Soup is my go-to dish – it usually involves just one pot, it’s deeply nourishing and paired with a loaf of sourdough and some butter, it’s a complete meal. And this may be an unpopular opinion but soup is totally ruined when it’s packaged in a can. There, I said it.
Recently I posted a video of a chicken noodle soup I made for my family and was flooded with requests for the recipe. It’s incredibly simple and with a few of my tricks, you can toss that can of Campbell’s and make your family the coziest cup of soup in about thirty minutes.
A few notes and optional additions before we get to the recipe:
- Don’t worry about undercooking the chicken in the first step. It will continue to cook through while it simmers in the soup. Overcooking the chicken initially will make it dry in the soup.
- Use the best broth you can find – ideally homemade. This is how I make bone broth – it’s super economical as I save the bones from roasted chicken and use them to make delicious broth. I freeze it in glass jars (just make sure you leave a couple of inches of headroom to account for the liquid expanding as it freezes).
- Make dinnertime prep even quicker by pre-chopping the carrots, onion, celery, garlic and herbs and storing them in a quart sized jar in the fridge.
- I love using pasta from Sunrise Flour Mill. The heritage grains are milled in Minnesota and the pasta is delicious.
- If you anticipate having leftovers, cook the pasta separately, drain and toss with a teaspoon of olive oil. Refrigerating soup with the pasta in the pot will lead to mushy pasta when reheated – keeping it separate maintains the structure of the noodles.
- Adding chopped cooked bacon is delicious. So is stirring in 1/2 cup of heavy cream after you’ve turned off the heat.
Chicken Noodle Soup
makes 4-6 servings
Gather this:
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp minced fresh herbs (I use rosemary, sage & thyme)
2 tbsp olive oil, ghee or bacon fat
1 lb chicken breasts or thighs
2 tsp seasoning (such as this one) or 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 quart chicken bone broth
1/2 pound short pasta, cooked according to package instructions, drained and tossed with 1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Do this:
Chop the vegetables and set aside. Heat a dutch oven or clay pot over medium heat. Pat the chicken dry and season. Place the chicken into the pot and cook about 5 minutes on the first side, flip and cook an addition 3-4 minutes until browned but not necessarily cooked through. Take the chicken out of the pot and set aside to rest on a cutting board.
Add the vegetables, garlic and hard stemmed herbs to the pot and saute, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until slightly softened. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes – until the vegetables are tender. Chop or shred the chicken and add it back into the pot – simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Add fresh parsley to the soup and check for seasoning – add more salt if needed.
To serve, place 1/2 cup of the cooked noodles in a bowl and ladle the soup over it, garnishing with more parsley if desired. A squeeze of lemon over the soup is also delicious.