Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles 🥕🍜🫛 is NOT chicken soup! It’s an easy, comfort food main course with chicken + noodles. Your Crockpot does the heavy lifting in this family favorite with shredded chicken, peas, carrots, and tender egg noodles in a creamy sauce. Along with being high protein, the cozy food factor is also high, and it’s perfect for busy weeknights and chilly weather!
Easy Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles Recipe
- Pure comfort food that’s also high protein. Chicken, peas and carrots, and egg noodles all tossed in a creamy sauce is the kind of dinner everyone at the table will actually eat. Considering there’s 35 grams protein per serving, you can feel confident that this isn’t “just” a bowl of noodles – there’s actual protein in a significant quantity.
- Not a soup. Since the noodles go in at the end and absorb some of the sauce, and the rest of the sauce coats the chicken and veggies, this dish isn’t overly sauce. It eats like a bowl of noodles rather than a bowl of soup.
- Dump and go. There’s no browning and no stirring. The chicken and the sauce go into the slow cooker and you leave it alone until the end. The simplicity of recipes like these make every mom (or family chef) happy and kids love this one.
- Ready in a few hours. 2-3 hours on high or 4-5 hours on low is all you need so you can start this in the afternoon and have dinner handled however it works best for your schedule.
- Tip: Cook the noodles separately. I’ve found over the years with, including in my best ever 30-Minute Chicken Noodle Soup and in other recipes, that dry egg noodles, when added to a simmering pot of liquid or broth, tend to absorb a lot of the cooking liquid. Since this recipe is not a soup doesn’t have much liquid, it could result in dryness. So it’s better to cook the noodles on their own and then add them.
Ingredients in Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles
- Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken breasts are what I use but boneless chicken thighs are also fine. If your chicken breasts are very thick, slice them in half so they cook faster.
- Onions: Yellow onions or white onions are diced, placed, in the slow cooker, and the chicken cooks on top of the onions and absorbs the flavor.
- Sauce: Reduced sodium chicken broth and cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom soup, or cream of celery soup) are what creates the sauce that the chicken slow cooks and simmers in. I tested this recipe using condensed soup and so you’ll need to use it for optimal results. At the end, heavy cream is added for more sauce volume and richness.
- Seasonings: Dried parsley, dried thyme, chicken bouillon, salt, and pepper.
- Egg Noodles: Wide egg noodles hold up best. I don’t recommend a thinner noodle here since it goes soft too quickly. Pappardelle is an option if you can’t find wide egg noodles.
- Frozen Peas and Carrots: I love the color and texture they add. If your blend has corn and green beans included, that’s fine. With those veggies, it reminds me of this Chicken Pot Pie Casserole which is so good.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
Want to Add More Veggies?
Diced potatoes and extra veggies like corn and green beans will create more of a chicken pot pie filling and will definitely make this dish more hearty. Potatoes though should be added about halfway through the cooking time and diced small enough so that they cook through.
I recommend sticking with heartier root vegetables like potatoes so they don’t turn to mush while everything is slow cooking. This isn’t the time to add zucchini, asparagus, or more delicate veggies.
How To Make Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles
- Onions + Chicken: Sprinkle diced onions to the based of the slow cooker then add seasoned chicken breasts on top.
- Sauce: Whisk together the broth, condensed soup, garlic, dried seasonings together and pour it over the chicken.
- Slow cook: Cover and cook for 2-3 hours on HIGH or 4-5 hours on LOW.
- Noodles: In the last half hour of slow cooking, boil the noodles, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
- Shred: When the chicken is cooked, shred it.
- Combine: Add the shredded chicken back into the trusty Crockpot and add the heavy cream, cooked noodles, peas, and carrots. Stir, season, and garnish with fresh herbs if desired.
- Serve: If you want to add a House Salad for some freshness, or some crusty Homemade Sourdough, the whole family will be happy with these creamy noodles and chicken.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles
🥕🍜🫛 NOT to be confused with chicken soup! This is an easy, comfort food main course with chicken + noodles. Your Crockpot does the heavy lifting in this family favorite with shredded chicken, peas, carrots, and tender egg noodles in a creamy sauce. A high protein, cozy recipe that's perfect for busy weeknights and chilly weather!
Ingredients
- ½ cup yellow onion, diced (white onion may be substituted)
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half if they’re very thick (boneless chicken thighs may be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken condensed soup, (cream of mushroom or cream of celery may be substituted)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced (or use about 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste)
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
- 8 ounces wide egg noodles
- ½ cup heavy cream, or more if desired
- 2 cups frozen peas and carrots blend, (if your veggies include corn and green beans that's fine)
- fresh parsley, optional for garnishing and to taste
Instructions
- Spray a large slow cooker with cooking spray and evenly scatter about half of the onions.
- Add the chicken, evenly season it with salt and pepper, and scatter the remaining onions.
- To a medium bowl or large measuring cup, add the broth, cream of chicken soup, garlic, dried parsley, dried thyme, bouillon, and whisk to combine. Optionally, add a bit more salt and pepper to the sauce depending on your personal preferences.
- Evenly pour the sauce over the chicken and onions, place the lid on the slow cooker, and cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours; or on LOW for 4-5 hours.Tips – Check early because all slow cookers run differently and if your chicken is thinner, it could be done sooner than anticipated.Chicken is done when the internal temperature reaches 165F as measured by a thermometer; do not guess!
- About 30 minutes before the chicken is going to be done, take the frozen peas and carrots out of the freezer and set them on the counter. Boil the egg noodles separately, according to package directions. Rinse with cold water, drain; set aside.Tip – Make sure to use salted water as the package likely indicates.
- When the chicken is done, remove it from the slow cooker and shred it on a cutting board using two forks or your preferred shredding method.
- Return the shredded chicken to the slow cooker, add the heavy cream, and toss well to combine and the noodles well.Tip – If you want more sauce volume or things are looking at all dry once you add the noodles back in the next step, you can add more heavy cream, to taste. You can also add more broth, but that's going to give more soup vibes than sauce vibes so it depends on your goals.
- Add the cooked noodles, the peas and carrots, place the lid back and slow cook (or use the keep warm setting) for another 5-10 minutes, just to warm everything. The sauce will thicken a bit during this time.
- Taste, and as necessary, make any necessary flavor adjustments. If it tastes at all flat, boring, or bland, it likely needs more salt, and perhaps more pepper.
- Optionally garnish with fresh parsley, to taste, and serve.
Notes
Storage: Leftovers will keep airtight for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Reheating Tips: Reheat gently in the microwave and I suggest a splash of water or broth before reheating (or a splash of heavy cream) because as the leftovers sit, they will become drier. It’s simply the nature of noodles to continue to absorb any liquid or sauce present, so it’ll seem as if the dish is drier. To combat this, reheat with a bit of liquid.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 432cal, Carbohydrates: 39g, Protein: 35g, Fat: 15g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Trans Fat: 0.04g, Cholesterol: 131mg, Sodium: 945mg, Potassium: 744mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 4881IU, Vitamin C: 8mg, Calcium: 65mg, Iron: 3mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
more easy chicken and noodles recipes
