Before you start
What this method is trying to achieve
The noodle stage is deliberately separated from the broth stage. Make the broth, finish the vegetables, cook the egg noodles only to al dente, then combine just before serving. For planned leftovers, store the noodles apart from the broth.
Success looks like
Know the target before you cook
The broth should be clear and savory, the chicken tender, the vegetables cooked through and the noodles soft but still holding their shape.
Ingredients
What you need
Broth
- 5 medium carrots, peeled — Some for broth, some sliced for finishing.
- 5 large stalks celery, trimmed — Some for broth, some sliced for finishing.
- 1 large yellow onion, peeled and halved
- 1.35 kg chicken leg quarters — About 3 lb.
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 leaf bay leaf
Finish
- 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems separated
Pasta
- 115 g wide egg noodles — About 4 oz.
Seasoning
- kosher salt and black pepper — To taste.
Method
Cook by the cues, not just the clock
Build broth
Put three carrots, three celery stalks, half the onion, chicken, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and parsley stems in a stockpot. Cover with about 2.8 L / 3 quarts water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer for 40 to 50 minutes.
Strain
Remove the chicken to cool. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve, discard the spent vegetables and herbs, and return the broth to the cleaned pot.
Finish vegetables
Slice the remaining carrots and celery and dice the remaining onion. Simmer them in the strained broth until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Cook noodles separately
While the vegetables cook, boil the egg noodles in salted water until al dente, about 5 minutes or according to the package. Drain immediately.
Combine at the end
Remove skin and bones from the chicken, tear the meat into bite-size pieces, then add chicken, noodles and chopped parsley to the soup just long enough to heat through. Season to taste.
Critical checkpoints
Stop here and check
Before noodles: broth and vegetables already finished?
The soup base needs no further long simmering once noodles are added.Finish the broth and vegetables first.
Noodles drained at al dente?
They are tender but still hold their shape and have not swollen excessively.Drain promptly rather than cooking until very soft.
Noodles mushy now or the next day?
The noodles swell, lose bite or absorb a noticeable amount of broth.Use CookClue's chicken-noodle-soup-noodles-mushy diagnosis to check cook time, storage and reheating.
If yours looks different
Route the failure before changing the recipe
After cooking
Storage, reheating & substitutions
Storage
For the best noodle texture, refrigerate broth and cooked noodles in separate containers.
Reheating
Reheat the broth and chicken first, then add only enough cooked noodles for the servings being eaten.
Substitutions
Cooked shredded chicken can replace the leg quarters when time is short; use good low-sodium chicken broth as the base.
Evidence
Sources & methodology
Technical claims and method decisions are tied to sources. Recipe-specific advice is not presented as a universal food-science law.
- The Best Chicken Noodle SoupFood Network Kitchen
Food Network Kitchen builds broth from chicken leg quarters and aromatics, cooks egg noodles separately to al dente and adds them with the chicken only at the end.
publisherPassage verified - The Best Chicken Noodle SoupThe Kitchn
The Kitchn notes that noodles keep absorbing liquid as leftover soup cools and recommends storing pasta separately when mushy noodles are a concern.
publisherPassage verified