Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
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So hearty, comforting and soothing (and so easy!). Perfect during the cold weather or fighting off a cold!
Featured Comment
why i love this recipe
- Hands-off cooking
- Big batch soup recipe, great for freezing and planning ahead
- Warm hug-in-a-bowl
- Slurping up all the spaghetti noodles
chicken stock versus chicken broth
Chicken stock
Chicken stock is lower sodium and thicker than broth, and is made from bones and vegetables.
Chicken broth
Chicken broth is made from meat and vegetables. Store-bought broth is often times saltier than store-bought stock.
tips and tricks for success
- Use the right size crockpot. A 6-qt slow cooker is ideal for this recipe. For a smaller slow cooker, simply half the recipe with the same cook time.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your soup. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety. Homemade stock is even better.
- Let the noodles cook with the soup. The pasta does not have to be pre-cooked prior to adding to the slow cooker. The beauty of this recipe is its ease – no extra pot needed here. Go ahead and throw in your uncooked, broken spaghetti noodles, letting it infuse all the lovely flavors.
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice. Lemon juice will elevate your chicken noodle soup, adding a fresh, bright flavor and balancing out all the saltiness and richness of the soup.
pro tip
Avoid overcooking your chicken noodle soup.
Even with its gentle heat feature, you can overcook chicken noodle soup in the slow cooker. The chicken will dry out, and the vegetables will turn to mush. Do not leave the slow cooker on longer than necessary.
what to serve with chicken noodle soup
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt slow cooker
Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, there is a ton of flavor in the skin but this will also yield a little more grease and fat into the soup, yielding a more rich soup.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
Don’t have any spaghetti noodles on hand? Wide egg noodles or rotini would both work very well in this recipe!
Here is our favorite homestyle chicken noodle soup recipe made on the stovetop.
100%! This is also another one of our favorites made so easily (and quickly) in the IP.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the noodles (or else they will get mushy) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding freshly cooked noodles when serving.
Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 ribs celery, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 ounces spaghetti, broken into thirds
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Equipment
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Place chicken into a 6-qt slow cooker.
- Stir in chicken stock, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.
- Remove chicken from the slow cooker and shred, using two forks.
- Stir in pasta and chicken into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for an additional 30-40 minutes, or until pasta is tender.
- Stir in lemon juice and parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
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Absolutely the best chicken noodle soup I have ever made! I would have never thought to use broken spaghetti in this, but it is perfect and doesn’t get mushy! I found “thick” spaghetti and used that – will not use a full 8oz next time, though, because it was too much and had to add about three more cups of chicken broth to balance – will use maybe 5oz of pasta. I cut my cooked chicken into large chunks instead of shredding, personal preference. Absolutely wonderful! Was worried the lemon juice would make it too lemony, but no – just made the flavor brighter. Try this, you will not regret it.
Awesome! Thank you, Kimberley!
What if we wanted to use different noodles like egg noodles like a traditional chicken noodle soup?
What a great idea!
I’m sure this soup tastes delicious. All of your recipes that I have tried have been an absolute success!
It’s really yummy – we hope you try it!
i made this and it was YUMMO!! so good and not super heavy!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi!
Do you cook the pasta before putting it in the slow cooker? Or do you put it in uncooked?
Uncooked – the pasta cooks in the slow cooker. 🙂
This recipe is absolutely AMAZING. I was looking for a chicken soup recipe that was
“different” and this fit the bill. My goodness, I could bathe in this (tho I promise I won’t) Thank you for posting this.
Great soup for whole family. I made the mistake of thinking this was for in instant pot so after checking similar recipes I came up with these time and adjustments and it came out great.
Sautéed onion and garlic then added chicken and slightly browned on both sides. Add all ingredients except celery, carrots and spaghetti (yes I added the lemon and parsley too because we’ve already established I don’t read directions closely). Pressure cook on high fever r 15 minutes and quick release. Add carrots, celery and spaghetti and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes then quick release . Came out perfect.
This was a delicious recipe!! Of course I did change it up a bit. I wanted more veggies for my husband because he hasn’t been feeling well. I increased carrots to 4 and celery to 5. I also used spaetzle egg noodles instead of spaghetti (I weighed them to equal 8 ounces as noted above.) We were out of dried rosemary, so I threw in a sprig of fresh. Thank you so much for a great and easy recipe!! Makes eating clean EASY and YUMMY!
I wasn’t paying attention (sick 2 year old) & our everything in all at once. Did I screw it up? I’m kicking myself so much right now.
The spaghetti may get overcooked! 🙁
This was my first time making soup. This recipe is delicious and easy to follow. My family loved it!
your site is my go-to recipe book when I need to find a good recipe quick and I know it’s going to be good.
Thank you for sharing!
I don’t have chicken stock can water be used with added salt instead? I’d rather have the stock made while the soup is cooking.
If someone else asked this question before me I was not able to find it as there were alot of comments.
Yes, you can certainly substitute water but I find that this is truly best when chicken stock is used.
All the comments on here are either people that are arguing or people that say they made your recipe but altered every ingredient. You and your staff are very patient. Lol. “I made your chicken noodle soup but i didnt have chicken so i used tomatoes and added beans because i didnt have noodles.” I am laughing here.
I followed recipe exactly and it looked and tasted great, but after I added the noodles and cooked an additional 30 minutes it got completely mushy and tasted pasty. I ended up throwing it away. Has anyone else had this problem?
Could you use rice noodles?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Can egg noodles be used? 🙂
Yes, of course!
So delicious and comforting. This is replacing my old go-to crockpot chick noodle soup recipe. The spaghetti noodles turned out perfect. I use Barilla protein plus spaghetti because my toddlers can’t handle chewing chicken (or choose not to lol) and they slurped it right up. Thank you!
That’s great!
noddles meals always my best.
Hello!
How much is a serving? 1 cup?
Hi Michelle! You would have to divide the full amount by 10 servings to get the serving size. I hope that helps!
Congratulations Chungah on having the most commented on chicken noodle soup recipe on the internet! Making this for dinner tonight as the tiny humans and I are sick. Looking forward to a big bowl of this with some yummy bread!
I love having a slow cooker chicken noodle soup recipe. Thank you for posting it. Although, I had two significant issues and had to change a method for each to solve. 1) my chicken was over cooked and mushy. 2) the pasta had a pasty terrible texture. The way I fixed this was to pre-freeze each piece of chicken the night before. I also used ice cubes instead of water to mix with my chicken stock paste (to make stock). This slowed the cooking of the chicken and it was perfect when I was ready to shred it after 6+ hours on low. The second issue is also easily fixed. While I liked how the starch from the spaghetti thickened the soup, I just couldn’t handle pasty pasta. Instead of cooking it for 30 – 40 minutes in the slow cooker, I just cooked it on the stove top with boiling water. I then put some of the drained al dente pasta into the bottom of the bowl then ladled soup over when it was time to serve. These two method changes kept the chicken and pasta textures just right.