Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup is a healthy dinner idea that the whole family will love. It’s packed with tons of protein and veggies and is creamy as can be!
One-Pot Wonder
One reason why I love chicken noodle soup is because it’s easily a one-pot wonder. Pop all of your ingredients into a large stockpot and you’re ready to get cooking!
What you need:
Chicken
Chicken breast is a no brainer for this creamy chicken noodle soup. Feel free to swap it for boneless chicken thighs or even omit if you are vegetarian. You can supplement the protein for a can of beans, instead!
Veggies
This soup is veggie-packed and rightfully so! We used classic chicken noodle soup veggies in this recipe but added russet potatoes and peas to add color and texture. Here’s what you need:
- carrots
- celery
- garlic
- onion
- potato
- peas
Pro tip: you’ll notice that all of the veggies are cut in similar sizes. We do this so that everything cooks evenly. Note that the larger your chunks, the longer the soup will need to simmer!
Spices
Classic chicken noodle soup spices really do the trick for this creamy variation. We recommend using a coarse Italian seasoning like THIS one because the spices are whole and soooo flavorful! Feel free to add any other fresh spices such as rosemary or basil.
- Italian seasoning
- fresh thyme
- salt
- pepper
Once you’ve got all of your main ingredients in the pot, add your broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to low and let simmer with the lid on. The goal here is to cook your chicken and not OVER cook your chicken. So keep an eye on things!
How do you Make Creamy Broth?
There are a few different ways to make a creamy broth, but for this recipe, we are using a homemade roux made of butter and flour.
How to make a roux
To make ar roux, heat butter in a small saucepan over medium/high heat. Once melted, turn the heat down to medium and slowly add the flour. Use a whisk to combine. Once crumbled, remove from heat immediately and add to your soup!
How do you thicken chicken and noodles?
To thicken chicken and noodles, we recommend a roux. However, you can also use cornstarch, too!
What kind of noodles can I use?
Good news! You can use any kind of noodle you want! Because we recommend cooking your noodles separately before adding to this soup, all noodles are your oyster.
What did we use? ORZO!
What is orzo?
Orzo may look like rice, but it’s actually a small pasta that is quite perfect for soups! Don’t have orzo? No problem! Use whatever kind of noodle you have on hand!
Can you freeze creamy chicken noodle soup?
Creamy chicken noodle soup is not the BEST soup to freeze as is, but it can be done! Often times when you freeze a soup that has either noodles or dairy in it, you risk squishy noodles when reheating and curdling dairy.
So, what is the fix? Make the recipe as-is, but do not add the orzo or heavy cream. Then, you can move forward and follow our soup freezing tutorial.
When ready to serve: Thaw the soup and reheat on the stovetop. Assess if you need to add more broth (you likely will) and then add cooked orzo and heavy cream.
More Chicken Soup Recipes
- Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
- Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
- Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Golden Curry Chicken Soup
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 large carrots finely diced (1.5 cups)
- 4 large celery stalks finely diced (1 cup)
- 1/2 medium yellow onion finely diced
- 2 medium russet potatoes finely diced
- 2 tablespoons coarse Italian seasoning we recommend a course Italian seasoning like THIS*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or more, to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 8 sprigs thyme bundled
- 1.5 cups frozen peas
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Orzo
- 1.5 cups uncooked orzo pasta
Roux
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour or white flour
Instructions
- Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large stockpot and heat over medium/high heat.
- When olive oil is fragrant, add garlic, carrot, celery, onion, and potato.
- Saute for around 5 minutes.
- Then, season with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper and mix.
- Add broth and stir.
- Submerge raw chicken breast in the broth and add thyme bundle.
- Bring soup to a rolling boil over medium/high heat.
- Once boiling, turn heat down to low and cover. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
- While the soup is simmering, prepare orzo pasta by following the directions on the back of the box. Once done, drain and set aside.
- When the soup is done simmering, remove herb bundle from the soup and discard.
- Remove chicken breast from soup and shred with two forks, and set aside.
- Now, prepare your roux. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium/high heat.
- Lower heat to medium heat and slowly add flour to butter. Mix with a whisk until mixture turns into a crumble. Remove from heat.
- Immediately add roux to the soup and turn heat back to medium/high heat and bring to a boil. Use a wooden spoon to break up the roux, makings sure there are no chunks in the soup.
- One boiling, turn heat off and stir in frozen peas, cooked orzo pasta, and shredded chicken and mix again.
- Finally, add 2 tablespoons of heavy cream and mix.
Tips & Notes
- Italian seasoning: if you do not have a coarse Italian seasoning like the one we used, we recommend adding a few red pepper flakes and potentially more salt!
Love this soup! I saw the serving size was 1/8 but was wondering if there was an actual cup measurement for serving?
Could I just cook the orzo in the pot instead of cooking separately than adding after?
Such an easy, delicious recipe that you’ll want to eat straight from the pot. I always appreciate a recipe where I don’t have to cut raw chicken. Can’t wait to have this for lunch all week!
We hear you! So happy you have lunch all week long!
Just made this – so quick, easy and delicious! Thanks team!
Do you have to use the roux in this? Or can you just add the heavy cream to make it creamy but not as thick?
Thanks!
You can do that! But the broth won’t be thick at all.
Absolutely tasty. Slow cooked all afternoon. I made the Roux separately then added it to the slow cooker. So yummy.
So glad you love this recipe!! Your photo looks gorg.
I’m obsessed with this soup! The flavour is so great, it’s super delicious, hearty, warming… everything! I don’t add the cream just because it’s not something I usually have to hand and it still turns out lovely and creamy and rich. Hot tip – to avoid lumps, instead of adding the roux directly into the soup I put some of the soup in the saucepan with the roux and stir it in a ladle at a time until it’s thinned out. Then I add that into the rest of the soup and it mixes perfectly 🙂
YAY! So glad you love this soup!
Easy to make and delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
Made this last night for dinner, and for work lunches this week…IT IS SO GOOD. I’ve been missing some “depth” of flavor in the last few chicken soup recipes I have tried, and this one has IT. So creamy and filling, healthy and nourishing at the same time. The addition of potatoes and peas are different additions that I really love too! New fave.
WOO WOO! I love this soup, too 😀
I made this last night, but made a couple of changes. Used only 1 carrot and 2 celery ribs (not a veggie fan), dried minced garlic and thyme, no fresh on hand, then used 1 can of cream of chicken soup as I didn’t have enough broth, plus used thigh meat instead. Despite the changes it was amazing and will be added to my rotation. Thank you for sharing.
Glad everything turned out with your changes!
My whole family loved this creamy hearty soup. Very flavourful 👍
I made this today and it is so delicious! Thank you for all of your amazing recipes!!
How much is 1 serving? 1 cup? 1.5 cups?