🍜 Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast or thighs
- 3 carrots
- 3 celery stalks
- 1 onion
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups egg noodles
- Fresh dill or parsley
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Sweat diced onion, carrot, and celery in oil 5 min.
- Add broth and chicken; simmer 20 min, then shred the chicken.
- Add noodles, cook until tender; season and finish with herbs.
Tips
- Cook the noodles separately if you want leftovers. Left in the broth they keep absorbing and turn to mush overnight.
- Simmer, never boil, once the chicken is in. A hard boil makes the meat stringy and clouds the broth.
- Salt at the end, not the start. The broth reduces as it simmers, and what tasted right initially becomes too salty.
Substitutions
- Chicken breast
- Thighs stay juicier and cost less. A leftover roast chicken carcass makes a better broth than anything else — simmer it an hour first.
- Egg noodles
- Any small pasta, rice (add 20 minutes), or orzo. Rice noodles for gluten-free, added at the very end.
- Chicken broth
- Water plus a bouillon cube works. Homemade stock is noticeably better if you have it.
- Dill or parsley
- Dill is traditional and tastes distinctly different from parsley. Both work — use whichever you like.
Storage & reheating
Keeps 4 days refrigerated and freezes 3 months, but freeze it without the noodles — they disintegrate. Add fresh noodles when reheating; they take 6 minutes.
Common questions
Why is my broth bland?
Under-salted, or not enough aromatics. Sweat the onion, carrot and celery properly first — 5 minutes of real softening builds a base that chicken and water alone won't.
Can I use rotisserie chicken?
Yes, and it's a good shortcut. Add the shredded meat in the last 5 minutes so it doesn't overcook, and use a good broth since you're not building flavour from raw chicken.
Does chicken soup actually help a cold?
There's modest evidence that steam and warm fluid ease congestion, and the hydration helps. It won't shorten the illness, but it isn't purely folklore either.