Jewish Chicken Soup Recipe with Noodles

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There’s nothing like a delicious Jewish chicken soup recipe with optional noodles to warm your soul, or hydrate you when you’re not feeling well! This recipe is made on the stove and includes loads of tips for getting the maximum flavor. If you prefer, you can check out our recipe for chicken soup in the instant pot instead.

There’s absolutely nothing like a good Jewish chicken soup recipe to warm your soul. Add in some noodles and it’s truly a treat.

Whether you’re sick and looking to hydrate with nutrition-filled liquid, or it’s cold and you want comfort food to warm your soul, this Jewish chicken soup recipe comes from twelve years of making it almost weekly and fine-tuning it to perfection.

And if you’re a fellow Jewish mom looking to make this for a Friday night, this Jewish chicken soup recipe is perfect for you too!

Tips and tricks for adding loads of flavor to chicken noodle soup

When you have a five quart pot of soup, and the main ingredient is water, it takes a specific strategy to get the maximum flavor into your chicken noodle soup, so that each spoonful is loaded with flavor.

You need a LOT of stuff in it.

Basically, instead of calculating a per-person vegetable count, you want to load it with plenty of veggies.

The vegetables you add are based more on what adds flavor to the soup rather than what you prefer. Of course, you can also add in your favorites, however, you’re adding in veggies for the sake of the blended flavor too.

Parsnip and sweet potatoes are two of my favorite veggies to add for overall soup flavor.

Even if you don’t love to eat them whole as they add nutrition and flavor to the soup. Keep in mind that you can always repurpose vegetables from the soup by making patties, or as baby food (which is what I do.) I don’t touch sweet potato generally speaking but it really adds a delicious flavor to this Jewish chicken soup recipe.

Vegetables like celery are tasty in the soup as well, but I don’t find that they contribute to the overall flavor. It makes sense to add things like that when you’re specifically looking to eat those textures, but the vegetables you add to flavor your soup are a category of their own

Cook this Jewish chicken soup recipe for a long time.

You want to really give it time to extract the flavor from the veggies. Let it just barely simmer for hours. I have never tried making this Jewish chicken soup recipe in a crock pot, however I imagine that it would do well that way.

If you want a delicious slow cooker soup, you can try my crock pot mushroom barley soup recipe, another delicious Ashkenazic Jewish soup.

More is more.

Add what you can that makes sense. For example, I had leek tips I had cut off for another recipe. Usually those get thrown in the garbage, but, while they’re tough and unpleasant to eat, they pack loads of flavor. I often toss things like that into the soup. Again, using soup bags can help you pull out the things you don’t plan to eat.

Season it well.

Many people add soup mixes to their chicken soup, however I am very strongly averse to doing that. You can taste it. There’s this flavor it takes on that’s just a touch more artificial, even if you use the “no MSG” version.

It’s possible to make an incredibly flavorful chicken noodle soup without using soup mix. The main thing is to season it well. Be generous with salt (you can start slow and add more later if you prefer) but even more generous with flavor-adding spices like onion powder and garlic powder.

My personal favorite to add to the chicken soup is Trader Joe’s onion salt mix. I add a lot of it.

Best spices for chicken noodle soup recipes

On that note, what are the best spices for chicken noodle soup recipes?

Salt is a given. Black pepper in just the right amount helps too, however, if you’re cooking the soup for someone with a cold I’d just skip that. You can get plenty of flavor without it.

Put in loads of onion and garlic powder. For the sake of this recipe, I’ve included quantities and measurements however as I’m sure you know a true Jewish chicken soup recipe is measured with the heart, not with a spoon…

As I’ve mentioned above, I use Trader Joe’s Onion Salt – and lots of it. Any spice mix that’s heavy on the onion, especially those with a little herb in it is perfect.

And finally, one of my favorite tips for adding loads of flavor to chicken noodle soup: frozen cubes!

And no, I’m not talking about bouillon cubes.

