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This Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup is hearty and comforting, yet incredibly easy to make! No need for a can of soup, homemade is the best!
Is there anything more comforting than a big bowl of hearty soup? There’s something so natural about it, and it brings you right back to childhood.
If the only chicken noodle soup you’ve ever had is a can of good ol’ Campbells, then simply put… you NEED to try a homemade version! The flavor is so rich, so complex, and it’s incredibly easy to make at home.
Normally I think of chicken noodle soup as “sick food”… something you eat when you’re under the weather. And don’t get me wrong, this easy crockpot chicken noodle soup recipe is FABULOUS for that, but it’s also fantastic on a night when you’re looking for some comfort food. Paired with a green salad, it’s a great light meal as well!
I love cooking soups in the slow cooker because it adds great flavor plus I love coming home to dinner ready to go. If you’re in a rush, I make an amazing stove top Chicken Noodle Soup in about 20 minutes too!
IS CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP REALLY GOOD FOR YOU?
It depends on the ingredients you use to make the soup, and when you use quality ingredients, yes! Plus the soups steam warms you and eases any congestion, and the warm brothy soup helps ease a sore throat. There’s a reason it’s the universal soup for when you’re under the weather!
I also like to buy reduced sodium chicken broth, so I can control the amount of salt in the dish.
If you’re wondering what are the best noodles for chicken noodle soup, I prefer to use wide egg noodles. They tend to keep their shape and texture in soup compared to other types of noodles.
Some people make crockpot chicken noodle soup with rotisserie chicken, but this slow cooker chicken noodle soup makes it so easy to use fresh chicken. After a long, hard day, a big bowl of this soup is the cure!
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHICKEN BROTH AND CHICKEN STOCK?
Is there a difference between broth and stock? Yes, there is! Traditionally, chicken broth is made from simmering meat, whereas chicken stock is made from simmering bones. Chicken stock has a richer flavor, due to the gelatin released from the bones as they cook, and broth is much lighter, in color and mouth feel. Since crockpot chicken and noodle soup is traditionally a brothy soup, with a relatively “clear” broth, I always use chicken broth instead of stock, but you can use whatever you prefer or have on hand.
CROCKPOT SOUP RECIPES AND IDEAS TO ENJOY
- Crock Pot Ham and Bean Soup
- CrockPot Lasagna Soup
- Crock Pot Cabbage Roll Soup
- Slow Cooker Cajun Bean Turkey Soup Recipe
WHAT HERBS ARE USED IN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP?
In this, the best crockpot chicken noodle soup, I’ve used dried rosemary and thyme, with some fresh minced parsley as a garnish. Some dried tarragon, or using fresh herbs would be great additions and substitutions as well. While not exactly herbs, we’ve also used the classic “mirepoix” or “holy trinity” of diced onions, carrots and celery. These vegetables are used very frequently to start off just about any soup by adding amazing flavor and aromas.
Looking for more fantastic soup recipes? Try my Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana, and hearty Slow Cooker Minestrone!
Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 3 large carrots peeled and sliced into coins
- 2 ribs celery sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced, more to taste
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 bay leaf optional
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon I use Better Than Bouillon brand, optional
- 8 to 9 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 8 ounces egg noodles wide or extra wide
- chopped fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- To the bottom of a 6 quart or larger slow cooker, add trimmed chicken breasts. Top with onion, carrots, celery, garlic, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt and pepper, and bay leaf (if using).
- Dollop chicken base over the top, then pour in chicken broth. Gently stir to combine. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or HIGH for 3-4 hours.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker to a large mixing bowl. Shred chicken. Discard bay leaf (if using), and return shredded chicken back to slow cooker.
- Cook egg noodles al dente according to package directions.
- Add egg noodles to soup and cook on LOW for 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
- Serve garnished with minced fresh parsley and a sprinkle of black pepper.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Lunch, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Repin this Crockpot Soup Recipe
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Hi! Maybe a stupid question, but is the chicken cooked before adding to the crock pot? Thanks!
I think that’s a great question! The chicken is added uncooked. Enjoy the soup Emily!
Oh good thank you!
Looks good
Made today. Lots of recipes to choose from but this one appealed to me the most. Turned out great! Recipe is a keeper! Thanks!
You’re welcome Daniel! So glad you love the soup!
Looking for good healthy recipes
I am excited to have a good place to get crockpot recipes
My first time making homemade chicken noodle soup. Personally way too much onion. A quarter onion at most. And needed more salt and chicken flavor. When I shredded my chicken I skimmed a bunch of onion, added more salt and another chicken flavor packet. I added matzah balls to the soup add used the soup packet from there (which adds a fair amount of salt as well) and it came out just like the deli chicken noodle matzah soups of my childhood. This is a great easy recipe to start with and then tweak to personal taste. Thank you!
I’m sure everyone says this but I am seriously not one to leave comments or reviews on people’s posts, I just thought I had to since I was expecting this to be much, much different than how it turned out and honestly it could be users error, I’m not sure.
