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Enjoy Panera bread chicken noodle soup at home for a fraction of the price and save time too. We love it with grilled cheese for a super quick weeknight dinner that is the best comfort food.
Copycat Panera Bread Chicken Noodle Soup:
Do you love Panera Bread? I’m so excited to share this delicious Copycat Panera Bread chicken Noodle soup recipe with you. My family loves to eat at Panera and their soup is always amazing.
As we ate it the other day, I realized that this recipe would be so easy to recreate. Chicken noodle soup is a very easy copycat recipe to make and very frugal to make for a crowd.
I love that the ingredients are easy, and it is simple to make.
Is Panera chicken noodle soup healthy?
Yes, it is. The recipe only uses a cup of pasta and you could probably even reduce that and not notice. If you are worried about sodium, try using the reduced sodium chicken broth.
Try switching out the noodles to gluten-free noodles if you prefer. We love how versatile this recipe is. You can even add in more carrots and chicken to make it even more filling.
You can find more detailed nutrition information on the recipe card.
Ingredients:
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
- Chicken Broth
- Water
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion
- Thyme
- Bay Leaf
- Garlic salt – minced garlic also is fine.
- Salt and Black Pepper
- Egg Noodles
Now the ingredients list seem long, but they really aren’t. Some chicken, some broth, egg noodles, sliced carrots, celery, onions and some seasoning. It is really that easy!
How to make Panera Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe:
Now, you can make this delicious recipe 2 ways – either on the stove or in the crock pot. I prefer it in the crock pot because I can toss everything in, before I head off to work.
How to make on the stove top.
- First, drizzle a pot with olive oil. Add the carrots, onion and celery and cook for a few minutes until they start to get soft.
- Add the chopped perfectly seasoned homestyle chicken to the pot and pour chicken broth or water over. Chicken broth will give it more flavor. Let the chicken simmer with all the ingredients.
- Next, add the seasonings.
- Bring everything to a boil and cook until you see the chicken start to fall apart.
- Take the chicken out and shred. Add back to the soup.
- Finally, add the noodles (uncooked) to the ingredients and cook until noodles are ready.
How to make Chicken Noodle soup in the crock pot
- First, place everything (except the noodles) in the crock pot. It is that easy.
- Next, cook this on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
- About 45 minutes before serving, take the chicken out and shred.
- Finally, add the chicken back to the pot and add the egg noodles. Set your crock pot to high at this point (if not already on it) so the noodles will cook faster. This should take about 30 minutes.
Either way you want to cook this delicious recipe I think you will find your family a new delicious dinner idea that costs WAY less than heading to the restaurant.
Can I make this ahead of time?
Yes, you can. If you are prepping meals for the week, you can definitely combine and cook everything ahead of time. Don’t add the noodles until you are ready to serve as they will get mushy.
How to make Chicken noodle soup fast:
- Use precooked chicken, rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken from the night before. Using chicken already cooked means this goes from stove to table in under 30 minutes!
- We keep diced onion in the freezer and it makes it so quick and easy for recipes like this. Just grab what you need and go. This also works for the carrots and celery in the soup. Chop and freeze for later!
- If you need to thicken your broth, add in about 1 teaspoon xanthan gum.
How to serve leftovers
If you are making enough soup for leftovers, it is recommended to keep the noodles separate. When making this soup, my family prefers to keep everything separate and they can dish out how much of each they want.
You can cook all together but only if you plan on it eating it the next day. This will prevent the noodles from absorbing all the liquid.
Can you freeze chicken noodle soup
Yes, we love freezing chicken noodle soup so we can have homemade soup anytime without all the extra work.
See Can you Freeze Chicken Noodle soup for more information.
How to reheat?
To reheat the leftover chicken noodle soup, place all ingredients in a sauce pan and reheat. If you did keep some uncooked noodles, cook them according to the package.
This soup is great leftover. I like to store in individual containers for my husband and I for lunch the next day.
