Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup!

Ok, sorry I know I’ve been a little MIA but guys LIFE IS BUSY! I am sure you understand. I haven’t stopped cooking, so that means I have a lot of recipes to post in the near future. Anyway, I wanted to start with this one, because it is REALLY cold in New Jersey right now and I am all about comfort foods that make me feel warm and cozy.

So funny story, Kenny doesn’t think soup is a meal. Clearly he is wrong, because soup is amazing and hearty and all the things that winter nights with warm fuzzy socks are made of… but I will give him one thing, sometimes soup leaves me hungry for more. NOT THIS SOUP!

This soup is creamy, thick (but not too thick), and layered with tons of flavor. It is a bit more involved than a lot of my recipes, which I like to keep easy, but totally worth it. Typically, a soup like this would run you somewhere in the realm of 50-60g carbs, 25-30g of fat, and limited protein (anywhere between 10-30g) for 2 cups.

This Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup is LOW FAT, moderate carbs, and packed with protein! A 400g serving (around 2 cups) will only cost you 40g carbs, 9.5g fat, and a whopping 41g protein! Talk about bang for your macro buck. It’s super filling too, so it won’t leave you searching the cabinets for something else once you’ve finished your heaping bowl.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. cooked chicken breast
• 100g chopped carrots (raw)
• 100g chopped celery (raw)
• 100g chopped bella mushrooms (raw)
• 1 tsp extra light olive oil
• 1 can 98% fat free Campbell’s cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup fat free cream cheese
• 1 cup 2% reduced fat Fairlife milk
• 2 tbsp Hidden Valley Ranch dry dip powder mix
• 1/2 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese
• 4 1/2 cups lower sodium College Inn chicken broth
• 6 oz (dry) spaghetti, broken in half
• 1/2 tsp each, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, fresh sage (chopped)
• Salt & pepper to taste

For my chicken, I made it in the crock pot in advance. I put 4 lbs of chicken in the crock pot (enough for the soup, plus some left over) with 1 cup of water, and salt and pepper. Cook on high for 4 hours. Once the chicken was done cooking, I removed 12 oz. of it and shredded it and set aside.

In a large pot, add your chopped carrots, celery, mushrooms and oil and cook over low/medium heat until soft (stirring frequently). Once at the desired tenderness, increase the heat to medium and add your fat free cream cheese and ranch dip powder and mix. Once combined, add in cream of chicken soup and mix. Finally, add in your chicken broth, milk, spaghetti and turn the heat up to high, mixing frequently to combine.

You will need to keep stirring frequently, maintaining a steady bubble so that the pasta can cook. You will see the soup start to thicken as the pasta absorbs some of the liquid and the starch releases into the broth. Once the pasta begins getting soft, add the fresh herbs and continue to mix.

Once your pasta is cooked to al dente, you can remove it from the stove, but I left it on just a tad longer to get the broth even thicker. After the pasta is cooked as desired and the broth has thickened, remove from the heat and add your cheese and chicken. Stir to combine and to melt the cheese.

Serve in a huge bowl, add salt and pepper as necessary (I didn’t add any salt, but I added some pepper on top). My 400g serving at 40g carbs, 9.5g fat, 41g protein was a very large serving in a huge bowl. You could get away with a 300g serving for a hearty and filling meal.

To switch up the recipe, here are a few things you can do:

• Add more veggies, or double the veggies. This already had plenty, but you could increase the veggies and decrease the pasta if you wanted. You would also need to decrease the amount of broth if you still wanted the same thick and creamy consistency.
• Use a different type of pasta! I used spaghetti and I love that choice, but you could also use an elbow pasta here (or other noodle). I wouldn’t use angel hair, as it is too thin. You could also get crazy and use spaghetti squash, but it would also change the consistency.
• Skip the cheese to reduce fat. You could also steam your veggies in advance instead of sauteing them in oil to reduce even more fat (getting you to around 8g fat for a 400g serving instead).
• Use your leftover turkey after thanksgiving to make this into a creamy turkey noodle soup instead! You could also add more mushrooms and skip the meat to make it just as hearty, but without the meat! This would reduce your protein by a bunch, but it all depends what your goals and lifestyle are!

So that’s my delicious and comforting creamy chicken noodle soup! Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed!