Here’s Why You’ll Love This Light & Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Lightened up, yet still creamy and so satisfying
- able to be prepared in a slow cooker or on the stove.
- 1-pot meal
- Using a cooked rotisserie chicken saves time
- So much more delicious than store-bought soup
- Make ahead of time and freeze
- Good way to use up leftover chicken
- Flavorful spices, herbs, and vegetables
- Ultimate winter comfort food!
Best Ingredients to Use:
You need 1 big pot and a few staple ingredients. Since this is a forgiving recipe, let’s go over what can be adjusted if necessary.
- Butter: Just a Tablespoon, to soften the vegetables.
- Vegetables: The soup’s mirepoix flavor base is composed of onions, carrots, and celery.
- Use a mixture of garlic, fresh or dried oregano and thyme, fresh ground pepper, and salt as herbs and flavors. If preferred, feel free to substitute other herbs you like.
- Cornstarch or flour: By thickening the liquid, cornstarch or flour transforms this soup from brothy to creamy. See recipe Note for that substitution.
- Chicken Broth: Or stock.
- Potato: The first magical ingredient in this recipe is one medium potato, which cooks down to make the soup incredibly creamy, filling, and hearty.
- Chicken: You can use pre-cooked chicken in this recipe, which saves time. I usually buy a small rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, shred it, and pour it straight into the soup. However, you could also use leftover cooked turkey, as we do in this turkey pot pie! Alternatively, you could roast or boil chicken breasts with a little garlic and thyme, let them cool slightly, or even put them in the fridge for a day or two, and then chop or shred them. You can also use leftover chicken in dishes like my peanut chicken zucchini noodles or chicken quinoa salad.
- The other magical ingredient that makes your homemade chicken noodle soup the creamiest soup ever is milk or half-and-half. Use either one cup of half-and-half or one cup of whole milk. To make traditional chicken noodle soup that isn’t creamy, use more chicken broth in place of the milk.
- Noodles: I like my chicken soup with wide egg noodles, but you can use any kind of dry pasta or skip the noodles entirely.
Use the wide egg noodles that you can find for today’s soup. You could use any type of dry pasta if you don’t have egg noodles. In order to make the noodles fit on a spoon, break up any large dry pasta before using it, if necessary. A few readers have even used tortellini instead!.
How Does the Soup Thicken Up?
One of the most important parts of the recipe is to cook the onion, carrots, and celery. After you cook them down, add flour and your herbs. The liquid from the softening vegetables will be absorbed by the flour, giving the soup a nice, thick base. We also begin our biscuit vegetable pot pie exactly like this.
Whole milk or half-and-half also thicken up the soup. In a pinch, I’ve even made it with half as much heavy cream (1/2 cup, or 120ml). (If using heavy cream, add extra chicken broth; refer to recipe note.) ).
Nice and thick, without being too heavy.
Once the vegetable mixture has cooked and the flour and seasonings (above) have been added, add the potato and broth. Before adding the noodles, chicken, and milk/half-and-half, bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat. Finish cooking. It’s all very simple.
*Slow cooker instructions in the recipe Notes below!*