I turned my crock pot on at 10 AM, chopped an onion, celery, and carrots – mind you the carrots I had were baby carrots so I decided to just chop those up. After 6 hours in the crock pot I figured I’d shred the chicken now then throw it back in and let it continue cooking for another hour. I was so disappointed when I went to check to realize all of the veggies were still very hard and didn’t seem cooked at all. It’s going on 10 hours now and they still do not seem cooked. Trust me, I don’t want them mushy but they still have that serious raw crunch of uncooked vegetables. What did I do wrong? Has anyone else reported having this problem?
On another note, the flavor is delicious, but I will definitely use less onion next time there seems to be way too much onion compared to other veggies.
Andrew, thank you for your comment. I can’t say for sure what went wrong as this has not happened to me. It sounds like maybe your crock pot may not be heating to temperature, as I’d expect for sure that the veggies would be cooked after the listed time. And the onion flavor would definitely be stronger if they weren’t as well cooked (similar to the less cooked carrots). You could test your slow cooker to see how the temperature is on it. Hope that helps.
Personally when I make something like this I usually throw the vegetables in a few hours prior to the chicken because the chicken will cook pretty fast in comparison of the vegetables and it gives them some time to cook on their own so that you don’t experience this
I made the chicken noodle soup yesterday but I used no salt broth and one low sodium broth and it just didn’t have any really flavor to it. I didn’t put the celery in but everything else is the same thing that’s in the recipe. Do you think that that made the difference in the taste.?
Yes, the no salt broth has very little flavor, this will change the taste of the soup.
I had tried this recipe alot of it didnt make sense one cup of noodle was not enough. I did this step by step it was nasty. Rated 0
Which part didn’t make sense to you Krista? You can certainly add more noodles if you’d like.
For chicken flavor I added two cubes Knorr bouillon which does two things. It satisfies any salt the recipe needs and acts as a thickener. I especially like it for chicken piccata- makes the lemon sauce thick.
Loved this! Made exactly as the recipe said. It’s the perfect weekend lunch for my family especially now as the weather is finally getting
colder where we live.
This sounds amazing!! I was wondering, though, if I were to make your homemade egg noodles, when would I put them in and how much should I put in?
If making the homemade egg noodles, I would suggest cooking them separately as directed in the recipe. To serve, place the egg noodles in the bowl and top with the rest of the soup.
Love it, it turned out awesome! Thank you for sharing :)
If I cut the recipe in half for a smaller crock pot, should I also reduce the cooking time?
The cook time will remain the same.
Soup came out good! Everyone has a different flavor palette and I can understand that some people would not find this as good as others. I however thought it was great. Added
a few extra spices and did bow tie pasta instead of egg noodles. Maybe we can find some compassion in the world and not attack people for sharing recipes on the Internet. Geez!!! Thank you again!
Thank you Gypsy, so happy you love this soup! You’re right, it’s very easy to change it up or adapt to your tastes!
Could this recipe be cut in half for a 3-qt crockpot?
Yes, that should work just fine.
Wish I could upload a picture! Made this and it was a hit! Some people added some more salt/pepper! But it was good without, next time I am going to add basil because someone added some after and it made it even better! Still a great soup & super easy for my first time using crock pot.
So glad you loved it Sabrina! If you have a photo on Instagram be sure to tag @spendpennies so we can check it out.
This soup was irredeemably bad. My kids normally love chicken noodle soup. They didn’t just dislike this, they literally said, “I hate this.” I thought they were just being picky, but they were right. So little flavour, not enough chicken, too many noodles, etc. I could keep going, but I’ll just end by saying I dumped the leftovers. Hate wasting food like that.
This is usually a high-rated recipe with our readers. Sorry your family didn’t like it, Conrad!
Hi Conrad, I think you may have read the recipe wrong and left out some of the ingredients? Myself and everyone else here found it very favorable!
I’m going to try adding the fresh basil, that someone in here recommended next time!
It’s good! Only thing (to each their own) is there is way too much onion. Next time I will probably use about a quarter of the amount of onion with more celery and more carrot. I didn’t have garlic either so I used garlic paste. I think that was a mistake! Other than that it is nice and comforting!
BEST Chicken Noodle Soup!!!
I did not make not one change at all to the receipe and I have a very picky family and they loved it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Very nice soup, good rich flavor.
I have been making this soup for over a year now and I LOVE IT. I don’t use celery or egg noodles as I always forget to buy it. I also use half vegetable broth rather than all chicken broth as it’s a teensy bit healthier and tastes just as good for my family. I also add some frozen peas towards the end of cooking as an extra veggie and some extra seasoning in there. I know what you’re thinking “she changed everything!” Sure, maybe I did but THIS recipe is a wonderful base recipe and I am SO grateful for it. It’s cost effective, leftovers last a week and it’s delicious and healthy! Thank you!!
I think those changes sound delicious Elise! Thanks for sharing them :)