Chicken Noodle Soup From Scratch With A Whole Chicken

This homemade chicken noodle soup from scratch recipe is not a quick recipe but it is very easy and is a game-changer in flavor. We use a whole chicken with egg noodles.

This recipe is for that Sunday that you want to have the incredible smell in the house with some deliciousness on the stovetop and you are not in a rush.

We are using a whole chicken and we are going to create our own chicken stock with it. With the combination of these two and a little bonus from the flavor of braising, you are going to get the flavor that will take this recipe to the next level.

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Homemade chicken noodle soup and broth

We are going to create a soup that you’re going to want to make every time you crave chicken noodles. The bonus of this recipe is you will have an extra chicken broth that you can use later for other dishes.

The broth that you are going to create makes this soup incredibly healthy for you! Learn what is the difference between broth and stock.

A twist in this recipe is the braising. I have thought long and hard about this and tested it and I think it is the best way to add flavor to the broth and infuse incredible flavor into the meat.

You can tell me after you make this soup if it’s not the best way to get flavor into the meat. If you’re looking for something different you need to try my grilled cheese and tomato soup recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 Whole Chicken
• 1 tbsp avocado oil
• 4 carrots
• 4 stalks of celery
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 2 white onions
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 8 oz egg noodles
• 12 cups water

Equipment

• cutting board
• chef knife
• braiser or frying pan
• pot

How to make chicken noodle soup from scratch with a whole chicken

1. Prepare the ingredients

It is really important in cooking to have all your ducks in a row and be ready with your ingredients so you can focus on cooking.

Wash the vegetables

You want to give your carrots and celery a good wash under cold water. Wash off any dirt that you can find. We are also trying to get off any pesticides or anything it could have gotten from the farm to your kitchen.

Make sure that your celery had not gone bad.

Peel the carrots

Take all the carrots and peel them. Some would not peel the carrots that are going into the broth but you are going to want to peel the carrots that go into the final soup anyway so I just do them all.

Rough chop the braise and stock veggies

The vegetables that go from the braising to the broth are eventually going to get tossed when you finish making the chicken broth. Now that the vegetables are all washed up and peeled go ahead and…

• Rough chop 2 carrots and 2 celery for the braise and stock. Chop them into 1/2″ to 1″ pieces.
• Crush 3 cloves of garlic using the side of your chef knife.
• Peel an onion and give it a rough chop.
• Put all the vegetables together in a bowl ready for the braise.

Fine chop the soup vegetables

The vegetables that are going into the soup need a more refined chop. You want them to be the same size so that they will cook the same.

• Cut the celery and carrots into pieces that are 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick.
• Peel and chop an onion into 1/4″ pieces.
• Give 3 cloves of garlic a fine chop.
• Take all the prepared veggies and put them in a bowl, cover them, and store them in the fridge for later.

Prepare the bird

Pat the bird down with paper towels to get the browning that you are looking for. Now, if you don’t want little bits of paper that come off the paper towel you can skip this step but the browning might not be the best. A wet bird won’t brown as well.

Just make sure that you do not wash the chicken in the sink. The days of washing your chicken are over even though your Mom still thinks it’s a good idea. This article will show you why.

Cut the skin joints

I like to take a knife and cut the skin at the joints of the bird. The reason for this is that it makes these parts of the chicken more limp more of the chicken can sit right on the bottom of the pan for browning.

2. Brown the whole chicken

Browning the chicken is FLAVOR! We are creating the Maillard reaction, which is a big reason most dishes have good taste.

You need to have a pot that will support browning a whole chicken. This is why I created this recipe with a smaller chicken that is about 4.5 lbs. A 6 qt. dutch oven works best for this but you can get away with a 4.5 qt. The benefit of the dutch oven is its ability to retain heat during the braising process.

Prepare the pan

Heat the pan on the stovetop with a medium heat. Dutch ovens really retain heat so sometimes low heat will be all you need. Add the oil to the dutch oven and watch it. At this point, you are trying to get it good and hot for browning. You do not want to burn the oil.

Brown the chicken on both sides

Now that the pan is hot and the chicken is ready to go add it to the pan with the breast side up. After it browns on this side go ahead and flip it so the breast side is down.

During this process it is really important to make sure that you do not burn the bottom of the pan. Those brown bits stuck to the pan are what’s going to bring flavor to the chicken noodle soup in the end.

After the top and bottom are browned as best as possible go ahead and pull the bird and put it to the side for a few minutes while you do the next step.

3. Saute the vegetables

Now we are going to saute the vegetables that are going to be part of the braising and broth.

Saute the onions & garlic

First, add the onions and garlic moving them around the pan. As soon as you get that smell of the garlic and onions coming through go ahead and add the tomato paste.

Cook the tomato paste

Work the tomato paste around the pan to brown it. It is important to cook it a bit but make sure not to burn it. If things are getting too hot at any point and you’re going to burn the fond at the bottom of the pan then add some water to the pan or pull the pan from the heat.

Saute the carrots and celery

Add the carrots and celery and saute them in the pan. Work them around the pan to brown them a bit without burning the garlic.

