Ingredients

• Whole Chicken - Rinse your whole chicken before adding it to the pot.
• Chicken Bone Broth - Reserved from simmering the chicken, or you can use a container or two of chicken broth (most containers are 32 ounces or 4 cups).
• Water - Just enough to finish covering your whole chicken in your stock pot, if needed.
• Salt & Pepper - Add more to taste when adding noodles to the soup.
• Bay Leaves - Bay leaves are a great way to add flavor to soup. Just be sure to remove them before serving. You can also use a bay leaf substitute.
• Onion - Yellow or white onion, finely chopped.
• Garlic - Minced garlic is my preference, or you can add ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.
• Carrots & Celery - Roughly chopped chop the carrots and celery, I like big chunks of veggies in my chicken noodle soup!
• Thyme - Fresh time leaves pulled from the stalk or use ½ tablespoon of dried thyme.
• Egg Noodles - Uncooked egg noodles or your preferred pasta type for chicken noodle soup.
• Parsley (optional ) - Fresh chopped parsley for garnish.

*Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!*

🔪 How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup

I usually spend about 5 minutes on each task, so for the most part, this simple comfort food just cooks on its own...most likely while I nurse a cold. You'll need your measuring utensils, a large stock pot, a slotted spoon, a knife, and a cutting board to get started.

One pot of soup prepared as written makes about 10 servings, so it's great for planned leftovers!

Cook The Chicken & Make The Broth

Step 1: Add chicken, seasoning, and liquid to pot. Place a 3-4 pound (1.36-1.81 kilogram) whole chicken in a large stock pot, add 6 cups of broth, and water if needed to cover the chicken. Add 1 teaspoon each of salt & pepper and 4 bay leaves.

Step 2: Boil. Cover and bring the water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 90 minutes or until the meat begins to fall off the bone.*This step will take approximately 30-40 minutes if you are using chicken thighs only.

Step 3: Remove chicken from broth. Remove chicken from broth. Transfer the chicken to a plate or large dish, using a slotted spoon to remove any pieces that may still be in the broth as well as the bay leaves. *I recommend straining the broth through a fine mesh sieve to remove any small chunks.

Remove Bones & Add Veggies

Step 4: Add veggies. Add chopped vegetables (1 onion, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 5-6 carrots, and 6 stalks of celery) and 5-6 sprigs of thyme to the broth in the stock pot. Cover and continue to simmer while removing the bones from the chicken meat (allow your chicken meat to cool for a few minutes first). Discard bones and skin.

Simmer & Serve

Step 5: Simmer. Simmer the broth for a total of 30 minutes. At the halfway point (15 minutes) return the chicken meat to soup, taste and adjust seasoning, then add 2 cups of egg noodles. Cover and simmer for the final 15 minutes.

Step 6: Garnish and serve. Remove from heat, stir in the chopped parsley (if desired) and serve.

💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes

• A quick note on seasoning: I prefer to season lightly until my ingredients have come together. The broth has salt in it. Celery has salt in it. Once the whole soup is combined, I taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper before adding the noodles. At this point, you will have a better idea of the final resulting flavor.
• Use a sieve if possible. After cooking the whole chicken down, it is best to strain the liquid through a fine sieve to remove any fat, skin, or debris.
• Chicken thighs also work well. If you prefer dark meat, you can use chicken thighs rather than a whole chicken, and (bonus) that cuts down the cooking time! The dark meat of the thighs will be more tender in your soup, while the white meat of the chicken breasts will hold its texture better. Having cooked this soup many times, I usually stick with the whole chicken method.

🥡 Storing & Reheating

Let your chicken noodle soup cool off to almost room temperature, then transfer it to an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 4 days.

Freezing

When freezing chicken noodle soup, I recommend leaving the noodles out because they tend to get mushy when thawed. Put your soup in a ziptop freezer bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 6 months.

Reheating

Reheat in a pot on the stovetop over medium heat, stirring occasionally. No need to thaw out frozen soup before reheating it.

📖 Recipe Card