When the chilly weather hits, make a hot bowl of slow cooker chicken noodle soup! Each spoonful is packed with wholesome ingredients for a comforting meal.
We’ve all been there when the cold and flu season hits you feel like a walking zombie. I know all I want is a big steaming hot bowl of comforting soup. It’s one of those simple remedies that brings a little bit of warmth and relief when you’re not on the top of your game.
My little toddler James is constantly picking up various cooties from daycare, and inevitably mommy and daddy get sick too. This simple recipe was created out of pure necessity and survival mode to help stay nourished whenever you need it. It’s an easy slow cooker chicken noodle soup recipe that anyone can make no matter how under the weather you feel.
This slow cooker recipe is awesome because you literally just chop, dump and pour. Don’t worry about it looking magazine-ready. The point is to make a meal with little to no sweat. You really don’t need a recipe, just keep the same ratio of the key ingredients.
How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup in a Slow Cooker
- Equipment: This recipe makes a large batch of soup. I used a 6-quart Crock-Pot which was perfect. If you have a smaller unit, cut the recipe in half.
- Ratio: The basic ratio I use for the soup is 1 pound chicken: 4-5 cups vegetables: 8 cups liquid: 8 ounces noodles. You can add any vegetables like carrots, celery, onions, fennel, butternut squash, zucchini or corn to the soup.
- Chicken: You don’t want the chicken to get dried out, so on high heat, it takes about 3 1/2 hours to cook or 5 1/2 hours on low heat. Remove the chicken when it’s cooked through and cover with plastic wrap until ready to shred and add back to the soup. Leftover cooked shredded chicken also works great in this soup!
To add some layers of flavor to the soup, chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves slowly infuse into the cooking liquid. You can use chicken stock or broth, but I prefer stock because it adds more richness to the soup.
You have to trust me on this, when your nose is stuffed up and don’t want to leave the house you will be so happy that this soup is ready for you. I seriously made this soup twice in one week and have plenty of leftovers the next day to reheat and eat.
Who wants a bowl of chicken noodle soup? These tender egg noodles melt in your mouth with each delicious spoonful. My husband Jason and I almost always have second servings because it makes you feel so revitalized.
Skip the can and instead, make a huge pot of classic homemade chicken noodle soup! As the nights get a little cooler and you want to just cuddle up in a warm blanket, make sure you’ve got some of this soup ready. What’s your favorite soup to eat during the winter time? I’d love to hear your tasty traditions!
More Slow Cooker recipes
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #jessicagavin on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
How Do you Cook Pasta In a Slow Cooker?
To ensure your pasta is tender and not mushy, cook the pasta at the very end of cooking right before serving. I recommend cooking the pasta on the high setting. Depending on the size and shape of your noodle the time may vary. This slow cooker chicken noodle soup uses wide egg noodles and I’ve found 25 to 30 minutes to give a nice tender pasta. If you are using a different noodle check at 10 minutes, then every 10 minutes after that time to gauge the doneness of the noodles.
Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced (1/4-inch)
- 1 1/2 cups yellow onion, (1/2-inch dice)
- 1 cup celery, (1/4-inch pieces)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped (3/4 teaspoon dried)
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped (1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 8 cups unsalted chicken stock, or broth (64 ounces)
- 8 ounces wide egg noodles
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped
Instructions
- Add chicken, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and chicken stock to a slow cooker.
- Cover and cook for 3 1/2 hours on high setting, or 5 1/2 hours on low.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and transfer to a clean plate.
- Check to see that it is cooked through. Cover with plastic wrap to keep warm. Shred the chicken into smaller pieces right before serving.
- Add pasta to the slow cooker and cook on high setting for 25 to 30 minutes, or until pasta is tender.
- Taste the cooking liquid and season with more salt and pepper as needed.
- Add shredded chicken back to the slow cooker, cover and let cook for 5 minutes on high heat to re-warm.
Recipe Video
Notes
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I just started getting your recipes and appreciate the time and effort you and your husband put into publishing all the recipes and information. Do you recommend any particular brand of chicken stock to use in your recipes? Thank you.
Thank you so much for your support Lynn! I like Swanson unsalted chicken broth or stock, or for an organic brand Pacific is good. I use swanson for most of my cooking.
Lynn: Yes “SWANSONS” IS THE TOP OF THE LINE!, but you can make your own if you want to take the time as i did this weekend for my Sheltie and good for joints. As i said I would do “SWANSON’S” I would because I am lazy at 80 yrs young and work part time.. as for my Sheltie I will make my own broth because I put in all the veggies (with their tops) with neck bones (beef) (whole chicken)because she has arthritis and it helps. Just saying.