Deglaze the pan

Now that we have everything sauteed in the pan go ahead and add some water to deglaze the pan. We are talking a small amount of water, about a 1/4 cup, just enough to get all the brown bits off the bottom.

4. Braise the chicken

Now it’s time to braise the chicken. Take the whole chicken and add it back to the pan. You want to place it in the middle, breast side up. This way most of the dark meat will be close to the bottom of the pan and more concentrated in the liquid.

The entire reason to braise is to cook the chicken for the soup while also adding flavor from the low and slow cook and the browning of the chicken.

Add water 1/4 of the way up the chicken. You don’t want too much liquid but you want enough that bird can braise without the water totally evaporating.

Keep it at a low simmer that is just barely creating bubbles. Remember we are looking for low and slow.

Season the bird

Add a little salt and fresh cracked pepper over the bird and the vegetables. You don’t need to go crazy here, just enough to enhance the flavor. We will be seasoning the final chicken soup later.

Add the cover to the pot and let the bird cook on low. This is where the flavor is going to start to develop for this amazingly flavorful chicken noodle soup.

Remove the cooked chicken

After about 1.5 hours pull the chicken out of the pot. You are looking for a high temp in the chicken around 190 degrees or until the chicken breast is able to fall off the breast bone.

After a little bit of cooling go ahead and start stripping the chicken off of the bone. Cover it and store it in the fridge until you start making the soup.

Save the bones and the carcass! This is the main ingredient for the incredible chicken broth we are about to make.

5. Make the chicken broth

It is time to make the flavor for this soup. I am a huge fan of chicken broth and I love to use it in all kinds of dishes. The beauty of this chicken noodle recipe is that you will have plenty of broth that you can freeze and use another time.

Learn how to freeze your broth and freeze your soup with my comprehensive guide!

Combine everything from the pot that you braised the chicken in, into a stockpot, or if your pot is big enough you can use it for the stock. This should be all the liquid, vegetables, bones, and carcasses. Add water to the pot covering the top of the chicken carcass.

Bring it to a boil and then a rolling simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the impurity layer that you see on top. You can identify it as the white bubble collecting in areas.

Now create a very lower simmer for the next 3 to 4 hours. Make sure that the chicken broth has not gone bad.

Strain the broth

Now that the broth has simmered for hours it should have broken down the chicken and extracted as much flavor that it can.

Strain the entire pot with the finest strainer you have. You want something fine like a chinois strainer or possibly a cheesecloth after you have removed the majority of the bones in the pot.

6. Make the soup

I like to use my smaller Dutch oven for this soup recipe. You want a separate pot from the one you created the stock in.

• Put the pot on medium heat and add a very small amount of avocado oil.
• Saute the garlic and onion.
• After you get the aroma from the garlic and onion go ahead and add the carrots and celery.

Add the broth and chicken

Add the majority of broth to the pot that you are using to make the soup. I am able to save an additional 4 mason jars of broth for other recipes.

Add the chicken & water

Pull the chicken out of the fridge and cut it up into bite-size pieces. One thing to watch out for is cutting it up to small and having it disappear when you add it to the soup.

Add 4 cups of water and bring it to a boil, skimming off any more impurities before you taste and season the soup.

Taste & season

Stir the soup well and grab yourself a spoon. The big thing you are looking for is if it has enough salt. Salt plays a huge role in how much flavor you get from the soup.

Keep adding salt and tasting it until you find that it’s perfectly tasty. If you like pepper now is the time to add it. You can always add more salt and pepper to your soup when you eat it too.

Cook the egg noodles

Bring the water to a boil. After you get a rolling boil go ahead and add the noodles.

Don’t go overboard with the egg noodles. You want to use 8oz. If you use more they will take over the soup. If you find later that you would like more noodles for your leftovers they are easy enough to make and add to the soup.

You want a noodle that is cooked al dente. The noodles should have a little structure but, not mush. As the noodles sit in the soup they are going to continue to cook and get a little bit soggy so pull the soup off the heat before it’s too late.

7. Serve the soup

We have made it to the best part of this recipe, the final taste! It is going to be extremely hot and it should be seasoned just right.

You can always season it a bit more, also what goes really nice on this soup is some grated parmesan cheese!

Enjoy and let me know if you made this soup and your thoughts! If you want a great side look at what goes with chicken noodle soup.

Alternative pasta and rice comparisons for the soup

Type	Positives	Negatives
Egg Noodles	Holds up well in liquid Classic flavor and texture	Gets soggy in leftovers
Rice	Doesn’t get soggy Separates well in liquid	Not that classic texture
Spaghetti	Typically have on hand Kids associate with it	Gets soggy in leftovers Not a classic look
Ramen	Goes well in soup Something different	Not a classic Absorbs a lot of Liquid

Gluten-free noodle alternative

There are so many options today when it comes to gluten-free alternative pasta. Most of the big companies like Barilla are creating all kinds of choices.

Most of them are made of rice, soy, and corn. There are also some made from beans and lentils.

Personally, if you want to make a gluten-free chicken noodle soup I would use good old classic rice!