When You Should Add The Noodles To Chicken Noodle Soup
Who doesn't love tucking into a hot, steaming bowl of chicken soup? Not only is the dish nourishing and delicious, chicken soup is widely relied upon as a home remedy for cold and flu symptoms — an age-old practice that has been proven by science to help make us feel better (via WebMD). Whether your chicken soup of choice is infused with coconut milk, brightened with a generous squeeze of lemon juice, or finished with a sprinkle of fresh dill, the dish is always welcome on a cold winter night.
Of all the varieties of chicken soup out there, the most classic iteration has got to be chicken noodle soup, which features chunks of poultry and veggies shot through with egg noodles (via Kitchn). The soup is a complete meal in a bowl, the noodles adding density, as well as textural contrast. But if you love chicken noodle soup, it's important to pay attention to timing when making it at home.
Wait until the very end of cooking to add the noodles
If you've enjoyed delicious chicken noodle soup in your day, then it's equally as likely that you've eaten a disappointing version. That's because all too often, this classic comfort food seems to be brought down by the one ingredient that should help it sing — the noodles. Very frequently, according to Kitchn, the noodles in the soup turn out way too mushy, lending an unwelcome, starchy gumminess to what can be a near-perfect dish.
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. Instead, Kitchn recommends that noodles should be added to chicken soup way towards the end of its cook time.
The outlet suggests waiting until the soup is nearly finished, adding the noodles, and simmering them until they're only about halfway cooked. The residual heat of the hot broth will cook the noodles through, and they won't go mushy even through several heatings and re-coolings of the soup. So, the next time you grab your soup pot, practice patience in the pursuit of non-mushy noodles.