I know that you are going to love this easy a healthy crock-pot soup. Talk about
a fantastic, hands-free dinner! Now to start out, we are going to put our
boneless skinless chicken breasts in the bottom of a 6 quart or larger slow
cooker. If you aren't a fan of chicken breast, you can always use boneless
skinless chicken thighs. Next you want to sprinkle the chicken breast with salt
and pepper. The next step is to add a whole onion. I know the entire thing! It
might seem kind of funny, but it is one of the best tricks that I have learned
to give the soup a nice onion flavor but not have it be too strong. We're going to
pull it out at the end but you definitely want to put it in there. We're
going to add some other soup essentials. Celery: essential for any true
chicken noodle soup flavor. Carrots that we've chopped, garlic (I personally have got to
have it in my chicken noodle soup). And now we're going to add the ingredient
that really sets this chicken noodle soup apart: that is a bunch of fresh
rosemary. It's going to perfume our whole soup with this wonderful herbaceous
flavor that makes it taste like you're getting a warm hug. Next we add a bay
leaf. It gives the soup a really nice savoriness. It's one of my favorite
ingredients to add to any of my soups, slow cooker or stovetop. Last we pour in
6 cups of good-quality chicken stock.
Next we cover and cook. You can make this soup on high or on low depending upon
how quickly you need it, or if you prefer to let it hang out until later. You know
the chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. I
like to use an instant-read thermometer to check it just to make sure that my
chicken is safe and also to make sure that I don't overcook the chicken,
because if you overcook it, it won't be nice and juicy and that is certainly
not what we're after. Once the chicken is finished
cooking, you're going to remove it and then you also want to remove the bay
leaf and the rosemary. Those have done their job giving the soup great flavor,
so you can go ahead and discard them now. We shred the chicken. It is going to be
absolutely fall apart tender. From here, you have two choices about how to cook
your noodles. You can toss them into the slow cooker and cover it which I know is
quick and convenient but there's a trade-off. The noodles won't have quite
as nice of an al dente texture, so what I actually like to do is cook them in a
separate pot on the stove. I just do this right towards the end of the soup's
cooking time. It is no big deal and having really nice, chewy, not mushy
noodles is completely worth it in my book. One of my tips to making this a
healthy crock pot chicken noodle soup is to use whole wheat pasta. It's not
any more work than cooking up regular white pasta, but it is much higher in
fiber and protein and nutrients. I bet you your family isn't even going to
notice the swap. So now we stir it all together, and then you let it hang out
together for just a few minutes so that the flavors marry. From here all that's
left to do is to plate it up. This is one of my absolute favorite recipes for
whenever I'm feeling a little bit under the weather and because the leftovers
reheat so well, it's great for a healthy meal prep . To finish it off I like to
sprinkle mine with some fresh parsley. It is just so light and lovely. It gives the
soup great flavor and it brings it to life.
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to my website wellplated.com. Thanks for watching!