The Best Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

• servings: 8 servings
• active time: 15 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 medium yellow onion ($0.99)

3 garlic cloves ($0.12)

4 carrots ($0.65)

2 ribs celery ($0.70)

1 Tbsp fresh parsley ($0.08)

2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.38)

1 tsp dried basil ($0.25)

½ tsp dried thyme ($0.24)

1 bay leaf ($0.12)

¼ tsp black pepper (freshly cracked, $0.02)

1-3 tsp salt (divided, $0.02)

2 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless $6.21*)

8 cups chicken broth ($0.72**)

6 oz. egg noodles (uncooked, $0.61)

Directions

Gather your ingredients.

Prep

Dice onion, mince garlic, peel and dice carrots, dice celery, and mince the fresh parsley. Set the parsley aside.

Saute

Add olive oil, onion, carrots, and celery to a large soup pot and cook on medium heat until vegetables have softened, about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine

Add the minced garlic, dried basil, dried thyme, bay leaf, black pepper, and 1 tsp salt to the pot. Stir and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Cover

Add chicken breasts to pot and cover with the chicken broth.

Simmer

Cover the pot with a lid, bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour. Make sure the pot continues to simmer for the whole hour. If the heat is turned down too low and it is not bubbling away, the chicken will not shred easily.

Shred

After an hour of simmering, remove the chicken from the pot. Using two forks, pull the meat and shred it. Taste the broth and season with additional salt, if needed. Begin with one teaspoon and add more to your liking. I didn't need to add much salt because there’s already plenty in the bouillon I used to make the broth.

Cook

Add the egg noodles to the pot, turn the heat up to high, and boil the noodles until tender (about 7 minutes). Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Taste and season again with salt if needed (I didn’t need to).

Serve

Finish with fresh parsley and serve hot!

Nutrition

• Calories: 213 kcal
• Total Fat: 7 g
• Sodium: 1263 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 21 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2 g
• Protein: 17 g