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Chicken Noodle Soup is one of the top recipe searches on Google, and it is easy to see why. When the weather turns cold and someone in the house starts sniffling, a big pot of homemade chicken soup is the first thing many of us want. The catch is that a truly from-scratch version sounds like an all-day project: roasting a chicken, simmering bones for hours, and rolling out noodles. That is exactly why so many families settle for a can. If soup night is a regular thing at your house, our Chicken and Dumplings and Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup are proof that homemade does not have to mean complicated.
The grocery store shortcut is a rotisserie chicken. In our Chicken Noodle Soup, which has more than 8,000 ratings and a 4.99-star average, that one bird does double duty. The meat gets pulled and stirred into the pot at the end, and the carcass and bones go into a batch of homemade chicken broth that you can make ahead and freeze. The soup itself comes together in about 40 minutes: sauté celery and carrots in butter, add garlic, pour in the stock, and season with a pinch each of rosemary, thyme and crushed red pepper. If you use store-bought broth instead, a spoonful of Better Than Bouillon chicken base adds back some of that slow-simmered depth.
How to keep the noodles from turning mushy
Noodles are where most chicken noodle soup goes wrong. My mom always made this soup with homemade egg noodles, and they don’t get soggy the way many store-bought noodles do. Our homemade egg noodles need just flour, salt, milk and eggs and are ready in about 5 minutes, and they hold up better than dry pasta, which makes them the best choice if you are cooking the soup ahead. Using store-bought egg noodles, farfalle or rotini? Pull the pot off the heat as soon as the noodles are barely tender, since they keep cooking in the hot broth. Prefer raw chicken over rotisserie? Add thighs, breasts or tenders to the boiling broth and cook them for about 5 minutes before the noodles go in.
Serve it with a loaf of No Knead Bread or a pan of homemade rolls for dunking. This is my go-to soup I bring to friends and neighbors during the cooler months, usually with a loaf of bread on the side, or you could deliver it with bread bowls. Leftovers keep in the fridge for 4 to 5 days, and the soup freezes well for 2 to 3 months. If you plan to freeze it with store-bought noodles, undercook them slightly first so they don’t go soft when you reheat it. Get all the details in our Chicken Noodle Soup recipe.
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