What to serve with Panera chicken noodle soup:
- Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls Recipe
- Easy Caesar Salad Recipe
- Crusty Artisan Bread
- Find more side dishes in our What to Serve with Chicken Noodle Soup.
Print this Panera chicken noodle soup recipe:
CopyCat Panera Bread Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breast
- 4 cups Chicken Broth
- 2 cups water (may need to add more)
- 4 Carrots Peeled and diced into bite size pieces
- 2 Stalks Celery Diced into bite size pieces
- 1/2 Onion Diced
- 1 tsp Thyme
- 1 Bay Ltheaf
- 1 tsp Garlic Salt
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 2 cups Egg noodles
Instructions
Stove Top Cooking:
- Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.
- Add in the carrots, onion and celery.
- Sauté for 3-5 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
- Add the chicken and the chicken broth to the stock pot.
- Stir in the seasonings (thyme, bay leaf, garlic salt, salt and pepper).
- Bring the water to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to medium low and cook until the chicken is cooked through (reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F). This cooking time will vary based on if you use frozen chicken or fresh chicken and based on the chicken size. This generally takes 15-20 minutes for the chicken to cook.
- Remove chicken and shred.
- Return to soup the chicken back to the stock pot.
- Add in the uncooked egg noodles and water. Cook until they are cooked through.
Crock Pot cooking:
- Place everything (except the noodles) in the crock pot.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.
- Remove chicken and shred.
- Return the chicken back to the crock pot. Turn crock pot on high and add egg noodles.
- Cook for 30 minutes until the noodles will be done and dinner is served!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Facts
More copycat recipes to try:
- Copycat Panera Broccoli and Cheese Soup
- Copycat Panera Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- Creamy Tomato Basil Soup Recipe
- Easy CopyCat KFC Chicken Pot Pie
- Panera Strawberry Poppyseed Salad
- Copy cat Olive Garden pasta fagioli soup
- Copycat Chick-fil-a Sauce Recipe
This is a delicious recipe. I made the 2x portion. I used boneless chicken thighs instead of breast. I used 1 box chicken stock and one box of chicken broth. I cut the salt to 1/2 tsp and used 1 tsp of thyme and 2 tsp of marjoram. When adding the noodles at the end I used chicken broth instead of water. This is definitely my go to recipe for chicken soup from now on!
Made this soup last week for my husband when he was sick, and absolutely loved it! He just requested it again tonight. By far his favorite chicken noodle soup.
I made this for my family today and it is delicious and the family loved it!! Easy and delicious. Doesn’t get better than that.
I’m so glad you love it!
Love this chicken noodle soup recipe! Not going to buy canned anymore for sure!
We love this recipe and I’m so glad you liked it.
I made this tonight for my fiancé who is the furthest thing from a soup lover, and he devoured it. My first time ever making homemade chicken noodle soup and it turned out amazing!! I did add more bay leaves, and a little more salt because I like my broths on the salty side. Will definitely be making this again!
Yes it will freeze well.
Hi Carrie,
I love your Panera Chicken Noodle Soup. How does it freeze?
I use Cajun seasoning, specifically Slap Ya Mama, to give the soup a little spice. Soooooo gooooood.
Love the soup I serve it with Ritz crackers
I love almost all of the Eating on a Dime recipes! This is another wonderful looking knock off soup to add to my collection as we love most all of Panera Bread’s soups! Our favorites are the Chicken Noodle, Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Rice and Chicken! We love eating their soups with Club or Ritz crackers or crusty bread!
I love Panera Bread! This recipe is beyond amazing!! I always serve it with cracker or peanut butter toast! So good!
Hey I just seen your recipe for the Panera copycat chicken noodle soup. And what a great time to get it, as my husband was just telling me he would love something warm for dinner because we are having a really cold day here in Virginia. Its a 40 degree day here. This will make easing into the winter weather alot easier, i know. And ill be trying alot of your recipes. I love your website and all of your recipes look sooo good. Im alao sending a link to your website to my two daughters. They are gonna love it. And so will my grandkids. So thank you. I have a really goid feeling that your recipes will be in our family for a long time. Thank you!!!
