Make your own mirepoix
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “mirepoix,” allow us to add this timeless pairing to your skill set. This blend of finely chopped celery, onions, and carrots is a mainstay in French cooking, adding flavor to food with a blend of aromatics and sweetness. A robust base is essential for any homemade chicken noodle soup, so make sure your stock has plenty of flavor. These three veggies should be chopped, tossed in your preferred fat until they start to caramelize, and then boiled with the rest of your stock’s ingredients.
A mirepoix is a simple way to improve any store-bought broth, even if you’re not making your own stock. Although it may seem too good to be true, this straightforward method is the easiest way to guarantee that your chicken noodle soup gets off to a flavorful start. It’s really that simple to use this trifecta—one, two, three.
Remember that seasoning is always on your side when it comes to subtly adding flavor to chicken noodle soup. We’re not just referring to your standard dry seasonings here; we also mean the fresh herbs that can be added to soup to enhance its flavor at different points during the cooking process. Basic seasonings like salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasonings are listed in recipes. These garnishes are a must, but we can also offer suggestions for the best freshly chopped herbs to elevate your soup above the ordinary.
Add the fresh thyme stems and rosemary at the start of the soup-making process to infuse your broth with their potent aromas and flavors. Let them seep into the soup from the outset. Chopped parsley is the classic garnish that elevates any soup with herb flavor. A handful of parsley, though it’s best known for its vivid green color, will add some vibrancy and refresh the flavors of your chicken noodle soup. Generally speaking, you should use three times as much fresh herb if your recipe calls for it as a powder or dry seasoning.
We’ve moved past connecting chicken noodle soup to depressing, sick days. A squeeze of citrus might be the last missing piece in your homemade chicken noodle soup recipe, if you’ve been looking everywhere for it. Lemon can add brightness to your meal to balance out the other flavors that are more salty otherwise. Lemon juice has the ability to balance out the savory flavors in your soup by cutting through them.
Though it may seem excessive to add such a strong flavor to a soup that isn’t known for having the strongest flavors, we can provide you with advice on exactly how much and when to add lemon juice to your chicken soup. There are, of course, certain dos and don’ts when it comes to using lemon in soup. Depending on the cook, recipes call for one to four tablespoons of lemon juice. But one thing is certain: in order to prevent the lemon juice from becoming bitter, it should always be added right at the very end of the cooking process. Try this tip and see how your chicken noodle soup turns into a delicious meal.
Try a Thai twist
Try something different with your chicken noodle soup by adding some typical Thai ingredients to make it more international. The flavors of authentic Thai food are tangy, creamy, and occasionally spicy; ingredients like lemongrass, lime, coconut milk, and curry pastes are frequently used. Your chicken noodle soup will taste more tangy if you add things like lime and lemongrass, but it will taste creamier and richer if you use coconut milk. Another common ingredient in Thai cooking is curry paste, which is simple to add to the soup’s base and adds a lot of spiciness.
Try them all together or mix and match, but don’t be scared to experiment with any of these unique flavor combinations. To add some variation to your meal, you could also add rice noodles, which are typically used in Asian soup dishes, to your Thai chicken noodle soup. Adding an Asian touch to your chicken noodle soup—using one or more of these additions—might be the key to taking it to the next level.
Be creative with your vegetables
The beauty of chicken noodle soup is its neutrality, which creates plenty of opportunities for new flavor combinations, even though many of us associate it with the traditional combination of celery, carrots, and onions. Whose to say that you can’t use other vegetables to boost the flavor of your soup?
Let’s look at some other inventive ways to alter the flavor of your food besides just adding seasoning. To bind the dish’s deeper flavors together, you might use more umami-forward veggies, like mushrooms, that go well with chicken. As an alternative, adding veggies like corn, peas, and tomatoes will highlight the soup’s sweeter undertones. If you prefer a more herbaceous option, green peppers or asparagus will give the soup a striking color as well as a distinct depth of flavor that you’ll love.
This next suggestion will need some adaptability, but bear with us: think about adding fresh flavors to your chicken noodle soup by using different types of noodles in place of regular pasta. As previously mentioned, one way to spice up your chicken noodle soup is to use rice noodles instead of noodles for a more Asian-inspired dish. Another option that fits with Asian flavors is ramen noodles. Some store-bought ramen noodles even include flavor packs, which you could use to add a creative flavor to your soup, like chicken ramen soup. Soba noodles can give your soup a more earthy flavor by counterbalancing the richer and saltier flavor of chicken noodle soup.
Try using a noodle substitute that isn’t even a noodle for the grand finale. The perfect combination of comfort foods is chicken noodle soup with a matzo ball soup twist, where the matzo balls absorb all the flavor from the broth. To add even more homemade flair, you could even make your own matzo balls.
