This Creamy Chicken Noodle soup made from scratch (no condensed soup needed) is easy, warming, and delicious.
Hey, friends. I have another super simple, super easy, and super good soup recipe for you today, Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s classic chicken noodle soup made just a little cozier by adding a generous splash of heavy cream.
And as you know, heavy cream makes everything taste better.
My Favorite Chicken Soup
I have a ton of soup recipes on the site ( Ham and Potato Soup and my quick Tomato Soup are currently the most popular), but I’m going to be totally honest, I’ve been cheating on all them with this soup.
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup has been, far and away, the soup recipe I make most during sweater weather because it’s the perfect chilly evening, mid-week dinner.
It’s a cinch to throw together, with a mostly hands-off cooking time. And the finished soup is the perfect combo of creamy and warming with just enough richness to feel like comfort food without being heavy.
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup Ingredient Tips
- Onions, carrots, and celery: You can’t go wrong with this classic trio for chicken noodle soup, but if you want to add more veggies, go for it. Corn, peas, and even a few handfuls of spinach (stirred in at the end of the cooking time) would all be delicious additions.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts: I call for chicken breasts in the recipe, but you can use cooked thighs if you prefer or save time by grabbing a rotisserie chicken at the store and shredding it up for your soup.
- Chicken broth: Store-bought chicken broth works fantastically in this recipe, but if you have homemade chicken stock or a chicken carcass and some extra time, Homemade Chicken Stock really makes this soup over-the-top amazing.
- Heavy Cream: This recipe uses just enough heavy cream to give it a creamy richness without dramatically increasing the calories.
- Pasta: What’s the best pasta for chicken soup? The best pasta for chicken soup is whatever pasta you like to eat in your chicken soup. You can use classic egg noodles, medium shells, or even elbow macaroni or spaghetti noodles.
How to Make Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- This recipe starts by cooking a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in your soup pot with a combo of frying and poaching. (If you want to see step by step photos of the process, check out my posts How to Cook Shredded Chicken or How to Cook Chicken for Recipes .)
You’ll brown both sides of salted and peppered chicken breasts to help develop their flavor and then add water to the pot and simmer until the chicken is cooked through so you wind up with very flavorful and moist chicken. Plus the bit of liquid the chicken gets cooked in is going to give the broth a great flavor boost when you add it back to the pot later.
Once your chicken is cooked, you’ll set that and any juices aside to cool and then it’s just soup business as usual. Cook some onions and garlic with a bit of butter, and add broth or homemade chicken stock if you’ve got it (the best!), carrots, and celery, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the pasta, any kind you like —I’m partial to shells for this soup, but egg noodles are also a good option, along with the spices and then cook until the pasta is just al dente.
Shred or dice the chicken and add it along with any juices and heavy cream to the pot. Simmer for 1 minute to let the flavors meld, and then dish up and enjoy!
Can You Freeze Chicken Noodle Soup?
Yes! This soup freezes fantastically , and I almost always have a couple servings of it in my freezer. BUT you’ll need to modify the recipe slightly.
Noodles do not freeze well in soup (they get mushy), so just omit the noodles when cooking and let the soup simmer until the veggies are just barely tender. Freeze the soup either all together or in single-serving portions. When you’re ready to eat, defrost the soup in the refrigerator and then reheat in either the microwave or on the stove.
Cook noodles separately either 1 1/2 cups for a full batch or 1-ounce per serving for individual servings, and then drain and add them to the heated soup and you’ve got soup from the freezer without mushy noodles!
To see some of my other favorite freezer recipes, check out this (super long) post I wrote all about Freezer Meals .
Can I make this recipe ahead of time?
Absolutely. You can make the soup up to 48 hours in advance. Some people don’t like the texture of noodles after they’ve been sitting in soup, so if that’s you, you can omit the noodles when you make the soup.
Just before serving, cook the noodles separately in generously salted water, drain, and then add to the reheated soup.
What to serve with Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup?
I’ll admit, I’m lazy, and when it’s just me or my immediate family, I just pair this soup with a slice of store-bought French bread and call dinner done.
I feel like soups with vegetables in them are kind of a complete meal, so don’t feel like you have to add a side dish, but if you want to, you can never go wrong with Roasted Broccoli , Roasted Zucchini or Butter and Garlic Green Beans .
