Quick Chicken Noodle Soup with juicy chicken and tender noodles in 40 minutes and as flavorful as grandma’s. Once you try my recipe, you will say “good-bye” to canned and boxed stuff.
Pinky promise from this Ukrainian that grew up eating homemade soup every day. 🙂
Easy Chicken Noodle Soup
This is quick chicken noodle soup recipe.
Good chicken noodle soup takes hours to make. It begins with a whole bird and ends with a tired housewife. JK. But that is how my, and I am sure your, grandma used to make chicken noodle soup.
And it is good! Don’t get me wrong. That is why I have slow cooker chicken noodle soup and Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipes on the blog.
But in 2019 we need everything quick. Or if you are sick, this easy and quick chicken noodle soup just “fits the bill”.
Ingredients for Quick Chicken Noodle Soup
- Boneless or bone in chicken thighs – I recommend to use skinless thighs or remove skin to avoid very fatty soup. You can leave skin on a few if you wish. Chicken breasts do not have enough flavor for quick soup.
- Veggies – Onion, garlic, carrots and potatoes. Truth be told, you can use what you have on hand and like. Celery would be great too!
- Chicken broth – Use low sodium chicken broth from a carton or bouillon cubes.
- Fresh herbs – Parsley, dill, onion or chives add a lot of flavour at the end with little calories. Just try!
How to Make Chicken Noodle Soup
Detailed recipe card is located below.
- Make soup base: Cook chicken thighs with chicken broth, bay leaves, peppercorns, whole onion and 2 garlic cloves for 20 minutes. Keep lid on while bringing broth to a boil and then move to the side for all further cooking.
- For clear soup: As broth is cooking, foam will rise to the top. You will want to skim it a few times with a mesh strainer. Also this is the time I dice carrots, potatoes, and chop dill and grate garlic. No idle or waste time.
- Cook veggies: Add diced carrots and potatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Smaller pieces – faster cooking.
- Cook pasta: Add pasta and you want to stir a few times to make sure pasta is not sticking to the bottom of the pot or each other. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Discard onion, peppercorns and bay leaves with a mesh strainer.
- Add garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and dill. This last step makes this soup recipe the best chicken noodle soup in the world.
Slow cooker: If you would like to start soup in the morning and come back to ready dinner check out my slow cooker chicken noodle soup.
Instant Pot: Got magic pot? I absolutely love making soup in it. Here is my grandma’s Instant Pot chicken noodle soup.
Tips for Best Chicken Noodle Soup
- Do not use chicken breasts as they are lean and not very flavorful.
- Onion tip – To keep onion whole, peel it but do not trim off the ends.
- Clear soup – Cooking chicken noodle soup covered will make it more murky.
- More flavour – Keep bay leaves, peppercorns and onion cooking till the end to make broth flavorful.
- Pasta – Use any short pasta like corkscrew, elbow, orzo, penne or broken up spaghetti or linguine.
- Broth – I use organic bouillon cubes mixed with water. Cheaper and I always have stock on hand.
How to Serve, Store and Freeze
Serving soup: If you have time, let soup sit for 5-10 minutes. Flavors develop more and pasta absorbs liquid and makes soup more hearty. In Ukraine, we traditionally serve chicken soup with fresh rye bread. Here, in Canada we toast a slice of whole grain bread.
You can serve soup with whole chicken thighs. Frankly, I always do that. Or for the looks, shred meat right in the pot or on a cutting board. I hold a piece of meat with a spoon on a side of the pot and shred with a fork in my other hand.
Kids love chicken noodle soup!!! Your dinner will go so well.
Storing and reheating soup: Chicken noodle soup lasts for up to 5 days if refrigerated. It is normal for noodles to expand with each day. Reheat in a small pot by simmering and stirring on low heat.
Freezing soup with pasta: If you want to make this recipe for freezing, do not add pasta. It just doesn’t freeze well. Add cooked pasta after thawing and warming up. Or even cooked rice would be so good.
I usually warm up defrosted soup on the stove by simmering it. That’s it.
More Noodle Soup Recipes
Quick Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 - 1.5 lbs chicken thighs bone in or boneless (skinless)
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 peppercorns whole
- 1 small whole onion just peeled
- 3 large garlic cloves
- 12 cups chicken stock low sodium
- 2 large carrots diced
- 2 cups potatoes diced
- 1 1/2 cups dry small pasta whole grain (I used elbow macaroni)
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp fresh dill parsley or green onion, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven or pot, add chicken thighs, bay leaves, peppercorns, onion, 2 garlic cloves and stock.
- On high heat, bring soup to a boil covered and then move lid to the side a bit to keep soup clear. Cook for 20 minutes, removing foam as it rises to the top with a mesh strainer, occasionally.
- Meanwhile dice potatoes and carrots. Chop dill and grate garlic.
- Add potatoes and carrots, stir and reduce heat to medium. Cook with half lid open for 5 minutes.
