↑

Will Cook For Smiles

Classic and Original Homecooking Recipes

  • Home
    • About Me
    • Work With Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe!
  • Recipes
    • Popular Posts
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Healthy Dishes
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Sandwich
    • Cauliflower
    • Drink
    • Cocktail
  • How To
  • Instant Pot
    • Instant Pot Main Dishes
    • Instant Pot Side Dishes
    • Instant Pot Soups
  • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Chicken
    • Beef
    • Seafood
    • Pork
    • Chili
    • Pasta
    • Slow Cooker
    • Vegetarian
  • Dessert
    • Cheesecake
    • Cake
    • Cookies
    • Chocolate
  • Holidays
    • Fall Recipes
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas Dinner
    • Christmas Baking
    • New Year’s
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Super Bowl Recipes
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Holiday Leftover Recipes
    • Cinco de Mayo
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
    • BBQ
    • 4th Of July
Home » Lunch » Soup » Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Created: August 21, 2019 Updated: September 19, 2023 by Lyuba Brooke 23 Comments *This post may contain affiliate links. Read More...

82.9K shares
Jump to Recipe

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is a healthy, nutritious, and classic soup recipe that’s loaded with chicken and vegetables. This chicken noodle is made completely from scratch using homemade chicken stock. There’s nothing that can make you feel better than a big bowl of this deliciously aromatic soup!

Cozy up with more chicken soup recipes like Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup and Chicken Meatball Soup.

bowl of chicken noodle soup with a spoon laying in the bowl.

There’s nothing that can possibly make me feel better than a bowl of freshly made chicken noodle soup! At the first sign of a cold, all I want is a bowl of homemade soup and my favorite blanket. 

It’s not just the feeling of comfort that this soup brings, it’s actually loaded with vitamins and nutrients that help your body fight the virus. It all starts with homemade chicken stock, which is made with bone-in chicken and vegetables. Using chicken legs and thighs with bones to make the stock is the best way to get extra flavor and extra nutrients into the soup. 

While there are some shortcuts you can take with chicken noodle soup (store-bought broth, a rotisserie chicken, etc.) it’s really the best when it’s made from scratch with lots of love. Once you enjoy your first spoonful of this at-home recipe, you’ll see exactly what I mean!

Ingredients in Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Labeled ingredients for chicken noodle soup on a wood surface.

Chicken Stock – Learn all about how to make your own chicken stock and why it’s so good for you (and good tasting) HERE!

Chicken – I like to use the chicken reserved from making the stock. If using store-bought stock, then you can also use shredded rotisserie chicken instead.

Egg Noodles – If you plan on freezing the soup, do not add this ingredient.

Vegetables – Classic chicken noodle soup features onions, celery, and garlic. Head down to the FAQ section to see what other veggies you can toss in!

Lemon – Trust me, adding lemon juice to your chicken noodle soup is a total game changer.

Fresh Herbs – You’ll need both parsley and dill weed for the very best flavor.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and instructions.

How to Make Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken Stock is the best possible base for most soups, especially chicken noodle soup. You can easily prepare it ahead of time and keep some in the freezer for those days when you want to make soup quickly. Besides making the stock, chicken noodle soup only takes 30-40 minutes. 

Choose any cut of chicken legs or even a whole chicken. Preheat a large pot over medium heat and sear chicken with a little oil until it’s golden brown. Add the vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, salt, and water to the pot. Bring it to boil and reduce heat to low. Cover the pot with a lid and cook slowly for 4-6 hours. 

Strain the stock through a fine strainer when it’s ready and make sure to save chicken meat for the soup. Discard leftover vegetables, herbs, chicken bones, and skin.

Stock and chicken meat can be frozen separately to be used later.

How to Make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

collage of two images one is the vegetables being cooked up with a wooden spoon, and chicken being added to the chicken soup.

Cook the veggies and add the chicken. Preheat a large pot over medium-low heat and oil and diced onions, celery, and carrots. Cook vegetables for about 10 minutes, until softened (1) and raise the heat to medium. Add garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant. Shred or dice chicken meat saved from cooking the stock and add it to the pot (2).

PRO TIP: Many soups, including this one, start with the same base of onions, celery, and carrots. This base is called soffritto (or mirepoix in some regions) and it consists of finely diced onions, celery, and carrots that are first sweated until softened and then remaining ingredients are added. 

collage of two images on of noodles being added to pot and one of lemon being squeezed into the pot.

Cover and cook. Pour in stock and season with salt and pepper. Make sure to always taste as you cook to see if the soup has enough salt. Cook the soup over medium heat for about 15 minutes and add noodles and fresh herbs (2). Stir and let the soup cook just until noodles are tender. 

Enjoy! As a finishing touch, squeeze in juice from 1 lemon (3), stir, and serve. 

A bowl of chicken noodle soup with a spoon in the bowl.

