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This Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is easy and delicious, and it comes together fast with leftover chicken or turkey. This classic recipe is perfect for chilly days, runny noses, and anyone who needs a bowl of comfort to cheer up.
Even though it’s meant as comfort food for cold days and tough situations, I find myself making this Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup recipe every time I have leftover rotisserie chicken. However, you don’t need leftover chicken to make it.
If you prefer to start with raw chicken breasts, chicken thighs, or any combination of chicken pieces, you can poach chicken in water until cooked through. If you’re using chicken with bones and skin, you’ll end up with maximum flavor while making a full-bodied homemade chicken stock at the same time. Bone-in chicken produces a gelatinous, flavorful broth that makes the best possible chicken soup recipe.
But not everyone has time to make bone broth, so that’s why this recipe gravitates towards leftover chicken. It’s great with turkey too, and Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup is my go-to after Thanksgiving when I’m using up the bird.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Chicken: Leftover chicken torn into bite-sized pieces works perfectly here, or you can poach a chicken (and make broth at the same time). Cooked turkey is delicious too.
- Chicken broth: Homemade chicken broth is ideal or you can make broth with chicken bouillon. Better than Bouillon chicken base paste is my personal preference if I’m not using homemade broth.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add chopped onion, chopped carrots, and chopped celery stalks and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, chicken, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in pasta and cook until tender, about 5 minutes longer.
- Remove from heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh parsley.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 16 cups of soup, enough for 8 servings, 2 cups each.
- Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Pack into freezer-safe containers (a mason jar works well) leaving 1-inch headspace for expansion. Label, date, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Slow cooker: This takes a lot longer than the stove-top, but I don’t mind if you don’t. Add the broth, chicken, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, and thyme to the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, or LOW for 6 hours. Stir in the egg noodles and cook 15 minutes longer on HIGH until the egg noodles are tender.
- Aromatics: Enhance the flavor of your broth with garlic, fresh herbs (especially fresh dill), and more veggies. Halved ears of corn, diced tomatoes, spears of zucchini, and fresh mushrooms are all delicious ideas.
- Finishing touches: I love easy chicken noodle soup recipes finished with cilantro leaves and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Hot sauce is good too!
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup: Ready in just 40 minutes, this creamy soup recipe is crowd-pleasing and perfect for cozy dinners or parties.
- Chicken Tortilla Soup: Make Mexican Chicken Soup and garnish with crunchy tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream.
Frequently Asked Questions
Substitute your favorite gluten-free pasta and the rest of the soup is naturally gluten free.
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Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 celery rib chopped
- 8 cups chicken broth (2 quarts, see note 1)
- 3 cups cooked chicken chopped or shredded (see note 2)
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme minced, or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 ounces wide egg noodles
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- fresh parsley minced, for garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, chicken, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in noodles and cook until tender, about 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh parsley.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Chicken: Leftover chicken torn into bite-sized pieces works perfectly here, or you can poach a chicken (and make broth at the same time). Cooked turkey is delicious too.
- Chicken broth: Homemade chicken broth is ideal or you can make broth with chicken bouillon. Better than Bouillon chicken base paste is my personal preference if I’m not using homemade broth.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 16 cups of soup, enough for 8 servings, 2 cups each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Yummy!!
Thank you, Matt! – Meggan
Good recipe. I made my own broth…so worth the extra step. I’m not a noodle fan, so added extra carrots and celery. Delicious
Hi Mary, I’m so happy you loved it! Sounds delicious! – Meggan
Best soup I have ever tasted!
Just made this for lunch with some leftover shredded chicken. The kids even loved it! Delicious and easy! Thanks for the inspiration!
This is the recipe that I use… I’ve recently stumbled upon frozen egg noodles by Reames that REALLY step up the game on chicken noodle soup!