What To Expect From This Recipe

• Taste: Prepare for a truly comforting and deeply satisfying experience. This soup offers a savory, rich broth, subtly seasoned with aromatic bay leaves, onion, and a hint of garlic. You’ll savor juicy pieces of chicken, tender, perfectly cooked vegetables, and the delightful chewiness of freshly made egg noodles. The seasoning is intentionally simple, allowing the natural, robust flavors of the ingredients and the nourishing bone broth to shine through. It’s classic comfort, elevated.
• Ease: While the idea of making bone broth and homemade noodles might sound daunting, this recipe is surprisingly straightforward and easy to follow. The most significant investment is time, particularly for simmering the chicken bone broth from scratch. However, the hands-on effort is minimal, making it an accessible project for home cooks of all skill levels.
• Time: The bone broth requires a good 4 hours of gentle simmering on the stovetop to extract maximum flavor and nutrients. After the broth is ready, assembling and cooking the chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles takes an additional 30 to 45 minutes. For convenience, you can easily make the bone broth ahead of time and freeze it, allowing you to whip up a batch of this comforting soup whenever the craving strikes, dramatically cutting down on active cooking time on busy days.

1. Step 1. Prepare the Chicken: Begin your bone broth journey by carefully removing all the meat from your rotisserie chicken. Transfer this cooked chicken meat to a bowl or an airtight container and refrigerate it. This ensures the meat remains moist and ready for the soup later. If you’re using a frozen and thawed raw chicken, you’ll add it to the boiling stock water in the next step. For raw chicken, you’ll want to remove the meat after about 1 hour of cooking to prevent it from becoming overcooked and losing its delicious flavor and texture.

2. Step 2. Simmer the Bone Broth: Transfer the leftover chicken bones (you can include the skin for extra richness and flavor, or omit it based on preference) into a large, sturdy cooking pot. Pour in 14 cups (approximately 3.5 liters) of water. Add the whole peppercorns, leafy celery tops, carrots, half an onion (left unsliced to easily remove later), and a couple of bay leaves. Cover the pot and bring the contents to a rolling boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat significantly to a low simmer, allowing the broth to gently bubble. Continue to simmer on low heat for a minimum of 4 hours (or up to 5 hours for maximum extraction) to ensure all the beneficial bone marrow and nutrients are fully extracted, creating a deeply flavorful and health-boosting bone broth.

TIP: Including the chicken skin, especially if it was previously roasted and seasoned, adds a tremendous amount of flavor to your bone broth. The fat renders out, contributing to a richer mouthfeel and a more savory base. You don’t need to add all of it; some, or none at all, is perfectly fine depending on your preference.

3. Step 3. Strain the Broth: Once the simmering is complete, use a slotted spoon to carefully remove the largest bones and any prominent vegetable scraps (like the onion halves or large carrot pieces) from the bone broth. Next, place a large fine-mesh strainer over a clean, large heatproof bowl. Carefully pour the remaining broth and smaller solids into the strainer, allowing the rich liquid to collect in the bowl below. Discard all the spent bones, boiled vegetables, and bay leaves; their work is done, and their essence has been fully transferred to the broth.

4. Step 4. Assemble the Soup Base: Pour the strained, golden bone broth back into your large cooking pot. Now, it’s time to build the soup! Add any extra water needed to reach your desired volume (refer to the recipe card), along with the freshly chopped celery, carrots, peas, and the previously cooked and chopped rotisserie chicken meat. Stir in the carefully selected spices: chicken bouillon for an extra layer of savory depth, salt, garlic powder, freshly ground pepper, and dried parsley (or fresh if you have it). Bring the soup mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the carrots and celery are perfectly tender-crisp.

5. Step 5. Combine Dry & Wet Ingredients for Noodles: In a small mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the all-purpose flour and salt. Create a small hollow or “well” in the center of the flour mixture. Carefully crack the large egg directly into this hollow, as shown in the above left image.
6. Step 6. Form the Noodle Dough: Using a fork, gently break the egg yolk and begin to mix the egg in a circular motion, gradually incorporating flour from the edges of the well. Continue mixing until the egg is fully integrated into the flour, and the mixture resembles small crumbs with only tiny pieces of egg visible. At this stage, add water one Tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition, until the dough comes together and forms a cohesive ball, as depicted in the above right image.

7. Step 7. Knead and Rest the Dough: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for just 1 minute. This brief kneading helps to fully incorporate all ingredients and ensures there are no large, unmixed egg pieces left. Once kneaded, cover the dough and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes. This resting period is crucial as it relaxes the gluten in the flour, making the dough much easier to roll out evenly and preventing tough noodles. Let it rest while your soup continues to simmer (as seen in the above left image).
8. Step 8. Roll Out the Dough: Generously sprinkle your clean work surface and the noodle dough with additional flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out as thinly as possible. Aim for a thickness similar to that of a nickel, or even a penny, for delicate and tender noodles. The thinner you roll it, the better the texture will be in your soup (as shown in the above right image).

