This classic soup will make you feel amazing!
Our chicken noodle soup recipe puts a healthy spin on an American classic. This soup is great for when you are feeling under the weather or when you just have a craving for warm comfort food.
Serve it alone or with sides, like chewy whole grain bread or a leafy green salad. You can even bake up some kale chips or sweet potato crunchies if you like your soup accompanied by a crunch.
Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup celery sliced
- 4 carrots sliced
- 1 onion small, diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 2" pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes crushed, more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoon thyme dried
- 1 teaspoon oregano dried
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 cups chicken broth low-sodium and fat free preferred
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti broken into small pieces
- 1/4 cup Italian parsley fresh chopped to serve
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice fresh-squeezed to taste
Instructions
- Add the vegetables and garlic to the bottom of the slow cooker, and the chicken on top, sprinkle in the thyme, oregano, chili flakes, and salt and pepper. Pour in the stock and add in the bay leaf. Cook for 6-8 hours on low in the slow cooker, or until carrots are tender. If necessary, skim off any foam that has floated to the top of the soup and discard.
- Around 15 minutes before ready to serve, cook the broken up pasta separately on the stovetop according to package directions and drain. Stir in the noodles and chopped parsley just before serving. Then stir in one tablespoon of the lemon juice last. Taste and add in more lemon juice, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition Information
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Exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you.
You are so welcome!
This is an all time fav in my house anytime of the year, great comfort food.
Great! Thanks.
This was my first time making chicken soup in the crock pot. Boy, was I impressed!!! My family loved it.I use many of your recipes. Thank you. This will be made again and again.
Neds, Ahhhhhh….thank-you so much!!! We love what we do! 🙂
this sounds sooo good…wish u would fix the PIN BUTTON please ..would love to save this recipe that way…thx and thx for the yumtastic recipes.
Thank you. The pin it button works, what happens when you try to use it? Are you coming to the site via a Facebook app? What device are you using? These details will assist in correcting the issue. Thank you.
crock pot new-be here — should the chicken be thawed or frozen?
Always thawed!
I made this last night for dinner. I am so glad that I planned it for yesterday because it turned out to be chilly, windy and pouring rain (with flash flooding). It was the perfect thing to feed my family!
I used boneless chicken breasts and thighs. It was a bit time consuming cutting off those bits of fat that are left on the thighs and other than that it came together pretty quick.
I did add another 4 cups of chicken broth as I thought once I added the noodles later it would not be brothy enough. That turned to be the right decision.
I stirred it after several hours in the slow cooker and I noticed little bits of chicken all throughout the broth. It didn’t turn out to be a problem other than visually I didn’t care for that aspect. I cut the pieces into about 1″ pieces and the 1″ pieces stayed intact, but there were little bits all throughout the soup. If anyone has any suggestions what happened there and how to avoid that I would appreciate it. I wanted a “clean”, clear looking broth.
The biggest thing that went wrong was the noodles. The recipe states to add them one hour before ready to serve. I did so and ran an errand. While I was gone the slow cooker turned to warm. When I came home and ladled the soup out, the noodles were complete MUSH! They were jelled like clumps of mush 🙁 My family were troopers about it and either grinned and bear it or picked around the noodles. Later, as I was putting the leftovers in the fridge I took a fork and pulled out all the noodles, it filled a cereal bowl full of jelly-like noodles.
I will be making the recipe again because it WAS good, however will be more careful about when to add the noodles.
Darlene, I recommend using larger (uncooked) pieces of chicken…about 1 1/2″ cubes. Also, try adding the noodles the last 15 minutes of cooking time.
This is my second time making this… man, this is the best winter recipe ever! I loaded up on the garlic this time (my boyfriend and I have both been sick this week), throw the noodles in the last 15 minutes, and add a ton of mixed greens at the very end… amazing. So good. Thank you!
I tried this recipe today and it was excellent! When I entered the ingredients into the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder the Points Plus were 8 rather than the 3 indicated above.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Lynne, You’re welcome! We’ll recheck the points. Thanks!
Ok I am putting this in the crockpot now. Can I put it on med. to make it cook quicker?
