Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Almost every kid—and every grownup, for that matter—loves chicken noodle soup. Nothing's better when you're not feeling well, and it's always welcome when you're feeling fine, too. This winter we've been making a lot of homemade soups, since they're warming and comforting on a cold night. There are usually plenty of leftovers, too, so it also means you don't have to cook lunch or dinner the next day.
Making homemade chicken noodle soup can be a pretty time consuming task, but I've developed a really easy, healthy, and tasty version here in our kitchen that only tastes like you've slaved over it all day. The whole process takes about a half hour to put together, so you'll be serving your family a hot bowl of soup in no time.
You can make it entirely with ingredients you can get at Trader Joe's, which is good since we tend to shop there much of the time. Chances are, you have most of these ingredients in your refrigerator and cupboard already.
This is one of those recipes that my kids are guaranteed to eat—they usually ask for more, too!
Ingredients:
- 8 cups (2 quarts) low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (the individually frozen ones from Trader Joe's are fine)
- 2 medium stalks celery, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 4 ounces egg noodles (wide egg noodles or TJ's egg pappardelle, broken up)
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
In a large pot, heat broth until boiling. (I always use low-sodium broth and add my own salt to taste.) Add frozen chicken breasts to the pot, along with onion, carrot, celery, and thyme. You can strip the leaves off the thyme sprigs and just toss them in whole.
Reduce heat and let simmer 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and chop or shred into pieces, then return it to the pot along with the noodles. You can use more noodles if you like lots of noodles in your soup; and hey, who doesn't?
Increase heat and simmer about another 10 minutes or until noodles are tender. Some cooks tell you to cook the noodles separately and then add them to the soup. I've tried both ways and can't tell the difference, and this way is easier.
Remove from heat and add chopped parsley, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