If you feel like baking and have some buttermilk sitting around, Cheddar Scones are killer with this soup. And obviously, don’t forget dessert. I think a small-batch of M&M Cookies pairs particularly well, but that’s just me. 😉
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe Notes
- This recipe won’t use up a full carton of heavy cream. If you’re not sure what to do with the leftovers, check out my post of What to Do With Leftover Whipping Cream .
- For small households: This soup makes excellent leftovers, so I always make a full batch, but if you’d like to make it Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup for Two, the recipe halves cleanly with no preparation changes.
- For a creamier soup, feel free to add more heavy cream until the soup reaches your desired level of creaminess.
- While I usually recommend prepping all your ingredients before you start cooking, you’ll have some downtime once you put your chicken on to cook, so I like to use that time to do my vegetable peeling and chopping.
More Soup & Stew Recipes
- Chicken Noodle Soup for One
- Chicken Carcass Soup
- Chicken Parm Soup
- Mom’s Sunday Beef Stew
- Cheesy Sausage Potato Soup
Ingredients
- ▢ 2 medium ( about 1 pound ) boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ▢ Salt and pepper
- ▢ Cooking spray or olive oil
- ▢ Filtered water
- ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 14g ) butter
- ▢ 1/2 large onion diced (about 3/4 cup)
- ▢ 2 large cloves garlic minced or pressed
- ▢ 2 large carrots peeled and sliced
- ▢ 2 celery ribs sliced
- ▢ 8 cups chicken broth
- ▢ 1 1/2 cups ( about 4oz ) uncooked pasta
- ▢ 1/4 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
- ▢ 1/4 heaping teaspoon dried basil
- ▢ 1/2 cup heavy cream *
Instructions
Cook the Chicken
- Generously salt and pepper both sides of your chicken breasts.
- Heat a large pot with a lid over medium-high heat. Grease with cooking spray or a light drizzle of olive oil. Place chicken breasts in the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until well-browned. Flip chicken and repeat. Once both sides are browned, add about 1/2-inch of filtered water to the bottom of the pot (it doesn’t need to be exact). Cover the pot and turn heat down to medium.
- Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the breasts reads 165°F (170°F if you’re going to shred the chicken). Check occasionally to make sure the water hasn’t all evaporated, adding more if necessary. Larger breasts will take longer to cook, so be sure to check for doneness before removing from heat.
- Transfer chicken and any liquid left in the pot to a plate or bowl (the liquid has a ton of extra flavor).
Make the Soup
- Return pot to the stove and melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until edges begin to turn translucent. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until it just begins to turn golden.
- Add carrots, celery, and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
- Add noodles and spices and cook according to noodle package instructions, until noodles are just al dente.
- While your noodles cook, dice or shred the chicken. Once noodles are al dente, add chicken and any juices back to the pot along with the heavy cream. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, until chicken is reheated.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
This dreamy homemade White Chocolate Mocha can be made with pantry staples in about 5 minutes. No need to leave the house to get your morning mocha!
I’ve shared a ton of Starbucks-inspired recipes on the site over the years like an Easy Homemade Mocha , my mom’s favorite Caramel Macchiato , a Pumpkin Spice Latte made two ways.
And I love them all because I love coffee, but today I’m finally sharing my personal Starbucks order of choice: a White Chocolate Mocha.
And if you’re here, I’m guessing you love these as much as I do. So next time you’re craving a sweet coffee treat in the morning but can’t bring yourself to put on pants and leave the house to get it, come back here for this recipe and make your White Chocolate Mocha at home.
What’s in a White Chocolate Mocha?
This is not an exact copycat version of Starbucks’ White Chocolate Mocha— their recipe uses condensed milk and espresso–two ingredients I’m guessing most people don’t have sitting around in the minute quantities needed to make one cup of coffee.
But this homemade version is just as good and will hit all those White Chocolate Mocha sweet spots. You will need:
- Hot coffee: Use your favorite brand, brewed strong if you can.
- White chocolate: Be sure to use high-quality white chocolate in your mocha. Cheap white chocolate chips that are great in cookies don’t have the best flavor for white chocolate drinks. If you wouldn’t eat a handful of them, don’t melt them down to flavor your coffee.
- Milk: Any percent milk will work just fine here, but the higher fat your milk, the richer your drink will be.
- Heavy cream: Heavy cream is optional but adds a little extra richness that is so good. And if you have too much heavy cream, go check out my post on what to do with leftover heavy cream.