Tips to Make this Soup the Best

Homemade Stock – Homemade is always the best because you know exactly what goes into the dish. It can be adjusted to your personal taste, and it’s actually cheaper! Homemade stock will truly make your soups taste better and again, it’s easy to keep some in the freezer to use when needed. 

Fresh Herbs – Using fresh herbs over dried ones will give your soup strong, fresh taste and aroma. When possible, I always recommend using fresh herbs. If there are leftover herbs, mince and freeze it in freezer bags. You can also keep the bunch of leftover parsley, cilantro, dill weed, and green onion in a cup of water on the counter and use through the week. Just make sure to change the water.

Lemon – A squeeze of fresh lemon juice is a game changer in chicken noodle soup. It enhances all the flavors in the soup and adds a fresh, citrusy touch.

Recipe FAQs

Why do I have to use egg noodles in chicken soup?

Egg noodles go very well in clear broth soups because they are great at absorbing the flavor, but at the same time, they don’t get mushy as fast. These are the best noodles to hold up in a chicken soup.

How do I help prevent noodles from getting too soft?

If you don’t like your noodles to be too soft, cook them al dente and take the soup off heat. Serve the soup right away.

If you are making the whole batch but know you will have leftovers, take out half (or however much you wish to save) of soup from the pot and set it aside to save. Add just enough noodles for the servings you need at the moment and cook the noodles in the remaining soup in the pot.

Save the soup you took out without the noodles. You can cook the noodles in the saved soup when you’re ready to have more.

It’s best to cook the noodles in soup because they will absorb all the flavors, as opposed to making them separately. So, it’s easier to take out half the soup and cook it with noodles another time.

Can I add more veggies to this soup?

Absolutely! Feel free to add more veggies to the soup, but dice them small so you get a nice and even look on them as well as an even bite. Grab your veggie inspiration from my Vegetable Soup and add veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, kale, spinach, corn, peas, and more.

bowl of chicken noodle soup on a wood surface.

How to Store Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup should be stored in an air-tight container, in the refrigerator. Properly stored, refrigerated soup will last 3-4 days. 

PRO TIP: Add noodles to the soup right at the end of cooking so they stay tender. If you’re not eating all the soup at one time, the noodles will soak up the broth and become softer. Most people don’t mind softer noodles but if you do, you can cook noodles in chicken stock separately and add them directly to the bowl. 

How to Freeze Chicken Noodle Soup

You can freeze all of the soup or a portion of it, just make sure to freeze it without noodles. 

It’s best to get the soup cooled as quickly as possible before freezing it. Place the pot with stock into a larger container filled with ice and let it cool, stirring occasionally. Once it’s cooled to room temperature, portion it into freezer zip-lock bags or plastic containers with air-tight lids. Get the air out and seal. Label and date each bag and container and place it in the freezer. If using freezer bags, lay them down on a cutting board to freeze evenly.

Thaw soup overnight in the refrigerator. 

To reheat soup, pour it into a pot and heat it through over medium heat. Add noodles and cook until noodles are tender.

Chicken noodle soup in a stock pot with a ladle scooping some out,

More Comforting Soup Recipes We Love

Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

She Crab Soup

Broccoli Cheese Soup

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE leave a 🌟 star rating! Let me know how you liked it by leaving the 📝 comment below or share and tag me on social media @willcookforsmiles. DON’T FORGET to subscribe to my newsletter!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade chicken noodle soup is healthy and nutritious classic soup loaded with chicken and vegetables.
4.65 from 17 votes
Print Pin SaveSaved! Rate
Course: Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes
Time to make homemade chicken stock:: 5 hours hours
Total Time: 5 hours hours 45 minutes minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 305kcal
Author: Lyuba Brooke

Ingredients

  • 8-9 cups homemade chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 2 long celery ribs
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 2-3 cups cooked chicken meat saved from cooking stock
  • salt
  • fresh cracked black pepper
  • 1 tbsp fresh minced parsley
  • 1 tbsp fresh minced dill weed
  • 1 lemon – juice only
  • 8 oz wide egg noodles
US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Chicken Stock:

  • Prepare chicken stock according to the recipe. Chicken stock can easily be made ahead a day before or made ahead and frozen. Make sure to save the chicken meat from cooking the stock. Chicken meat can be frozen as well, in a freezer zip-top bag, separately from the stock.

Chicken Noodle Soup:

  • Preheat a large pot over medium-low heat and add oil and diced onions, celery, and carrots. Stir and cook vegetables for about 10 minutes, until softened, and raise the heat to medium.
  • Add garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant. Shred or dice chicken meat saved from cooking the stock and add it to the pot. 
  • Pour in stock and season with salt and pepper. Make sure to always taste as you cook to see if the soup has enough salt.
  • Cook the soup over medium heat for about 15 minutes and add noodles and fresh herbs. Stir and let the soup cook just until noodles are tender. 
  • Squeeze in juice from 1 lemon, stir, and serve.
  • NOTE: see the post for storing and freezing instructions.