I simply choose my favorite herbs and flavors and get cubes so I don’t need to process them raw. If I have an open bag of peeled garlic I add a few of those, but otherwise I add frozen garlic cubes. I also like adding frozen dill and parsley cubes as both those herbs are delicious in the soup. (On that note, if I’m already using it fresh for another recipe and have spare, I’ll add those fresh.)

And finally, especially if you’re making this as a Jewish penicillin, ginger cubes add a unique and heavenly touch to the flavor of this Jewish chicken soup recipe with noodles.

How to cook Jewish chicken soup so that it’s crystal clear

There’s a certain pride that a Jewish cook has when the soup has that golden yellow crystal clear tone. It lends legit bragging rights.

To accomplish this, try the following:

1. Use chicken breast or put your chicken in a soup bag.
2. Leave your vegetables in larger pieces rather than cutting them small.
3. Cook it low and slow. I do this to extract loads of flavor anyway but it serves the dual purpose of allowing it to remain clear too. Avoid boiling it at all costs. Try to catch your soup as soon as it starts boiling and lower it to a slight simmer.
4. The sweet potato that I add for flavor lends its color to the soup as well.
5. A bit of turmeric – but really a bit – can help the color and is tasty too.
6. Things like garlic cubes can get in the way of the clarity, but personally, I value the flavor more.
7. And finally, if you’re really into it, you can always chill your soup and then skim the top for any fats and other floaties that rise to the top…

Making Jewish Chicken Soup with Noodles

I haven’t yet figured out a way to make it with noodles in the same pot – you don’t want them getting mushy, after all.

I just cook my noodles separately in a small saucepan.

Make sure to strain and rinse them well. I recommend keeping them warm for the soup. Otherwise it’ll cool your soup too quickly.

For Shabbat, I simply keep it in an oven-to-table glass container that can be warmed on my Shabbat hot plate along with the rest of my food. I put it on something so that it doesn’t burn and just stays warm.

And now that I’ve shared my tips for the best Jewish chicken soup recipe with noodles, it’s time to share the recipe. Of course, there is a printable version at the end of the post, however since that uses an outside plugin to operate, I always write it in the post too (in case something happens to the plugin).

So this is literally a repeat of what’s in the printable – skip right to that if you prefer.

Best Jewish Chicken Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast (or three drumsticks, or bones and skin in a soup bag)
• 1 whole sweet potato, peeled
• 1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into thirds
• 4 med. parsnips, peeled and cut into thirds
• 1 large onion, peeled and left whole
• 1 large zucchini, washed not peeled and cut into 2-3 inch rounds.
• Optional 5-10 cloves of garlic
• Optional: 1/2 lb egg noodles, cooked according to package directions

Frozen cubes (optional):

• 2-3 Garlic if not putting in the soup whole cloves
• 2 dill
• 3 parsley
• 1 ginger

Spices:

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 t pepper (omit if using for cold)
• 2 T or more onion powder
• 1 T garlic powder
• Feel free to play with spice mixes with onion. I often leave out the onion/garlic powder and use Trader Joe’s onion salt (about 3 T) instead.

A 5 quart pot.

Instructions:

1. Place your vegetables in the pot. If there’s anything you plan to remove, place that at the top.
2. Add spices and frozen cubes.
3. Cover with water till about 1-1.5 inches from the top of the pot.
4. Bring to a boil over medium heat. When it just boils, reduce it to low and keep it as close as possible to just barely simmering for 4-5 hours (or up to eight).
5. Serve with warm noodles, soup nuts, or croutons – or on its own!

Notes:

• Use medium heat for starters and not high, so that if you miss it when it boils it doesn’t go too strong for too long.
• Use veggie discards for added flavors (leek, for example), add what you like, etc.
• Other things that are tasty in the soup (but not necessary for the overall flavor):
  • Leek – the edible parts too
  • Celery
  • Turnip

• This freezes beautifully. I freeze it in airtight deli containers for later use and enjoy it postpartum as a nutritious, hydrating meal. To defrost, place it in the fridge (or microwave) until it’s loose enough to come out of the container and heat it in the pot.

Got any to add? Have any variations to this Jewish chicken soup you want to share? Just drop it in the comments!

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