This healthy and easy Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup is a great way to warm up on a cold day! This cozy soup recipe is also a good way to use up rotisserie chicken (or leftover turkey)!
Nothing warms up the body and soul like a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup! Chicken soup is a comforting meal found all over the world and its easy to see why so many cultures have their own version of it! Its nutritious and simple, yet flavourful.
I have always loved chicken soup and a creamy version is easily my favourite way to go! I grew up eating my mom’s Greek version – Greek Lemon Chicken Soup (Avgolemono Soup) made creamy by whipping eggs instead of adding dairy. It has always been a favourite of mine, but today, I decided to make a more traditional creamy chicken soup!
This creamy chicken noodle soup is flavourful and delicious, but best of all, it is easy to make and healthy too! I use no actual cream in my soup at all- just milk. Instead it is thickened by creating a roux with flour in the early stages of the soup. I rarely use cream in my cooking and much prefer to use this method as it is definitely a healthier, skinnier option!
How to make a flavourful creamy chicken noodle soup
This soup is incredibly easy to make and flavourful! The way to getting as much flavour as possible is to use good quality ingredients, herbs, and a flavourful broth!
Start with a good flavour base!
This soup starts like many others- with a mirepoix. Mirepoix typically includes carrots, celery and onion that are sauteed to coax out the best flavour. To the mirapoix, I add fresh thyme and paprika to add even more flavour in the early stages of this soup!
I love to cook with fresh herbs but if you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute dry ones instead. Dry herbs are a lifesaver at times! When subbing dry ones instead of fresh, use about 1/3 of the amount the recipe calls for. For example, I used about 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme so, I would add about 1/3 teaspoon of the dry thyme instead.
Use good quality ingredients
Its no surprise that good ingredients make a tastier dish! When it comes to soup, the broth plays a big role and so I use a good quality broth to flavour my soup!
There are many awesome store brands that make good broths. Since I have so many food sensitivities and have difficulty finding broths that fit my dietary needs, I make my own using the bones of roast chicken (or turkey). I flavour the broth with veggies (celery, carrots and onions) and herbs too (rosemary and bay leaf, usually). It simmers for over an hour. Once cooled, I strain it and pour it into freezer safe containers and freeze it until I am ready to use it!
In addition to the broth, I like to make this soup with egg noodles. I find they are more flavourful than a plain flour noodle. If you have an egg allergy or prefer a different kind of noodle, feel free to make it as you please!
Seasoning is everything
You could spend hours building flavour in the most complicated dish. You could use all of the best ingredients too. But if you don’t season your dish right, you won’t have a tasty one! Seasoning is everything!
A flavourful broth adds plenty of good taste and is already one way to add seasoning. The fresh herbs also add flavour. But before serving the dish, I taste my broth and add salt and pepper as needed. It’s essential to a tasty soup (and any dish) and too little or too much can ruin it. Taste first, add a little and taste again. You can always add more, but you can’t take it away once you’ve put it there.
What you need to make Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
To make this soup, you will need:
- olive oil
- carrot, peeled and finely chopped
- celery, finely chopped
- onion, finely chopped
- paprika
- fresh thyme, removed from stalk
- flour
- chicken broth
- water
- egg noodles
- cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
- milk
- salt and pepper
- fresh parsley, chopped
How to make this Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots and onions and sauté until tender and the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes).
Add the paprika, thyme and flour and stir to coat the veggies. Pour in the broth and water and increase the heat to high to bring to a boil.
Add the noodles and reduce heat back to medium. Let them boil for about 15 minutes. Add in the cooked chicken and milk and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
Enjoy!
-Cathy
You may also like:
Healthy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Chickpea Noodle Soup
I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you try it and love it as much as I do, I would love to hear about it! Leave a rating and/or comment below to let me know!
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large carrot peeled and finely chopped
- 1 rib celery, finely chopped
- 1/2 onion finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme removed from stalk
- 1/4 cup flour
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 1/2 cups egg noodles
- 1 lb chicken cooked and then chopped or shredded
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots and onions and sauté until tender and the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the paprika, thyme and flour and stir to coat the veggies. Pour in the broth and water and increase the heat to high to bring to a boil.
- Add the noodles and reduce heat back to medium. Let them boil for about 15 minutes. Add in the cooked chicken and milk and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Taste the broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
Great soup recipe. Made half for the two of us.
Still have some leftover.
Love the ease but also had great flavor.
So happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
Made this soup today with homemade chicken broth and the chicken from that. It’s tasty! Added salt to the broth as I made it, to the soup when I added the noodles, and a bit more at the end. I like the addition of the milk. I’ll make this again for sure!
Excellent flavor instructions aren’t very clear but basically a very good soup.
I need to know how many grams in one serving.
I made this soup yesterday. It was very good, but a bit bland. Due to high blood pressure, I use unsalted chicken broth, so that’s totally my fault. After adding a bit of salt and quite a bit of pepper, it was very good. I cooked my chicken in the slow cooker to avoid it drying out, used fettucine noodles. Other than the time spent cooking the chicken, relatively quick and simple meal. Thank you for the recipe!
As with all dishes, its important to season it to taste. If you reduce the salt for medical reasons, you could increase herbs and other seasonings to try to add more flavour.
Made this tonight. It’s so yummy. I used a little bit of Knors chicken bouillon, and heavy whipping cream.
So happy to hear!