20-Minute Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe - Crunchy Creamy Sweet (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep chicken noodle soup from getting mushy? ›

If you've got mushy noodles, it usually means they've been overcooked. The best way to fix this is to prevent it from happening in the first place by cooking your noodles separately or adding them right near the end of the soup's cooking time.

Rinse the Noodles: Once the noodles are cooked to al dente, drain them and rinse under cold water. This stops the cooking process and washes off excess starch, preventing them from absorbing more liquid and becoming mushy.

Traditional cream soups derive their smooth texture from liberal amounts of milk or cream, thickened with flour or cornstarch. Now when we make soups that are creamy, chances are they contain no cream at all: They're likely thickened with purees made from starchy vegetables.

Chicken soup is a staple for upset stomachs for a reason. It provides vitamins, protein and other nutrients, and it can help keep you hydrated. You don't need to use a lot of different ingredients to get the benefits either. This basic chicken soup recipe can help you feel better in no time.

While adding vinegar won't reduce the amount of sodium in the pot, the sharp tang of this condiment can help equal out the salty flavor on your tastebuds, masking the brininess of an oversalted soup and making it easier to eat.

This is mostly up to your preference, but it is usually best to use a pasta that doesn't absorb a lot of liquid – which then leads to a mushy noodle. Egg noodles tend to be the top choice, and I love to use these homemade egg noodles. Other good pasta options include elbow, orzo, fettuccine, and linguine.

To keep noodles from turning too soft, add them to the soup towards the end of cooking time. Ensure they have just enough time to become tender. For leftovers, it's best to store noodles and soup separately and combine them when you're ready to reheat.

Mushy noodles, the outlet explains, are the result of overcooking. This occurs when the noodles are added too soon into the soup's cooking process, giving them ample opportunity — too much opportunity — to cook.

It may sound a bit strange and unusual for some, but vinegar is a common ingredient in some soup recipes, and there is a good reason for it. If you think about it, vinegar is really a flavor-enhancer (umami). That's why it is so often used in cooking, sauces, and salad dressings. The same is true with soups.

What cream is best for soup? ›

Use what you love! Cream: Half and half, heavy cream, light cream or thickened cream all yield similar results, however heavy cream adds richness.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute.

Bone broth serves as a great way to replenish the fluids that you're losing, while also providing your body with valuable electrolytes from the sodium in the broth. These electrolytes will also help you absorb the water more easily.

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup

Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup is a classic and one of the most popular canned soups. But Frost, Gonzalez and Tills all said it's the least-healthy choice because it's so high in sodium: 890 mg per serving, or 39% of your daily value.

Cold-poaching the chicken breasts, then removing them until the end of the cooking process, guarantees a perfectly tender and juicy texture. Using stock reinforces the flavor of the broth, creating a more deeply flavorful soup.

You see, the reason those noodles in your homemade soup end up a soggy mess is that they're low alkaline. That means once submerged in a liquid and placed in the fridge, the noodles begin to absorb the liquid. If noodles absorb too much water, then they become soft and gummy as a result.

Water at an adequate boil will cook pasta faster, without suffering a significant temperature drop when the noodles are added, and this will keep your pasta from getting mushy.