Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

Prep 20 min · Cook 40 min · Total 1 hr · 6 servings

The method that makes it taste like the real thing: poach the chicken in the broth, so the broth flavours the chicken and the chicken flavours the broth. Scale it, shop it, freeze the base (noodles fresh) for the next time someone in the house announces a cold.

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Ingredients

• 2 tbsp — olive oil
• 1 — large onion, diced
• 3 — carrots, sliced into coins
• 3 stalks — celery, sliced
• 3 cloves — garlic, minced
• 1 tsp — dried thyme
• 2 — bay leaves
• 1500 ml — chicken stock
• 500 g — chicken breast
• 150 g — egg noodles
• 100 g — frozen peas
• 1 tbsp — lemon juice
• 10 g — fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery with a pinch of salt and cook 8 minutes until softened at the edges.
2. Stir in the garlic and thyme for 30 seconds.
3. Pour in the stock, add the bay leaves, and bring to a gentle simmer.
4. Add the whole chicken breasts, cover, and poach at a bare simmer for 15 minutes. Do not boil — boiling turns both broth and chicken tough and cloudy.
5. Lift the chicken onto a board and shred it with two forks. Discard the bay leaves.
6. Bring the broth back to a simmer, add the egg noodles and cook 6–8 minutes until just tender.
7. Return the chicken with the peas and warm through for 2 minutes.
8. Take off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and parsley, taste for salt, and serve.

Substitutions

• Rotisserie shortcut? Skip the poaching: use a shredded rotisserie chicken, add it with the noodles, and use the best stock you can buy — the flavour has to come from somewhere.
• Gluten-free? Rice noodles (add for the last 4 minutes) or 150 g cooked rice stirred in at the end both work cleanly.
• Freezing it? Freeze the soup without noodles — they drink broth and go soft. Cook fresh noodles in the reheated soup for 6 minutes and it tastes made-today.
• Vegetarian version? Vegetable stock, two tins of white beans instead of chicken, and a parmesan rind simmered in the broth if you eat cheese.

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