9. Step 9. Cut the Noodles: Once the dough is rolled thin, use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough into ¼-inch wide strips vertically. Then, rotate the dough and slice horizontally, creating noodle pieces approximately 2 inches in length. This creates classic, bite-sized egg noodles perfect for soup.

10. Step 10. Cook and Serve: Carefully gather the cut noodles, a handful at a time, and sprinkle them into the simmering chicken soup, stirring gently to ensure they separate and distribute throughout the pot. Cook the noodles for just about 5 minutes, or until they are tender yet still have a pleasant chew. Serve your homemade chicken noodle soup hot, ideally paired with crispy Garlic Cheddar Drop Biscuits or slices of warm, Soft Fluffy French Bread for a truly complete and comforting meal!

📌 Top Tips & Expert Hacks for the Best Soup

• Sear the Onion for Depth: Before adding the half onion to your bone broth, sear its flat side in an oiled frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until it develops a golden-brown color. This simple step, known as the Maillard reaction, caramelizes the sugars in the onion, adding a wonderful depth of flavor and a richer color to your broth.
• Batch Prep Bone Broth: To make your soup-making process significantly faster on the day you plan to serve, prepare the bone broth ahead of time. Once strained and cooled, you can refrigerate it for up to 3-4 days or freeze it in airtight containers for several months. This allows you to have a flavorful broth ready to go whenever you need it.
• Choose Your Chicken Wisely: While I prefer the convenience of a rotisserie chicken (which already has a head start on flavor), a raw 3-4 pound chicken can certainly be used. If using raw, remember to cook and remove the meat separately before adding the bones back for the long simmer to ensure the meat doesn’t become tough.
• Don’t Skip the Skin: Incorporating chicken skin into your bone broth is a fantastic way to boost flavor and improve the broth’s overall richness and color. The fat renders down, infusing the broth with a lovely savory essence. Don’t worry about it being too greasy; much of the fat can be skimmed off after chilling the broth, if desired.
• Thin Noodles are Key: For tender, enjoyable noodles, ensure you roll out the dough as thin as a nickel or even a penny. Thicker noodles tend to be tough and can alter the overall texture of the soup.

For this recipe, you have options! If using a rotisserie chicken, the meat is already cooked, so you simply shred it and add it to the simmering soup towards the end to warm through. If you opt for raw chicken (like breasts or thighs), you can cook it by boiling it in the initial broth for about 40 minutes, then remove it, shred it, and set it aside while the bones continue to simmer. Detailed instructions for both raw and cooked chicken are provided in the recipe notes for clarity.

The most effective way to add depth of flavor is through the broth! Making homemade broth with a good base of aromatics like celery, carrots, and especially a seared onion, along with bay leaves and peppercorns, creates an incredibly rich foundation. The long simmering time extracts maximum flavor. If you’re using store-bought broth, you can still enhance it significantly by adding a half teaspoon of chicken bouillon, a pinch of garlic powder, dried parsley, or onion powder, and simmering it with fresh vegetables to meld the flavors.

Yes, absolutely! Chicken noodle soup freezes exceptionally well, making it perfect for meal prep or saving leftovers. For best quality, freeze the soup in airtight containers for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and gently reheat on the stovetop. It will maintain its delicious flavor and texture for up to 4 days when stored in the refrigerator.

Tough homemade egg noodles are usually due to one of three common issues:
1. Too Thick: The most frequent culprit. Ensure your dough is rolled out very thin, ideally the thickness of a nickel or even a penny. Thicker noodles require longer cooking and can become chewy.
2. Too Much Flour: If the dough contains too much flour, it will be too stiff and difficult to roll out thinly. If you notice your dough is overly dry, try adding a teaspoon of water at a time until it reaches a more pliable consistency.
3. Insufficient Resting Time: The dough needs to rest for at least 30 minutes after kneading. This allows the gluten strands to relax, making the dough much easier to roll out thinly and resulting in more tender noodles.

Yes, using a slow cooker (crock pot) is a fantastic hands-off method for this recipe! For the bone broth, allow 14-16 hours on the low setting to extract maximum nutrients and flavor. Once the broth is made and strained, you can then add the remaining soup ingredients (vegetables, chicken, spices) and cook on high for an additional 3-4 hours. Add the homemade egg noodles during the final hour of cooking to ensure they become tender without getting mushy. This method is perfect for a truly fuss-free approach to comforting soup.

Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Please make sure to leave a ⭐️ star rating and a comment below the recipe card. Your feedback is incredibly helpful to other readers and truly brightens my day!

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Homemade Bone Broth Chicken Noodle Soup