Gina, Yes, it will just take less time.
Very yummy! However, I agree with Lynne above. The points/serving size are not jiving. I only added 3 oz of spaghetti and my points totaled 36. Divide by 6 servings and 6 pts each. However, my serving sizes were 2 cups, so mine would have made12 servings at your size w/less spaghetti. Again, it was yummy, but please check the points again. Thanks!!
Laura, Just recalculated the points and got the same #’s.
I'm sorry — can you clarify? Did you get the same as my #s or the same as in the recipe box above? If so, I still don't know how you figured out 3 pts/cup at 6 servings. Sorry to be a pain!
Laura, No problem! The #’s I got after redoing the data are in the recipe box. Thanks!
can I cook this in the crockpot on high? how long would it take??? thanks trying to make it tonight for my boyfriend and I since were sick!
Trying this out as I type! Since i'm stationed in Guam there isn't a whole lot of American comfort food. I cant wait to have this for dinner with a grilled cheese!
Can I use a different type of noodle for this? I only have whole wheat swirl pasta. If so, how long would I need to put it in for?
Carmen, Boil the swirl pasta separately, drain, and add it at the very end before serving.
Hi can i make the soup with leftover rotisserie if i add the chicken after the vegetables are fork tender? Any other adjustments needed if i don't use raw chicken?
Nat, Yes you can add precooked chicken at the end and no other adjustments are needed:).
Is the fiber correct? The whole wheat pasta I buy has 5 g fiber per serving
Yes, you're not having a whole serving of whole wheat pasta in a serving of soup.
I made this today and as I'm looking at it in the crock pot it appears to have a weird 'curdled' substance all through the broth. I did not use fat free broth but otherwise followed the recipe. All ingredients were fresh and bought this morning. Any thoughts?
Mon, I would say that curdling you mention could be from fat or starch. The noodles(starch) should be added last as the directions outline. The chicken is skinless, so there shouldn't be too much fat. Skim the top of the soup with the side of the spoon and wait for the recipe to complete cooking. Stir the soup.
How can you convert this recipe to Stove top?
Stephanie, The simplest way to do it would be to sauté all of the vegetables in the bottom of the soup pot over medium heat in one tablespoon olive oil for about 8 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Then add everything besides the noodles, and double the liquid that you would have used for a slow cooker. Allow to simmer over medium low heat for about 45 minutes, or until veggies are tender. If you added chicken in whole pieces and not in bite-sized chunks, remove it after half an hour and allow to cool to shred, and add back to pot. Cook pasta according to package directions separately and add in last 5 minutes of cook time.
Can I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat? I don’t like cooking with whole wheat pasta…thanks!
Jill, Have you tried quinoa pasta or the Barilla Plus (protein rich) pasta? These are great alternatives that don’t have the tannic, wheat taste.
I made the soup today! It is delicious and healthy… but the chicken is really dry and overcooked!
I cooked it on low for 5 hours + added the uncooked noodles in for 1 additional hour = 6 hours.
I figured the chicken shouldn’t be overcooked if I used the bare minimum time recommended. Did I do something wrong?
Samantha, Try using thighs instead of breasts. Dark meat doesn’t dry out like breasts. Also, since all slow cookers tend to cooking a little differently, you could try cooking 4 hours before adding the noodles. 🙂
Do you happen to know the calorie count without the noodles?
Abby, We recalulted the data and without the noodles the calorie count is approximately 226 calories.
New to crock pot and slow cooking. how much water do you add?
No need to add water for this recipe! The chicken broth is used as the liquid in this soup.
I live alone and halfed the recipe. However, it’s still a lot. Do you know if this freezes well? Can the Soup be cooked on high say the last two hours? (Want to get to bed before midnight! 😉 )
Lynette, You can freeze this recipe and many other soups, stews, and chili recipes. Allow the soup to cool before adding to freezer safe containers. I use quart jars but be sure to fill no more than 3/4 full. 🙂
Does using regular Presley instead of Italian parsley make a difference
No, either type of parsley will work great!
Does it matter if I use regular parsley instead of Italian parsley?
Either type of parsley will work great!