Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup, Lemon Style

This soup is satisfying and ready to fight your next cold.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m a firm believer that chicken noodle soup not only helps cure your cold but also soothes your soul. It’s currently cold season, so arm yourself with a good cold-fighting soup.

Especially a soup that is made from the pantry.

To cook this Lemon Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup Set out:

• olive oil – Lends fat for softening veggies and flavor.
• yellow onion – Adds a sweet and subtle onion flavor to the soup.
• carrot – Adds color and subtle sweetness.
• celery – Lends earthy flavor and savory texture.
• garlic – Adds distinct punchy flavor.
• rosemary (fresh) – Adds a pine-like or woodsy flavor with notes of lemon, pepper and sage.
• thyme (fresh) – Lends an earthy, slightly minty and lemony flavor.
• lemon zest – Adds bright distinct citrus flavor.
• low-sodium chicken broth – Use from-scratch or store-bought. Plus any leftover liquids from cooking chicken (see notes within post).
• lemon juice – Adds additional citrus flavor.
• kosher salt – This will draw out flavor of the vegetables and seasons the soup.
• freshly ground black pepper – Lends distinct bite and flavor.

Slow Cook The Chicken:

If you have the time, I highly recommend slow cooking your chicken before hand. Once slow cooked, I save the cooking liquids and then add it to kitchen-made soup. However, of course you can still use rotisserie or leftover roasted chicken in this method.

• I slow cooked a whole chicken the day before I’m planning to make soup. First, remove the chicken from the packaging, if your chicken has the gizzards in the cavity remove and discard or save fora different purpose. Pat the chicken dry with paper towel. Place it in your slow cooker, my slow cooker (linked in printable recipe) came with a metal rack so I use that which makes removing the slow-cooked chicken extremely straightforward.
• Pour 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth over top of the chicken and sprinkle with either poultry seasoning and/or some simply salt and pepper. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove and once cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and then pick the meat from the bones. Allow the chicken meat to cool even more before storing in a container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerating. If you want, you can save the bones to make the broth like in this method.
• Transfer the liquids from the slow cooker into a fat separator (linked in printable recipe). Once the fat has risen, I remove the plug in the spout and pour the broth (leaving the fat in the separator cup) into a separate container. Once cooled, refrigerate until ready to use. The liquids will congeal in the fridge, but will melt into the soup once heated.

Prep The Veggies and Herbs:

Gather 1 large yellow onion (diced), 2 carrots (sliced), 2 short stalks of celery (sliced), 2 cloves of garlic (minced), 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary (finely chopped) and 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (finely chopped).

Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a dutch oven on medium heat and add in the carrot, celery and onion. with a pinch of salt. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes until soft.

Once softened, add in the the garlic, rosemary and thyme and cook for 1 minute.

Grate in the zest of a small lemon.

Pour in 8 cups of broth plus the cooking liquids from cooking the chicken. Note: If you didn’t slow cook your chicken and don’t have those cooking liquids, add 2 more cups of broth – for 10 cups total.

Add in 3 cups shredded cooked chicken. Stir, cover and bring to a simmer over medium to medium-low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

After the soup has simmered, squeeze in the juice of the zested lemon. Again, add more lemon if you want it especially lemony. Personally, I think the zest and the juice of 1 small juicy lemon is dependable.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. For me it was around 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, but you do what tastes good to you!

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add in 6 to 8 ounces of kluski egg noodles. Stir and cook according to the package directions.

Add the cooked noddles to individual bowls (if wanting to save leftovers) or add directly into the soup.

Ladle the Lemon Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup into bowls and top with chopped fresh parsley and extra black pepper.

Serve with oyster crackers and/or a grilled cheese on the side? Yum.

This Lemon Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup is satisfying. I think it’s the dependable blend of lemon, rosemary and from-scratch goodness.

Enjoy! And if you give this Lemon Rosemary Chicken Noodle Soup recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!