Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup with Egg Noodles

This crockpot chicken noodle soup with egg noodles starts with raw chicken thighs or breasts, carrots, celery, onion and thyme cooked all day in broth, with the wide egg noodles going in at the very end.

Cooking the chicken in the broth instead of stirring in cooked chicken later is what makes the difference, because the meat seasons the broth as it goes and then shreds into soft pieces that soak it back up.

The noodles cook in the soup for the last stretch on high, so they come out tender but still hold their shape instead of swelling into a starchy mass the way they do when they sit in there for hours.

It takes about 6 and a half hours on low from loading the slow cooker to ladling it out, and nearly all of that is with the lid on.

Why You’ll Love It

• Raw chicken goes in, so the broth tastes like chicken rather than like the carton
• Wide egg noodles cook in the pot for 20 to 30 minutes, with no second saucepan
• 15 minutes of chopping, then the slow cooker does the rest
• Makes 8 bowls, about 12 cups, from a 6-quart slow cooker
• Works with boneless thighs or breasts
• Freezes well if you hold back the noodles

Ingredients

For the Soup

1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, left whole

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 1 1/2 cups)

3 celery stalks, sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 1 1/4 cups)

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

8 cups low-sodium chicken broth

For Finishing

8 oz wide egg noodles (about 4 cups dry)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)

Steps

1. Cut the carrots, celery and onion with an 8-inch chef’s knife and put them in a 6-quart programmable slow cooker with the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper.

2. Lay the chicken on top of the vegetables in a single layer, then pour in the broth, which should cover everything by at least an inch.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours, until the chicken reads at least 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer and pulls apart easily with a fork.

4. Lift the chicken out onto a cutting board, shred it with two forks into bite-size pieces, and cover it loosely with foil so it does not dry out while the noodles cook.

5. Fish out the bay leaves, turn the slow cooker to high, stir in the egg noodles and press them under the broth, then cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until a noodle from the middle of the pot is tender all the way through.

6. Check at the 20-minute mark, because once the noodles are done they keep softening in the hot broth, and 10 extra minutes is the difference between tender and falling apart.

7. Stir the shredded chicken back in with the parsley and lemon juice, then taste and add salt in 1/4-teaspoon steps, since low-sodium broth needs more than you expect.

8. Serve with a stainless steel ladle within 15 minutes of the noodles finishing, because they keep drinking up broth while the pot sits on warm.

Helpful Tips & Substitutions

Thighs stay juicy through the full 6 hours and are fine up to 7, while breasts are done at 165°F (74°C) and start to turn stringy past 6 hours on low, so if you are using breasts do not stretch the cook time.

Buy wide egg noodles, not fine or extra-wide, because fine egg noodles are cooked in 10 minutes and turn to mush at 20, and the thick frozen homestyle noodles need 35 to 40 minutes and a lot more broth.

If you know you will have leftovers, cook the 8 oz of noodles separately in salted boiling water for 6 to 7 minutes, drain them, and add a handful to each bowl, because noodles stored in the soup keep absorbing broth overnight.

Do not put frozen chicken in the slow cooker, since it spends too long between 40°F and 140°F (4°C and 60°C) before it cooks through, so thaw it in the fridge the night before.

Rotisserie chicken works if you cook the vegetables in the broth on low for 4 hours, then add 3 cups of shredded meat along with the noodles, and stir in 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon paste to make up for the flavor the raw chicken would have given the broth.

The lemon juice does not make the soup taste of lemon, it just sharpens the broth, and a tablespoon is enough for the whole pot.

If you used breasts and the broth tastes thin, stir in 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter at the end, which adds the richness that thighs would have provided.

One teaspoon of salt at the start is deliberately low, because the broth reduces a little and the noodles need salt too, so expect to add another 1/2 to 1 teaspoon at the end.

A tablespoon of fresh thyme can replace the dried, and dried rosemary or a pinch of turmeric for color are the only other seasonings this soup needs.

Serving Ideas

Saltines or buttered toast are the standard, and a grilled cheese cut into strips for dipping turns it into a full dinner.

Grate a little Parmesan over each bowl if you want more body without adding cream.

When you want chicken noodle soup tonight rather than six hours from now, the stovetop Classic Chicken Noodle Soup with Fresh Herbs is the companion recipe to this one.

For other soups that run all day in the same slow cooker, the Crockpot Chicken and Dumpling Soup swaps the noodles for drop dumplings and the Crockpot Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Stew is the thicker, creamier version of the same base.

Leftover shredded chicken from the pot, pulled out before the noodles go in, makes a good chicken salad with mayo, celery and the leftover parsley.

Make-Ahead & Storage

Chop the carrots, celery, onion and garlic the night before and keep them in one container in the fridge, so the morning job is dumping them in with the chicken and broth.

Leftovers keep for 4 days in the fridge in soup containers with lids, and the soup will be noticeably thicker on day two because the noodles keep absorbing broth.

Reheat it in a saucepan over medium-low heat with about 1/2 cup of broth or water per 2 cups of soup until steaming, or microwave a bowl for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring once.

To freeze, stop after step 4, let the soup cool, and freeze the broth, vegetables and chicken without noodles for up to 3 months in a silicone soup freezer tray or quart freezer bags laid flat.

Thaw it overnight in the fridge, bring it to a simmer on the stove, and add freshly cooked noodles, because egg noodles that have been frozen in soup come out soft and grainy.

Cool the soup to room temperature within 2 hours before it goes in the fridge or freezer, and spread it across two shallow containers if the pot is still hot, since a deep container of hot soup takes hours to cool through.

The broth is the part that gets better overnight and the noodles are the part that gets worse, which is why leftovers taste best when the two are stored apart.