I may be the reluctant chef of the household, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like good food. I particularly like recipes that make a lot of leftovers to maximize my efforts in the meal prep station.
I’m also a slow cooker nut because I much prefer to have the food prep and bulk of the cleaning out of the way long before happy hour begins. Slow cookers are at their best for making big batches of soups and stews, of course. I’m a huge fan of freezing the extra to savor later on after the pain of cooking has faded.
We’re not big on soup here at Propane and Bourbon headquarters but thicker stews are definitely on the menu. So I often tweak soup recipes to make them more to our liking. This is a spin on chicken noodle soup we’ve been perfecting that ticks all those boxes for us and has become one of our favorite comfort food recipes.
Chicken Noodle Stew
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 lbs. chicken breast
- 4 red potatoes, chopped bite-sized
- 1/2 lb. carrots, sliced or chopped bite-sized
- 1/2 bunch celery, chopped
- 3 Tbsp. fresh rosemary or thyme
- 1 Tbsp. oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 qt. chicken broth
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 oz. egg noodles
Optional Toppings
- Shredded cheese
- Bacon, crumbled
Directions
Combine all the ingredients—except the egg noodles—in the slow cooker. Set timing to your desire. I usually choose low heat for 8 hours depending on what time I get started in the morning. If I’m running late, I go for 4 or 6 hours on high.
About an hour before you want to eat, remove the chicken breasts, shred them, then return the shredded chicken to the slower cooker. Give it a good stir, then add the egg noodles. Stir them in making certain they are all immersed, otherwise they won’t absorb the liquid in the slow cooker well enough.
Go have happy hour.
When you’re ready to eat, stir everything well and baby, you got a stew going! The noodles soak up the broth and dissolve, giving the stew its thick base while keeping the noodle flavor that’s so great in chicken soups.
Serve it up in a steaming bowl of love, top with cheese and crumbled bacon to fill out the flavor, and congratulate yourself on making it through yet another round in the kitchen.
Notes:
- If you want less of a kick from the rosemary or thyme flavor, cut it down to 1-1/2 to 2 Tbsp. The 3 Tbsp. adds quite a bit of flavor that we like but others might find overpowering.
- We use a 6-qt slow cooker in the trailer and the volume of these ingredients fill it close to the rim with just enough room to stir in the noodles without spillage drama.
- This could easily be converted to a stove top creation so you-do-you! (And let me know how that works out if you try it.)
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