Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (2024)

Sometimes I am in the mood for homemade chicken noodle soup, but I simply don’t always have the time to make it. However, you really can have homemade chicken noodle soup recipe in no time at all for an easy stove top recipes.

If you love making quick and easy Soup Recipes, then this is the recipe to start with. Check out these other classic soup recipes – Crockpot Taco Soup Recipe and Crockpot Potato Soup Recipe.

Why Make this Soup

This chicken soup taste so much better than store bought canned soup. You will love the fresh ingredients and how everything combines together easily in this quick and easy chicken recipes.

If you are looking for the best homemade chicken noodle soup that is the ultimate comfort food, this is the soup to make. Simple ingredients makes this soup a family favorite.

Ingredients

For the full recipe, scroll to the bottom for the recipe card and the full chicken noodle soup ingredients.

Substitutions and Additions

• 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. This makes 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. Stir in fresh spinach or kale into the soup. Add in toward the end of the cook time is an easy way to add in my nutritional vegetables to this recipe.
• 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.
• Add a little bit of lemon – If you love lemon, add a small amount of lemon juice (½ a lemon). Add right before serving to give this soup a delicious and sweet lemon flavor.
• Use Potatoes or Rice – If you don’t 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.
• Change 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 don’t have either of those on hand.
• Chicken Stock – Chicken stock can also work in this recipe.
• 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.
• Garlic – Garlic salt or garlic powder would work great too if you don’t have any minced garlic on hand.

How to Make Chicken Noodle Soup

• Add the chicken breasts, chicken broth, celery, carrots and onions to a large stock pot or dutch oven.
• Bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover.
• Cook until the chicken is cooked through (chicken will be completely white when cooked) and reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. This generally take approximately 20-30 minutes depending on the size and quantity of the chicken breasts that you are cooking.
• Remove the chicken, shred and stir it back into the stock pot.
• Stir in thyme leaves, minced garlic, salt, pepper, bay leaves, egg noodles and water.
• Cook over medium-high for about 10 minutes until the noodles are tender and cooked through.
• Remove the bay leaves.
• Serve immediately while warm and enjoy!

Expert Tips

• Use a Food Processor to Dice Veggies – I love using a food processor to dice the veggies for my favorite soup recipes. A food process is easy to use to dice up all my veggies and makes them small enough to easily serve on a spoon.
• Dice up extra Vegetables – When I make this soup, I will dice up all the vegetables at one time. Then freeze the leftovers to use in other soup recipe. For example, I will dice up the entire bag of celery, use what I need for this recipe. Then freezer the leftovers so they are easy to grab for when I’m ready to make another soup for my family.
• Use Leftover Chicken – This soup is great to make with leftover chicken. I will initially make extra chicken one night so that I can use the leftovers in this soup another night of the week.
• Use what Herbs you have – I love using thyme in this recipe. But if you don’t have any on hand, use different herbs instead that you already have in pantry. The flavor will be a little different than in my recipe but will still be delicious. Rosemary, Oregano or Basil would all work great in this easy soup recipe.

What to Eat with Chicken Noodle Soup

We love to serve this soup with crackers or warm bread likeEasy Homemade Dinner Rolls Recipe or these Homemade Hawaiian rolls. Bread is my favorite side dish to serve with this soup.

I love serving soups with homemade breads that I can easily dip into the flavorful broth in this recipe.

Check out What to Serve with Chicken Noodle Soup for more chicken noodle soup side dishes.

How to Make Ahead of Time

Yes, you can make this soup ahead of time. Then 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 you’re ready to enjoy the soup, heat it up in a large pot on the stovetop. Then add in the dried noodles and cook until the tenderness that you prefer.

How to Store Leftovers Chicken Noodle Soup

Store your leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to days. This makes for a great lunch the next day, so I like to store in individual containers.

Can I Make in the Slow Cooker?

Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup is easy to make as well. I use a different type of noodle in this recipe but either would work great in this soup. This soup can also be made in the Instant Pot too.

Can I Freeze Soup?

Yes, this soup can be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer safe, air tight container. Again, I would wait to add the noodles if you are going to freeze this soup as they will soak up the broth. When ready to serve, defrost the soup out in the refrigerator. Then reheat on the stovetop and add in the dried noodles to cook to your preference.
See Can you Freeze Chicken Noodle soup for more information.

Do You Cook Chicken before adding to Soup?

In this recipe, we do add in cook chicken to make this soup. This is the perfect recipe to make Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts or Boil Chicken Breasts ahead of time to make this soup.

Do You Cook Noodles Separately?

You can cook the noodles in the soup or you can cook them separately. I like to make things easy and make the noodles while cooking the soup.