Jessica,
Just made a crock pot full of your chicken noodle soup! It is a cold rainy night here in St. Louis. The soup was perfect. And we have leftovers for the weekend. Keep you wonderful recipes coming!
Love,
Maggie (Katie’s sister in St. Louis)
I’m so glad that you had a warm and comforting soup to come home to Maggie! Enjoy your holiday week 🙂 If you are in town for christmas we should all go out for dinner!
Hey Jessica,
This recipe was one of our favorites so far. I used a wide egg noodle I got at Trader Joe and it was a fantastic addition as they tasted home made. We enjoyed it to the last drop.
Judy
I’ll definitely have to try the Trader Joe’s noodles! Thank you for trying the recipe, so happy to hear you like it!
Hello ,
Do you cook the egg noodles in a pan and then add them to the crock pot or just put the whole ag in the crock pot and the crock pot will cook the noodles??
Hi Lora! I cook the noodles in the crockpot until tender 🙂
I am wondering if the noodles get mushy if leftover soup is served the next day.
Hi Sue- Great question! I use the large wide egg noodles, so it may soften a little but I never felt that they got mushy. If you are preparing the day before perhaps go to al dente or just a little less cooked so the next day when reheating it will be perfect. Or you can cook the noodles fresh the day of eating.
Can this be frozen? Would love to stock up my freezer ❤️
I think you could definitely portion out the soup once cooled and freeze them for eating later!
Im on my way to store to grab some stuff for week and the ingredients for this. I actually made my own soup witch turned out awesome a few weeks ago. My whole house was sick. And it was so comforting! Now my mom is at home alone, sick with the same thing. I feel her pain and want to make her something that wont take as long as mine did. Something to make her feel loved and help speed up her recovery. (I swear chicken noodle soup helps make you better!) So I’ll be throwing all the stuff in in about an hr. Looking forward to trying it. I will keep you posted on how it turns out. Ty for a quicker easy recipe!
-Shelby in Mi.
Hi Jessica,
What is the serving size? 1-1/2 cups?
Hi Kevin- About 1 1/2 cups is the serving size.
Hi – I have tried many other chicken noodle soup recipes and was always disappointed. Then I found yours and now it’s my go-to for perfect chicken noodle soup. I have made it many times this fall/winter.
I have swapped out rosemary for oregano and I have made it with rosemary. Either way it’s great!
Thank you for such an easy recipe for a much-loved comfort food!
I’m so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the recipe Kurt! It’s always good to have a chicken noodle soup recipe whenever you need it!
Can u use gluten free noodles in this recipe? If so do I need to do anything different to prepare the noodles?
Hi Joey- Yes, you can definitely use gluten free noodles. I would just check at 20 minutes to see if the noodles are tender, sometimes gluten free pasta cooks faster than wheat.
Yeah!! I know sometimes the GF pasta we use boils over out of pan, I have no idea how it will do in a slow cooker. Thanks gonna try this soon!!
Great base recipe!! The ratios ARE perfect! I am really into crock pot cooking these days and lower food bills. Too much waste! So this recipe is our go to formula for all sorts of cleaning out the fridge and using left overs cooking hocus pocus lol.
Thanks Jessica! Our family loves soup and this recipe was so easy and so yummy! My kids just loved it and so we ate it for lunch and dinner. I actually used precooked sliced herbed chicken from Trader Joe’s. 😉
You’re welcome Christine! That’s so great that it was a family hit, so important! I often feel like I’m cooking three separate meals to make everyone happy, ha! Great idea with using TJ chicken.
Can you use any different types of noodle or orzo…my wife does not like egg noodles
Yes, you can use different noodles but the cook times may be different.
LOVE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP, THANK YOU..
Hi,
I’m looking at making this recipe to bring to work for our break. Would I be able to keep the slow cooker on the “warm” setting and not have to worry about overcooking the soup or completely destroying the egg noodles? It’d be on warm for about 4-5 hours
Hi Brandon- The warm setting can range between 165-175ºF, which will keep the food nice and warm. However I think the chicken may be ok, but the noodles may get mushy after 4-5 hours. Perhaps you could add that in later, or cook some and store in a plastic bag and add it in to rewarm an hour or so before serving?
We were expecting lots of snow, which we got, so I thought a good chicken noodle soup. I would be really good. One of those that made your nose run, in a good way. I think I would add a few more spices though, maybe oregano or sage. It was real simple to make and heart warming on a cold snowy day.
Adding in some more spices like oregano and sage would be delicious for the chicken noodle soup, thanks for making the recipe!