- Add pasta, stir and cook for another 5 minutes. I would stir a few more times to prevent pasta from sticking.
- Discard onion, bay leaves and peppercorns with a mesh strainer.
- Add salt, olive oil, grated garlic clove, dill and ground black pepper to taste. You can also shred chicken right in the pot now.
- Stir and adjust any seasonings to taste. If you have time, let chicken noodle soup sit covered for 5 minutes.
- Serve hot with a slice of toasted bread.
Store: Refrigerate for up to 5 days. Reheat desired amount in a small pot on the stove by simmering on low.
Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw on a stovetop covered on low.
Notes
- Do not use chicken breasts as they are lean and not very flavorful.
- Onion tip - To keep onion whole, peel it but do not trim off the ends.
- Clear soup - Cooking chicken noodle soup covered will make it more murky.
- Pasta - Any short pasta like corkscrew, elbow, orzo, penne or broken up spaghetti or linguine would work.
- Broth - I use organic bouillon cubes mixed with water because they are cheaper and store well. From a acarton works great as well.
Nutrition
Recipes and images are a copyright of ifoodreal.com. It is against the law to republish recipes anywhere including social media, print and all world wide web. Nutritional info is provided for informational purposes only and to the best knowledge.
I have had homemade chicken soup before. It’s awesome. But I never thought too much about making it from scratch. My plan was always to have a few cans of chicken soup in the cabinet in case of a cold.
I will never rely on a can of chicken soup again. This recipe is so easy to make and tastes fantastic. The soup freezes well. If you are keeping some servings in the fridge for a few days, you might make the pasta separate and add when you reheat. That way the pasta won’t absorb so much liquid that it gets mushy and you won’t have to worry about having too much veggies and chicken and not enough broth.
Thanks for the positive feedback Melanie! And yes, no more canned chicken soup!
Can I use chicken legs instead of thighs? And can I leave the fat on? I like it ?
Sure
I first made this last fall and intended on freezing it to have during the winter and to give to friends. I ended up having it myself as I developed a nasty cold. Chicken soup really is good for you when you are sick, beyond it being a comfort food. This recipe is delicious and quick to make. I’m making it again today to freeze so I have as many fresh meals as possible during the social distancing phase. BTW – vegetarian pea soup, stuffed pepper soup and unstuffed cabbage rolls went into the freezer too! I love your recipes.
Melanie- thanks for your feedback. Chicken soup is so great when you are feeling under the weather.
Easy and great flavor. It’s my go to favorite when i don’t feel like a big dinner. Paired with a salad and crusty bread, it’s a satisfying meal.
Thank you for your wonderful review, Susan!
Hi Olena.Being of Ukrainian decent,we enjoy our soups especially in the winter months.
Yesterday I made your chicken soup,using noodles not pasta.
My husband enjoyed the soup,giving a # 10 rating !
Your split green pea soup is next on my list to make.
Growing up,my father made awesome Borscht with small spareribs,
as well as Kapusta soup.
Of course you need lots of smetana in them both!
Wonderful memories around the family table!
Hi Nancy. I’m so happy your family loved the recipe. Thanks for sharing that with me! Yes, lots of smetana. 🙂 Please don’t be shy to leave me a comment with a star review once you make the split pea soup.
Easy and absolutely delicious!!!! I did not change anything and I’ll be making this again. Thank you!!
You are super welcome, Lena. Nice change to a good old chicken noodle soup that took half a day haha.
A perfect soup for a Halloween evening that is going to be cold and windy.
Ah, what a great idea!!!!! I will be eating all the turkey leftovers from all my recipe testings lol.
We had a snow day in Calgary. So I made this chicken soup. It was amazing lot’s of flavour my family loved thank you so much for sharing your amazing and yummy recipes ?
You are very welcome, Nelia! I’ve heard and seen your snow. Actually we used to live in Calgary.:)
I found this recepie amazing , but i don’t wanna use chicken stocks , does it go tasty without those stocks ?any recommendation ? Also asking about diced potatoes & carrots , does it make a soup thick consistsncy ?
Yes you can. You just have to simmer soup twice longer for more flavor to develop. Veggies do not make soup thick. I mean it is a runny soup with veggies, not thick like chili or smth.
Oh, boy, that is MOST appealing and gorgeous. Olena, you’re the best thing ever! I’ll come back with a review when I make it!
Haha, thank you. I will be waiting.:)
This sounds like a winner on a cold winter day! (even though, here in Texas it’s yet to come 🙂 ). I like the way you season it with olive oil, grated garlic and forever Ukrainian dill 🙂 at the end – a nice touch! I already know it would come out well, without even trying – because of the great recipe of a similar soup you gave for Instant Pot a while ago – I’ve made that one many times. Thanks!
I am moving to Texas.:) So happy to hear! That IP one we made into a video and post this Fri.