Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup with Leftover Chicken

Spicy chicken noodle soup with leftover chicken is a fantastic dinner! You can adjust the heat level, pack with vegetables and enjoy this cheap healthy soup. Make on the stove top or Chicken Soup in the Crockpot is a fantastic one pot meal too.

Love this comfort food when you’re sick, or on a snowy evening? Us too!! Sometimes it is great to try something other than the old fashioned method, this spicy chicken noodle soup is just what you want. Add as much or as little heat as you want. It’s a great leftover chicken recipe we love (affiliate links present)

Chicken Soup with Leftovers

Yes you could make shredded boiled chicken first but typically I will make this with last night’s dinner. Some like to use a chicken carcass inside and cook it for longer to add flavor and bits of meat. I am sure you have your own method to the madness as far as that goes if you’ve made this from homemade before.

Below I just mention to use precooked meat. If you don’t have any of that on hand you can dice up from fresh, and saute until cooked before you proceed with the rest. You can make on the stovetop in a pot or Dutch Oven like we did here, or follow our Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipe timing with these ingredients.

I do have directions making chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken here as well. You’d just need to add some heat to that one as it is “normal” in that post. There are several ways to do that. Red pepper flakes are listed below but chili powder works, and if you like the taste of Sriracha go for that.

Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup

This has a really quick cooking time because the meat is already done. If you were to submerge a whole chicken to make from scratch it would take 2-4 hours. Ours could be cooked in just 15 minutes if you’re in a rush though with pre-cooked meat.

If you’re making this on your stove you’ll want a decent sized pot, like this one. It would work well simmered inside a dutch oven too, I love mine for all the things.

Crockpot Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

Want to cook low and slow? Follow our slow cooker chicken soup directions and these same ingredients, minus the noodles for 6 hours or so. 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat, submerge the pasta and no boiling required in another pot for those!

You’ll want to remove the chicken from bones and dice the meat on a cutting board to get started. Already shredded chicken requires no prep. If you have fresh meat just use the same pot with a bit of olive oil to brown the outsides. The middle can still be a bit underdone but you’ll want to simmer until it is fully cooked on the inside.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Red pepper flakes or diced chile peppers
• Minced garlic
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 3 cups of rotisserie chicken, or precooked and diced
• 1 large leek diced is optional but nice
• Soy sauce
• Frozen vegetables work well for a short cook time
• Seriously, coconut milk is better than any other for this
• 5 c chicken broth
• Egg noodles
• Lime juice, salt and pepper to taste at the end

If you want to make this fun you could serve with some tortilla chips on the side or crushed over the top. Jump to recipe at the bottom real quick to get started, but we will go over real quick how it’s done below too.

How to Make Chicken Noodle Soup with Leftover Chicken

Classic chicken noodle soup is a feel better soup we all want when we are feeling kinda’ ick. This almost acts like when you use Vicks where it clears out your sinuses because of the spicy nature of it. More natural without using medicine, this may be all you really need right about now. 😉

• In a large pot, add olive oil and red pepper flakes or your choice of heat for this dish. Heat to medium until the oil starts to sizzle. Stir in chopped leeks, softened garlic and cook for about 2 more minutes.
• Pour in chicken broth and your coconut milk. Add the soy sauce, ginger and frozen vegetables like peas like we did here (and frozen carrot bits works too).
• Dice precooked chicken, add that in to your pot. Stir contents.
  • When bubbling pour in your noodles.
  • Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes until veggies and noodles are tender to your liking.
• Taste, adjust seasonings if you think it needs a bit more.

Serve Spicy Noodle Soup with a lime wedge on the side with some rolls. It really is already a complete one pot meal but if you feel like you want something cool a side salad already is a good duo with everything. If you add anything else that turns out yummy let us know in the comments below so we can try too. 😉

How to Make Soup Less Spicy?

Ok so you thought it was perfect as you were testing and testing but your little one feels like her mouth is on fire. You can save dinner, I promise you. First off your best line of defense you already used, coconut milk. Just add more of that to her bowl until it is just right and not as hot.

More broth works too but will take a lot more and will likely mute the flavors vs. using just a bit of this. It is dairy free too which is a plus to those (like my husband) who are lactose intolerant but still adds creaminess. A bit of sugar or honey will do the trick too but may become too sweet in this case.

How to Save Leftover Soup

Can you freeze chicken noodle soup? If you “know me” you know that I hate wasting food and I’m not about to throw away something that could become a new meal the next day. To do this properly, wait until it cools down completely. I like small individual sealed containers so it’s portioned out and can be warmed the next day for lunch.