- Sugar: The white chocolate doesn’t provide quite enough sweetness to get that classic white chocolate mocha experience, so a little sugar is needed to sweeten things up. Start with the amount called for in the recipe and then add more to taste.
How to Make a White Chocolate Mocha at Home
White Chocolate Mochas are one of the easiest coffee drinks to make at home. You just need to complete 3 simple steps:
- On the stove, heat milk to steaming and whisk in chopped chocolate until completely melted.
- Pour hot coffee into an 8-ounce cup and pour milk mixture over your coffee.
- Add sugar, stir everything together, and adjust to taste. If you want your drink a little sweeter, you can add sugar, a little richer, add cream.
Iced White Chocolate Mocha
Iced White Chocolate mochas are equally as easy to make at home. The ingredients are mostly the same, but the technique is a little different. Go check out my post on how to make an Iced White Chocolate Mocha or White Chocolate Mocha Frap.
Tips and Tricks
- This recipe makes a little over 1 cup of coffee, enough to fill one 8-ounce mug. If you want to fill an over-sized mug, double the recipe.
- If you’d like to make white chocolate shavings for the top of your mocha, use a vegetable peeler and run it down the edge of a piece of white chocolate bar to make the curls.
More Starbucks Copycat Recipes
- Iced Mocha
- Caramel Latte
- Iced Caramel Macchiato
- Chai Latte
- Dulce de Leche Latte
- White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha
- Peppermint Mocha
Ingredients
White Chocolate Mocha
- ▢ 3/4 cup milk any percentage
- ▢ 1 tablespoon heavy cream optional
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1oz ) white chocolate chopped (high-quality chips are fine)
- ▢ 1/2 cup strong coffee
- ▢ 1 teaspoon granulated sugar or to taste
Optional Toppings
- ▢ Whipped cream
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, heat milk and optional cream until steaming.
- Remove from heat and stir in chopped chocolate until melted and smooth. Whisk until foamy.
- Pour coffee into an 8-ounce mug. Pour milk mixture over the top and stir in sugar to taste. Top with optional whipped cream and enjoy!
Quick and easy Chicken in White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce is a restaurant-quality meal you can have on your table in 20 minutes.
After I posted my Chicken Francaise recipe , I got a little addicted to the buttery, lemony chicken pasta, but I wanted a quicker, easier version for weeknights. So this Chicken in White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce was born.
This recipe takes next to zero prep time, cooks from start to finish in just 20 minutes, and is a perfect midweek meal when you’re craving some comfort food but don’t feel like putting a ton of effort into cooking.
Chicken in White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce Ingredients
- Small chicken breasts: I call for small, 6-to-8-ounce chicken breasts for this recipe so that you can fit them all in your pan at once and so that they cook quickly while your pan sauce simmers. If you want to use larger chicken breasts here, use just two and cut them in half horizontally (place one hand on top of each chicken breast and slice the top and bottom into two even pieces).
- Butter and garlic: Garlic browned in butter until golden gives the sauce a delicious buttery, garlic-y flavor base.
- Low-sodium chicken broth: Regular chicken broth will work okay, but if you have it, go with low-sodium since the chicken broth will be reduced down in the pan sauce and full-sodium broth can make things a little too salty. Feel free to use Homemade Chicken Stock if you have it.
- Dry white wine: Use your favorite dry white wine (or whatever you have on hand) here. Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio are great options.
- Fresh lemon juice: I call for 2 to 4 tablespoons of lemon juice in the recipe (the juice from about 1 to 1 1/2 lemons). 4 tablespoons gives you a very intense lemon flavor and 2 a more mild brightness. If making for kids, I’d go with 2 tablespoons the first time and see how it goes.
- Pasta: Egg noodles are my preferred pasta for this dish, but almost any pasta shape will work. Fettuccine and farfalle would be particularly good alternative options.
How to Make Chicken in White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce (Tips and Tricks)
- Brown the chicken well. Browning the chicken in a little oil at the start of the recipe adds a ton of flavor to the chicken breasts and creates a delicious fond in the pan that will help flavor the pan sauce.
- Cool the pan slightly before cooking the butter and garlic. Once your chicken is browned, transfer it to a plate and give the pan just a minute to cool down before you add the butter and garlic. If your pan is too hot, the butter and garlic can burn. After the pan is cooled, you can melt the butter and toast the garlic until it is golden and smells delicious.