My family would love this as for what I would serve with thus soup I’d home made bread or rolls
I love Panera’s chicken noodle soup! I would serve this with crusty rolls!
We have oyster crackers with our chicken noodle soup.
Hi! Trying this again, as my computer decided to freeze up as I wrote and accidentally sent the first comment. 🙂 Thanks for this copycat chicken noodle soup recipe! ? I’ve not tried Panera’s version of chicken noodle, though I’ve always loved their chicken and wild rice soup. When I make chicken noodle soup, I do love a hot sandwich with it — maybe a hot turkey sandwich or a simple grilled cheese. As I’m working my way through a sore throat this week, this soup sounds great right about now!
I love Panera’s chicken noodle soup! I can’t wait to try this recipe! There isn’t much more comforting food than chicken noodle soup. I love to have it with a turkey club sandwich!
We love soup and usually serve it with a loaf of crusty artisan bread, warmed and buttered. ?
I love to serve a homemade crusty bread with my soup:)
We like grilled cheese sandwiches and crackers with our soup.
I love to serve grilled cheese sandwiches with chicken noodle soup!!
I’ve never tried Panera soup as only had a Panera here a short time. When I make chicken soup I like to serve a crusty bread with it.
I love, love, love Panera Chicken noodle soup and serve bread with it.
Cindy
I love this soup, I get it all the time. I can not wait to make the soup
Always a good “go to” comfort dinner. Served with crusty French bread.
I love this recipe.I just need lots of crusty bread for sopping up that broth.yuuuuum.
This Chicken noodle soup is delicious and easy to make ? I love Toasted French bread with butter!!!
This Chicken noodle soup is delicious and easy to make ?
I made the crockpot version and it was definitely a hit with the family! Made Dutch Oven no knead bread to go with it. We used leftovers for lunches – a cup of soup with half a sandwich of choice. Perfect!
My son likes the soup with rice rather than noodles. I like it with some bread and butter on the side or with a salad.
Can’t wait to try this! I love Panera soup. I like to serve French bread or a fresh baked loaf of bread with soup.
Panera Soup is the BEST – I can’t wait to try this recipe!! I usually serve grilled cheeses sandwiches with chicken noodle soup!
Hi, I like Panera Bread Chicken Noodle Soup. I changed up the herbs alittle added No Salt instead of thyme. I always serve my Chicken Noodle Soup with fresh baked bread.
What their Cheddar Broccoli Soup?
Thanks for the yummy recipes.
I LOVE panera’s chicken noodle soup! I love to serve it with rhodes frozen dinner rolls and a side salad.
Best soup ever
I have never tried this at Panera Bread!
I love the comforting taste of this chicken soup and it’s best to eat with some warm biscuits or rolls with butter.
Yes I do love panera bread chicken noodles I serve mine with a grilled cheese sandwich.
Can’t wait to try and make this. It looks amazing. I love the soup from Panerai. This would go good with rice.
yes you can. Check out our post on how to freeze soup – https://www.eatingonadime.com/freezer-tip-how-to-make-your-own-canned-soup/
could you freeze this (without the noodles of course)
Perfect! So glad you loved it.
Thank you Carrie!! Came out perfect!! Your video was very helpful. Only tweak I did was another cup of broth and 1/2 cup water. It was a winner!!
DA
I made the crockpot version today.
It has become my parents favorite soup that I make.
So easy to throw together and walk away… come back to a delicious soup!
YUM!?
This was the best chicken noodle recipe I’ve tried !! Love the flavor!!
So good!! Best chicken noodle, definitely a keeper!
Great recipe. Used left over rotisserie chicken. Baked a loaf of French bread for dipping. Yum!
Too Much thyme. Did not taste anything like Panera
Should a certain chicken broth be used?
Thank you!