Homemade Chicken Noodle Whole Chicken Soup

Whole Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Ok so we just recently shared how long to boil a whole chicken. Naturally that is going to get you thinking of your favorite childhood meal and how easy it would be to make that when the meat is done. It is!! I mean all you need beyond that first step are a few of your favorite vegetables like carrots, celery and onions and garlic is a must for us too.

You can leave as is or add a bit of a punch to transform it into a spicy chicken noodle soup recipe too. I mean…..YUM! With snow falling and the weather changing to cold cold cold now in the winter months, I am sure this will be a hit in your house too.

Ingredients

• Use a whole chicken, about 3-4 lbs is best
• Jarred or homemade roasted garlic
• Use an onion quartered for boiling
• 2 bay leaves
• Celery cut into large chunks for boiling
• Carrots peeled, cut into large chunks for the first step
• Chicken broth or half this and water
• Salt and pepper to taste for first and second steps
• 2 tsp oregano, fresh herbs are best but bottled works

Equipment Needed

Ok you’ll want a large stockpot. After meat is done you will want a large pot to pour the broth into with a colander to strain all the stuff out you don’t want in your soup. We have a few for this and when we brine our turkey that one works well for that too.

Variations

If you didn’t have or want to use a whole bird you could boil chicken breasts instead, about 4 of them will give you the same amount of meat you’ll want.

If you want to make it spicy add 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes with the noodles. For a creamy soup add 1.5 cup coconut milk in with noodles. Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve!

You don’t really have to add noodles and if you wanted a low carb version you could certainly leave them out. They are a must for us though, decide for yourself. If you cut up a raw turkey you could use those pieces separated instead.

You’ll also need some olive oil to soften the fresh vegetables going into your soup. You’re going to discard the first few that went in when boiling your bird, those are going to be too mushy.

How to Make Homemade Chicken Soup with Whole Chicken

1. Remove bag from cavity of whole chicken if there is one. Put into stockpot.
2. Fill with water so that the bird is covered.
3. Place on the stovetop and set burner to medium high heat.
4. Prepare onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks and throw those in with bay leaves and garlic. Just add 1 pinch of salt and pepper at this time. (will add more to taste later)
5. Cover the pot and wait until it reaches a steady boil. Adjust heat so boiling doesn’t stop but when covered it isn’t bubbling over at all.
6. Leave to boil for 1 1/2 hours for a 3 – 4 lb defrosted whole chicken.
   • Larger than 4 pounds, add an additional 15 minutes per pound.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Frozen Whole Chicken

For a frozen chicken you typically only need to add an additional 15 minutes on to the total cook time. Surprising, but true friends. 😉

• After the first half an hour to an hour open lid and use a large spoon to remove the yuck off the surface of your liquid, discard. Recover
• When timing is up check it by using tongs and grabbing the leg bone. If it lifts right out without any effort it is done.
• Turn burner off. Transfer bird, bones that have fallen off into the pot, meat in the pot, and put on to a cutting board to remove the chicken from all the bones.
• Use a slotted spoon to remove the vegetables, discard. Put a colander above a large pot in your sink and pour broth from soup pot in to remove any additional skin, bones, meat from the broth.
• Put pot of skimmed broth back on to the burner on medium heat. Cut remove shredded chicken off of carcass and put 1/2 of it back into the soup pot
  • that is usually enough, save the rest for leftover chicken recipes this week
• In a pan on your stove top add your olive oil, diced onion, dials of freshly cut carrots and fresh sliced celery. Saute until slightly softened. Add these veggies into the pot with chicken. Increase heat to medium high.
• Adjust amount of liquid now, add as much packaged chicken stock as you want now remembering that noodles need to be covered and submerged. Wait until broth is bubbling.
• Pour in uncooked noodles when liquid is at a steady rolling boil. At this time you could add 1 c. frozen peas if you want more veggies. Cook until as tender as you’d like.

What can I add to my chicken soup to give it flavor

We have given you a few suggestions above but I mean the options go on and on depending on your tastebuds. Typically we stick with the great tried and true when making our chicken soup from scratch but here are a few other choices;

1. When boiling noodles you can add a cup of frozen vegetables out of a bag if you want more.
2. Some like a squeeze of fresh lemon for a citrus flair.
3. Nutmeg is popular with others during the Fall months, we are not a huge fan of this choice.
4. Peeled and small cubes of potatoes can bulk up the dish at the end, boil until softened, then add noodles.

One we have enjoyed in the past has been shredded parmesan when served on the top, surprisingly a hit in our house. There are so many reasons why cooking from scratch using a whole chicken is great. Just a few are that you can ensure it is gluten free, uses organic meat if that is important to you and you can adjust the sodium content.

Whole Chicken Recipe

Of course you can always make this easier using rotisserie chicken left over or baked whole chicken at 350. With that you would skip the first step that takes the longest. Another way of shortening the process is to follow our Instant Pot chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken. If you buy in bulk you can cook from frozen easily this way.

How to save leftovers

No matter which one you choose to tackle to begin with you likely will have leftovers though right?? NO worries. You know how I hate wasting food so I have answered the question; Can you freeze chicken noodle soup for you here. There is a right and a wrong to do this so it reheats well. First off if you think you are going to only eat half, don’t add the noodles.

That is right, it saves much better without them. SO in this case you’d want to separate half of it into a cool pot and set aside. Boil and add noodles to what you’re going to eat then and there. Once your leftover half has cooled you’ll skim the fat off the top and follow the instructions in our post above.

It is super easy to do with any soup recipe you might have on hand with these little containers. They don’t cost a lot but make it easy to pop right out and freeze in bags for a later time. Saves for months if done properly and makes for a great homemade meal when you’re feeling yucky.

Now grab the bird you want at the store (we prefer cage free, organic – by far the best taste) and get started. The printable recipe card is right here below and easy to follow. If you find something that you like to add that we hadn’t thought of or mentioned let us know below!