- Immediately add liquid ingredients once the garlic is golden . Garlic can go from golden to burned quite quickly. Have your liquid ingredients ready to add to the pan as soon as the garlic is ready to go.
- Return chicken to the pan and simmer until chicken is cooked through and pan sauce reduced. Then give the chicken a quick rest before slicing and serving over pasta with pan sauce drizzled over the top.
Recipe Variations
To make White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce on its own to serve over fish, seafood, or rotisserie chicken: Just skip browning the chicken and follow the rest of the recipe as written. Simmer until the sauce is reduced by about half and then spoon over whatever you desire.
For Creamy Lemon Butter Sauce: Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of whipping cream to the sauce after you’ve removed the cooked chicken breasts for slicing. If needed, gently heat the sauce over medium heat until re-warmed. Be sure to adjust the salt and pepper as needed.
Make it a Meal
Serve the Chicken in White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce with a loaf of crusty bread or rolls and simple sides like Roasted Broccoli , Roasted Zucchini or Roasted Green Beans . Maybe make a Small Batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert. 😉
More Easy Chicken Recipes
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Pesto Chicken Pasta
- Salsa Chicken
- Easy Chicken Parm Soup
Equipment
- Instant-read thermometer
Ingredients
- ▢ 8 ounces egg noodles or pasta of choice
- ▢ 4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts *
- ▢ Salt and pepper
- ▢ Cooking spray or olive oil
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 57g ) butter salted or unsalted is fine
- ▢ 2 large garlic cloves pressed or minced
- ▢ 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- ▢ 1 cup dry white wine *
- ▢ 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice *
- ▢ Minced parsley optional for garnish
Instructions
Pasta
- Bring a medium pot of generously salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
Chicken and Pan Sauce
- While your pasta water boils, generously salt and pepper both sides of your chicken breasts.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and lightly grease with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil.
- Add chicken breasts to the pan and cook until the first side is well-browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and repeat with the second side. Remove skillet from heat and transfer chicken to a plate.
- Give the skillet a minute to cool down slightly and then return it to the burner and heat over medium heat. Add butter and once butter has melted, add garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic is golden and aromatic, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Be careful not to allow the garlic to burn.
- Immediately stir in chicken broth, white wine, and lemon juice and bring to a low simmer. Return chicken breasts to the pan and simmer, flipping once, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the chicken breasts reads 165°F, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.
- Transfer chicken breasts to a cutting board and allow them to rest for 5 minutes before slicing into strips.
- Add salt and pepper to the pan sauce to taste. Serve sliced chicken breasts over cooked pasta and spoon pan sauce over the top.
- Garnish with chopped parsley if desired and enjoy!
Notes
Easy Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 medium ( about 1 pound ) boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper
- Cooking spray or olive oil
- Filtered water
- 1 tablespoon ( 14g ) butter
- 1/2 large onion diced (about 3/4 cup)
- 2 large cloves garlic minced or pressed
- 2 large carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 celery ribs sliced
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups ( about 4oz ) uncooked pasta
- 1/4 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 heaping teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 cup heavy cream *
Instructions
Cook the Chicken
- Generously salt and pepper both sides of your chicken breasts.
- Heat a large pot with a lid over medium-high heat. Grease with cooking spray or a light drizzle of olive oil. Place chicken breasts in the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until well-browned. Flip chicken and repeat. Once both sides are browned, add about 1/2-inch of filtered water to the bottom of the pot (it doesn’t need to be exact). Cover the pot and turn heat down to medium.
- Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the breasts reads 165°F (170°F if you’re going to shred the chicken). Check occasionally to make sure the water hasn’t all evaporated, adding more if necessary. Larger breasts will take longer to cook, so be sure to check for doneness before removing from heat.
- Transfer chicken and any liquid left in the pot to a plate or bowl (the liquid has a ton of extra flavor).
Make the Soup
- Return pot to the stove and melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until edges begin to turn translucent. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until it just begins to turn golden.
- Add carrots, celery, and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
- Add noodles and spices and cook according to noodle package instructions, until noodles are just al dente.
- While your noodles cook, dice or shred the chicken. Once noodles are al dente, add chicken and any juices back to the pot along with the heavy cream. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, until chicken is reheated.
- Serve and enjoy!
