Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Homemade chicken noodle soup is easy to make and tastes way better. Skip buying the store-bought stuff that’s full of sodium and other unnecessary ingredients and make this recipe instead.
Growing up on Store-bought Chicken Noodle Soup
There was a time when I truly believed that I *had* to buy chicken noodle soup in a can. Bleh. Looking back at that belief now, it shows me how far I have come in terms of cooking and the lies I was telling myself!
You see, I grew up in the 80’s, when easy, packaged dinners were “the thing” to do. It was a time when so many people were devouring heavily processed food in the belief that it saved time and made life easier.
Case in point: Chicken Noodle Soup. Campbells to be specific.
Directions: Buy can; open it up and pour contents into bowl; microwave contents; serve immediately. That pretty much sums it up.
Easy, yes. Yummy? No.
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Tastes Waaaaaaay Better
Tasteless chicken, over-salted broth, mushy noodles, and limp carrots.
Seriously, just gag me now. That’s a better experience than eating that.
The first time I tried homemade chicken noodle soup, I swore I would never go back to Campbells.
I’m proud to say I have stuck to that promise!
I believe that homemade food tastes way better and is so much healthier. And honestly, that’s what I want to feed my family. I want to give them the good stuff. The healthy stuff.
Does it take longer to make than opening a can of soup takes? Sure.
But seriously, when you taste tender chicken, flavorful carrots and crisp celery, you’ll never want to go back either.
And there are ways to help speed up the process, too. I’ll show them to you!
You May Also Enjoy:
Slow Cooker Hearty Bean Chili
Slow Cooker Turkey Rice Soup
Additional Reasons to Make Chicken Noodle Soup From Scratch
The speed of life these days is on full throttle. With 3 ultra-busy boys to keep up with, I totally get it!
So lots of people sacrifice eating homemade foods for the convenience of mass-produced foods like soups, freezer meals, and box mixes.
I think it’s more important than ever to make as much as possible from scratch. Because the mass-produced items are chock-full of unnecessary and even harmful ingredients.
So I decided a few years ago to tackle making chicken noodle soup from scratch. I mean, how hard could it be, right? I have to admit that I was intimidated by the task at hand. Sadly, I didn’t have a clue what ingredients to include beyond chicken, chicken broth and noodles.
As it is with most of my recipes, I did a bunch of research and a bunch of experimenting. I have come up with a delicious, healthy chicken noodle soup that is easy to make, has yummy veggies (that even my kids eat), and is delicious!
Making Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch will help you and your family because you’ll:
- Avoid BPA and other chemicals from the lining of cans
- Know exactly what ingredients are in your food
- Have the ability to control how much sodium
- Be able to decide how much seasoning you want in your soup
- Use real ingredients for better nutrition
- Enjoy fuller, deeper flavor when using real, natural ingredients
- Be able to adjust the ratio of ingredients for family preference, if desired
- Have the ability to make it allergy friendly (gluten-free, etc), if desired
Ways to Save Time When Make Chicken Noodle Soup
- Use a food processor to slice your veggies (it’s so fast you’ll spend more time cleaning the processor than slicing!)
- Using frozen veggies is healthy, flavorful, and ultra-fast (just a little more expensive)
- Make double or triple the amount desired and freeze the rest – it does really well and makes an uber-fast dinner for next time!
Tools Needed to Make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
I always like to give some ideas for tools that will help save you time and effort. We are all so busy these days – who needs to waste time when it isn’t necessary?
I find these tools to be super beneficial when I make Chicken Noodle Soup:
- This food processor is essential if you want to do any cooking on a regular basis. I used a mini one like this until my kids were a little bigger (and I was making bigger batches)
- No soup worth is worth it unless you use a well-constructed dutch oven!
- If you like to make broth, Better Than Bouillon is delicious and way healthier than bouillon cubes. Look at all the flavors you can buy!
- This bag holder is seriously one of my favorite kitchen gadgets ever! It makes it possible to hold the bag and pour contents into it for freezing (go from needing 2 people or spilling soup everywhere to no hassle!)
Try making chicken noodle soup from scratch! I promise you’ll love it and not even want to go back to the Campbells stuff. Enjoy!
- 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion pulse in the food processor
- 3 stalks celery pulse in the food processor
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups chicken broth low sodium, organic broth or homemade broth recommended
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 2 cups chicken, cooked cubed or shredded
- 2 cups carrots pulse in the food processor
- 1 cup mushrooms pulse in the food processor
- 2 Tbsp fresh, chopped parsley leaves
- 2 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary leaves
- 1-2 cups roughly chopped fresh spinach leaves
- 2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
- 2 cups water
- 2 1/2 cups egg noodles
- pinch sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- Begin by adding olive oil, onion, celery, and garlic to a dutch oven or soup pot. Heat to medium-high and saute until the onion, celery and garlic start to "sweat" and get soft (about 5 min).
- Add chicken broth, chicken, bay leaves, carrots, mushrooms, parsley, rosemary, spinach and Old Bay seasoning. Heat to boiling and boil for 10-15 minutes.
- Add water, egg noodles, salt and pepper. Cook noodles according to package directions (about 8 minutes or so).
- Serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to one week.
- Serve with grated Parmesan (optional) and crusty French bread.
- This is a thick, hearty soup! If you want a consistency that is more thin, simply add an additional 2-4 cups of water or chicken broth until it reaches the consistency you desire.