Chicken Soup (Big-Batch!)

Chicken soup is soul-satisfying and good year ‘round. This simple recipe feeds a crowd or works as lunch for two for a week.

Chicken soup is as basic as it gets, but it can be hard to scale it up to feed a crowd. Or, if you plan to use it over several days, too often the noodles become soggy and mushy. Not good!

Here’s my simple recipe for a soup that serves about 10, or reheats beautifully for lunch for two over most of a week. You can, of course, adapt it as you wish – add chopped sautéed onion, sliced green onions, diced canned tomatoes, or whatever your heart desires. The proportions are the key.

How to Make Big-Batch Chicken Soup

Start with a whole (not frozen!) chicken, about 4 to 5 pounds. As you’ll see in my post on How to Boil a Chicken, I don’t actually “boil” chicken because that results in tough, dry meat. Instead, it’s simmered for about 10 minutes per pound, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 180° F on the thickest parts of both the breast and the thigh, without touching the bone.

Use a good-quality chicken broth, or if you’re using chicken base (like Better than Bouillion), use lightly salted tap water for your liquid. Either way, add just enough liquid to partially cover the breast (or about 2 quarts). Bring the chicken to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes per pound. As explained in my other post, a simmer is just slightly below a boil, around 195° F. The liquid should just shimmer, and you should see just a few bubbles per minute rising through the liquid.

While the chicken is simmering, prep the carrots and celery, and measure out the noodles using a kitchen scale or by guesstimating (it should be about one cup or so less than a 12-ounce package).

About the Noodles

How many times have you reheated a chicken noodle soup, only to find the noodles squishy, soggy, and limp? It’s certainly not a great mouthfeel (unless you’re into squishy, soggy, and limp foods, that is. To each her own!).

The biggie here is that I use yolk-free noodles, like No Yolks. At first, they were the only yolk-free noodle on the market, but now there are store brands that work just as well and are a little less expensive usually. I first tried them while trying to reduce my cholesterol through my diet. And I found they have an amazing quality:

They never seem to get soggy, even when overcooked or stored in liquid as part of a soup for several days. So this chicken soup is one of our regulars on the lunch menu, and it’s as good on the last day of the week as it was on the first. ‘Course, I’m definitely ready for something different for the following week’s lunch!

Putting It All Together

After the chicken is has simmered, remove it to a plate or cutting board to cool. I use a couple of forks, one on each side sunk deep into the breast meat, to lift the chicken out of the pot. While the chicken cools, check it every once in a while to be sure that escaped juices aren’t overflowing onto the counter (ask me how I know this!)

This is optional but I like to use a fat separator, shown below, to get rid of most of the fat from the broth. You can also carefully spoon off and discard the thin layer of fat if you prefer.

While the chicken is cooling, return the cooking liquid to the pot, put the lid on it, and bring it to a full, rolling boil over medium-high heat. Add the noodles, carrots, and celery, and reduce heat to maintain a boil (without boiling over). Boil for about 10 minutes, or per the noodle package directions, until the noodles are tender. Remove from heat.

Skin and bone the chicken and cut it into bite-sized chunks, adding it to the pot as you go. Stir thoroughly to combine, and add more chicken broth or stock if needed to get the level of “soupiness” you desire. We like our soups fairly thick, so I use about 10 cups total of chicken broth (the 8 cups used to simmer the chicken plus 2 additional cups).

If you’re serving immediately, you’ll want to reheat the chicken soup over medium to medium-high heat until warmed through. Or portion it into smaller containers for grab-and-go lunches that reheat beautifully in the microwave.

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