There are lots of options for canned or premade soup at the grocery store, but with little time and minimal effort you can make a big pot of homemade soup from scratch that will taste a million times better, and will be so much better for you. This recipe comes together in under 30 minutes and uses simple ingredients, making it the perfect, comforting, weeknight meal. Use up leftover cooked chicken if you have it, otherwise a good quality grocery store rotisserie chicken is the perfect source of chicken for the soup.
Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
Time: 30 minutes Servings: 6-8
INGREDIENTS
- 8 cups of low sodium chicken stock, homemade or good quality store-bought
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 170gr (6oz) of wide egg noodles *see recipe notes below
- 2-3 cups of chopped cooked chicken
- 1/4 cup of chopped fresh dill
- Salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Add the stock, onion, celery and carrot to large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to a boil and add the egg noodles. Simmer until al dente, about 2 minutes less than the directed cooking time on the package. (Note that the pasta will continue to cook when you add it to the hot broth, so stopping at the point where the pasta is still a bit chewy will prevent it from overcooking and becoming mushy by the time it’s served.) Drain the egg noodles, then add them to the soup. Add the chicken and stir until heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped fresh dill. Add salt and pepper to taste.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
This soup is a well balanced meal all on its own. To round it into complete comfort food, serve it with bread and Fresh Herb Butter. For a hungry crowd, serve it with a grazing board of cold meats, cheeses, olives, cut veggies and sliced fruit.
DRINK PAIRING
The saltiness of the broth and the herbal notes of the dill pair well with high acid wines with leafy, green flavours. I’d suggest a Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Noir.
RECIPE NOTES
- You needn’t be precise with the noodle weights. I indicated 170gr because I use half of a 340gr package of extra-broad egg noodles, which makes for a very noodly soup. If you don’t want quite so many noodles, a couple of good size handfuls of dried noodles will do.
- I like wide egg noodles in my Chicken Noodle Soup, but any small pasta will work (macaroni, ditali, farfale, etc).
- What exactly is “al dente”? It’s an Italian phrase, meaning “to the tooth”, and describes the texture of pasta or rice when it is cooked just to the point where it is still firm and a bit chewy. In other words, when eating a piece of al dente pasta, you’ll know you’ve achieved the right texture if some biting and chewing is needed. For the purpose of this soup (or any soup for that matter), the noodles will continue to cook as you bring those pipping-hot, steaming bowls to the table. Cooking them just to al dente while they’re still on the stove will prevent mush in your bowl!
- A good stock makes all the difference in this soup. If there’s no time to make your own stock, you can often find great homemade stocks and broths at butcher shops and in the prepared foods/deli section of better grocery stores. What’s the difference between stock and broth? Stock is made with bones, in addition to vegetables and aromatics, whereas broth is made with meat and/or vegetables and aromatics (but not bones). They’re closely related, and both can be used here. Imagine Organics and Pacific Foods both make good low-sodium broths, sold in cartons in the organic foods section.
- This soup keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days. The noodles will continue to absorb the broth, so add a little more stock/broth when you reheat it if too much of the liquid has disappeared.
- If you wanted to freeze this soup, I would do so before adding the noodles as the pasta will lose its texture in the defrosting process. Cook the noodles and add them to the soup just before serving.