Video

Notes

All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have a slight variation.

Nutrition

Calories: 305kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 52mg | Sodium: 382mg | Potassium: 468mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 2652IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @willcookforsmiles and tag #willcookforsmiles

LYUBA

ABOUT LYUBA

I’m Lyuba Brooke, mother of 2, the cook, recipe developer, photographer, and author behind willcookforsmiles.com. I share many classic and original recipes, cooking tips, and tutorials. My passion is sharing delicious meals for everyone to try. Read more...

82.9K shares

Filed Under: Chicken, Popular Posts, Soup

All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.

Comments

  1. Annette Kreamer says

    December 7, 2022 at 8:53 am

    I want your Recipe please

    Reply
  2. Faith says

    January 3, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    5 stars
    This receipt is amazing! How would I add potatoes? Would these be cooked with the stock?

    Reply
  3. Ivy says

    October 19, 2021 at 4:36 pm

    I am hoping to make this for a soup dinner benefit soon. How much qt wise does this recipe make? The benefit is selling soups by the qt so I just need to know how much to make. Thank you ☺

    Reply
    • LyubaB says

      October 25, 2021 at 11:22 am

      This is my 4qt dutch oven in the photos so I would say it makes 3 to 3 1/2 quarts depending on the size you cut the veggies,

      Reply
  4. Heather says

    May 23, 2021 at 12:54 am

    5 stars
    I have made this several times and my husband loves it. I add a 21 seasoning and fresh dill. I double up on the noodles and veggies do it stretches further. We usually serve it with fresh baked multigrain bread and butter.

    Reply
    • LyubaB says

      May 24, 2021 at 11:16 am

      Yum! I am so happy you liked it and make it your own! 🙂

      Reply
« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Well, hey there!

I’m Lyuba Brooke, mother of 2, the cook, recipe developer, photographer, and author behind willcookforsmiles.com. I share many classic and original recipes, cooking tips, and tutorials. My passion is sharing delicious meals for everyone to try. Read More.

Fall Recipes

stacked apple fritters on the wire rack

Apple Fritters

squared view of pumpkin puree in a glass jar.

Pumpkin Puree

pumpkin bread slices stacked up and whipped cream on a spoon next to it.

Pumpkin Bread

A stack of pumpkin pancakes with whipped cream and syrup on top on a plate.

Pumpkin Pancakes

A stack of sweet potato cakes on a cutting board with a dollop of sour cream on top with green onions.

Sweet Potato Cakes

scooping out some roasted potatoes and bacon.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bacon

squared centered image of stacked apple bacon grilled cheese

Apple Bacon Gouda Grilled Cheese

top view of apple salad in wooden bowl and dressing.

Apple Salad

Our Popular Recipes

closeup: teriyaki baked salmon topped with scallions and sesame seeds on a bed of fluffy rice

Teriyaki Salmon

six zucchini fritters stacked on top of each other on parchment paper.

Zucchini Fritters

Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup

closeup of scooping guac with a chip.

Guacamole Recipe

Sausage on a plate with a bite on a fork.

Quiche with Sausage Gravy

martini glass filled with light yellow cocktail with lemon slice floating in it and sugar on the rim. bowl of lemons next to the glass and some lemon on the table

Lemon Drop Martini

Top Rated Recipes

The Best French Toast

Cauliflower Parmesan Crisps

Christmas Cheesecake (Cranberry Jam White Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake)

Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl

round decorative bowl filled with apple pie bread pudding topped with ice cream and a fork leaning on the side of the bowl viewed close up.

Apple Pie Bread Pudding

Smores cheesecake on a wooden table

S'mores Cheesecake

Sides

30 Min

Pasta

Salads

Breakfast

Drinks

Soups

Gluten Free

FEATURED ON:

featured on

Caipirinha

Caipirinha

September 5, 2023
Caipirinha...
Shrimp Burgers

Shrimp Burgers

August 30, 2023
These...
Classic Mojito Recipe

Classic Mojito Recipe

August 16, 2023
Classic...
Turkey Burgers

Turkey Burgers

June 14, 2023
This...
Steak Diane

Steak Diane

May 29, 2023
Steak...
Sautéed Mushrooms

Sautéed Mushrooms

May 26, 2023
Sautéed...
Lobster Tails Recipe

Lobster Tails Recipe

May 26, 2023
This...
Greek Tortellini Salad

Greek Tortellini Salad

May 25, 2023
Greek...
Blackened Salmon

Blackened Salmon

May 25, 2023
Blackened...
Shrimp and Grits

Shrimp and Grits

May 11, 2023
Shrimp...
Privacy Policy
©2023, Will Cook For Smiles. Design by Pixel Me Designs