Chicken Noodle Soup

What’s better than a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup? This quick and easy recipe is sure to please everyone at your table. This recipe will produce a great bowl of soup without breaking the bank. While it works great by itself, you can dish it up with a grilled cheese sandwich or some fresh biscuits.

Why I love this recipe?

• Everything comes together quickly, and, in my opinion, you don't need to simmer this for hours to get good flavor.

• Since you're doing this in one pot, there's not much to clean up.

• The end result is very forgiving. You don’t have to get too hung up on measuring.

Things to Remember

• Building flavors in the first few steps is key.

• Seasoning as you go is fine, just be careful on salt levels. You can always add more salt in.

• Adding noodles too early can lead to them over cooking.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

Cook Time: 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Boneless-Skinless Chicken Breasts

• Garlic and Onion powder for seasoning chicken

• 2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil

• 1 Yellow Onion, Diced

• 1 Cup Celery, Chopped

• 1 Cup Carrots, Chopped

• 1 Cup of a Dry White Wine (Sauvignon Blanc or similar)

• 1 Tbsp Garlic, Minced (2-3 Cloves)

• 1 Tbsp Butter

• 8 Cups Chicken Stock (I like 1 32 oz of salted stock, and 1 32 oz of unsalted stock.)

• 2 Tsp Dried Oregon

• 3-4 fresh thyme sprigs OR 1 Tsp Dried Thyme

• 2 Cups Uncooked Noodles (Wide Egg noodles work great.)

• Salt and Pepper

Instructions	Notes
1. ​Put olive oil in a Dutch oven (5-6 quarts) and set to medium heat.
2. Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towels and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cook chicken 6-10 minutes a side until mostly cooked through. Remove and set aside to cool.	The chicken doesn’t have to be all the way done here, but done enough to shred. The cooking time will depend on how big the chicken breasts are. Getting to 145 or above on the instant read thermometer is fine. The chicken will finish cooking in a future step.
3. After removing chicken, add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until softened and you are starting to see some caramelization/fond on the bottom of your Dutch oven. It should take 7-8 minutes.	Don’t be afraid to add a little more oil to the pot at the start of this step if it looks too dry. I always add a healthy pinch of salt on this step.
4. Pour the wine into the Dutch oven and use wooden or rubber spatula to scrape up as much of the fond as possible. Cook until the majority of the liquid has evaporated.	If you are not using wine, you can do this with half a cup of stock. Fond equals flavor, so you will want to get it off of the bottom of your Dutch oven.
5. Make an open area and melt the butter and cook the garlic until fragrant (1-2 minutes).
6. Add stock, thyme, and oregano, cover to bring to a simmer.
​7. Chop or shred chicken and add back to the soup.	Since the chicken has cooled. You should be able to shred with your hands with no fear of burning. Thank your past self. The paddle attachment on the stand mixer is a meat shredding machine. If you have a stand mixer, it will make this step a breeze.
8. Once a simmer is reached, reduce heat to low, and add in the uncooked noodles and cook until reached desired doneness.
9. Check the seasoning, add salt and pepper to taste

Modifications

• Skip the Wine: Honestly, the wine gives this something a little special, but if you’re trying to keep your grocery bill down, you will have a fine bowl of soup without it.

• Noodles, Rice, Dumplings: All of these options can work well as a starch for this soup.

• Make the Noodles Separate: Whatever starch you end up using, making it separately gives you more control over doneness. This can also make it easier to save some for leftovers. Noodles get really soggy in soup in the fridge overnight.

• Have left over turkey? The same soup with turkey and rice is delicious.

• If you want a slightly thicker broth, add 3 tablespoons of flour on the cooked veggies after step 5.

• Speed it up: Shred a store-bought rotisserie chicken. No one’s judging you. 🙂