Chinese Noodle Soup is incredibly quick and easy – if you know the secret seasonings! You’d swear the Asian soup broth is from a Chinese restaurant, it’s that good. 10 minutes and just 352 calories for a big bowl. Use any noodles, any vegetables, any protein – or not! It’s terrific fridge-forage food.
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Fast Chinese Noodle Soup!
This Chinese Noodle Soup is one of my classic “back pocket” recipes because it’s so versatile and incredibly quick. Because people who cook all day for a living need quick dinners for real life – ask any chef!!
Here’s a run down of how it goes:
Broth: Plonk and simmer 6 ingredients for 10 minutes (no trip to the Asian store required!);
Noodles: Prepare fresh OR dried noodles according to packet directions;
Toppings: Rummage in fridge and locate vegetables & proteins of choice. Chop roughly and cook with the noodles or in the soup. broth; and
Serve: Place noodles in bowls. Pour over soup and toppings.
See? 10 minutes!
Seasonings for Chinese soup broths
If you’ve ever been disappointed by a recipe for an Asian soup broth before, it’s probably because it was missing basic but essential flavourings. It takes more than just chicken broth and soy sauce to make a Chinese soup broth!
Here’s what all you need:
Chinese cooking wine – the key ingredient. Just 1.5 tablespoons adds complexity and depth of flavour to the store bought chicken stock. Without it, the broth will taste “flat” ie missing something. Substitute with: dry sherry, mirin or cooking sake. Best non alcoholic sub for this recipe: substituting some of the soy sauce with oyster sauce (which adds extra “umami” into the broth to compensate);
Garlic and ginger – smash the garlic and slice the ginger to allow the fresh flavours to infuse into the broth. Keeping them whole makes it easy to pick out later – you could very well grate them straight into the broth using a fine grater, but you will get little bits in the soup (rather than being a clear broth);
Sesame oil – for the flavour!
Chicken broth/stock – use low sodium otherwise the broth may be a touch too salty for your taste. Use a decent one, because it’s the foundation of the soup broth (🇦🇺 I use Campbells. Better than Continental). Best option if you have it: homemade chicken stock!;
Soy sauce – either all purpose or light soy sauce will work here. Don’t use dark soy sauce or sweet soy sauce – the flavour of these are too intense; and
Sugar – just a touch, to balance out the flavours.
What goes in the noodle soup
And here’s what I put in the soup:
Noodles – Chinese noodle soups are traditionally made with thin egg noodles (pictured above, and below in the soup). Fresh ones (sold in the fridge section) have a better texture than dried. But any noodles will be fine here – fresh or dried, rice noodles, white or yellow noodles, Hokkien, Singapore noodles, wide, thin, vermicelli, ramen noodles (yup!), diet noodles (like konyaku – been there, done that), zoodles (been there too). Really. ANY noodles will be great in this broth!
Bok Choy (also known as buk choi, buk choi, pak choi, or pok choi – crazy right??!) – or any vegetables. I like bok choy because you just split them in half down the middle and bam! You’re done! (Recipe notes includes an extensive list of chopping and cook directions for common vegetables)
Cooked Chicken (poach it using this method that guarantees juiciness)- or any other protein, as desired. Everybody keeps little containers of cooked shredded chicken in the freezer, right?!
Green onion or coriander/cilantro, or chives, or even finely sliced onion (red, white, yellow brown) – something for a little hit of freshness.
How to make Chinese Noodle Soup
And here’s how it happens in 10 minutes. (And to all those cheeky buggers who will point out that if you have to simmer for 10 minutes, then it takes longer than 10 minutes – fine! You can take a 2 minutes off the simmer time!😉)
PRO TIP: Never cook noodles in the soup broth unless a recipe specifically calls for it. Noodles suck up loads of liquid when they cook, so if you do that you’ll end up with way less broth than you expect. Learnt this the hard way. 😖
Make it even HEALTHIER!!
Being that this is a noodle soup recipe and all, noodles are a key ingredient here. Even so, it clocks in at just 352 calories for a bowl.
But if you want to cut down on the carbs and calories even further, just skip the noodles and load it up with tons more vegetables to make a Chinese vegetable soup. In fact, it’s one of my “go-to” diet dinners (which should happen more frequently than it does…).
Do I miss the noodles? Of course I do. But I console myself with a healthy dose of chilli paste and lots of fresh herbs, Chicken Pho style.
But before you make it diet, try it the way it’s intended. THEN healthify it!!! – Nagi x
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Chinese Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Broth
- 3 cups chicken stock/broth, low sodium (Note 1)
- 2 garlic cloves , smashed (Note 2)
- 1.5 cm / 1/2" ginger piece, cut into 3 slices (optional, but highly recommended)
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce , or normal all purpose soy sauce (Note 3)
- 2 tsp sugar (any)
- 1 1/2 tbsp chinese cooking wine (Note 4)
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp sesame oil , toasted (optional) (Note 5)
Toppings & Noodles
- 180g / 6oz fresh egg noodles (Note 6)
- 2 large bok choy or other vegetables of choice (use any blanchable veg – Note 7)
- 1 cup shredded cooked chicken (or other protein of choice)
- 1 scallion / shallot , green part only finely sliced (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Place Broth ingredients in a saucepan over high heat. Place lid on, bring to simmer then reduce to medium and simmer for 8 – 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.
- Meanwhile, cook noodles according to packet directions.
- Cut bok choys in half (for small / medium) or quarter (for large). Wash thoroughly.
- Either cook the bok choi in the broth in the soup broth OR noodle cooking water for 1 min (if noodles required boiling).
- Pick garlic and ginger out of soup.
- Place noodles in bowls. Top with chicken and bok choy. Ladle over soup, garnish with green onions. Great served with chilli paste or fresh chillis.
Recipe Notes:
- Reduce soy sauce to 1 tbsp
- Add 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce (this has umami and will add complexity into the broth flavour to compensate for leaving out cooking wine).
- Fresh noodles, thin (ie from fridge section, this is what I use) – 90g / 3 oz per serving
- Fresh noodles, wide and flat (like thick Thai rice noodles) – 150g/ 5 oz per serving (much denser, so you need more)
- Dried noodles, pasta (yes, really!) – 60g / 2 oz per serving
- Ramen – 1 pack / “cake” per person
- Any Chinese veggies (bok choy/buk choi/pak choi, gai lan/Chinese broccoli, choy sum). Cut Bok Choy into half or quarters lengthwise (pictured / video), for other veg, cut into batons about 5cm / 2″ long
- Carrots – sliced on the diagonal
- Bean sprouts
- Green beans
- zucchini (sliced)
- green beans cabbage (thick slice)
- asparagus, broccoli / broccolini and cauliflower,
- any other vegetable that can be boiled.
Nutrition Information:
Originally published June 2016. Long overdue for a video to be added with brand new photos and process steps!
MORE ASIAN SOUPS YOU’LL LOVE!
Life of Dozer
Baby Hands and Giant Paws. Evidence for anyone who has wondered how small my hands really are. 😉
Hi Nagi, I’ve just come across your recipes and they look great. I’ll be trying this one. BTW, either Dozer is a very big dog or you’re very small 🙂
Hi Nagi,
I love your recipes! However, I live in Arizona (ugh, no ocean or lakes) and I wonder if the ingredients Campbell’s Chinese broth, Chinese cooking wine, etc. are available here. Our biggest diversity is Latino not Asian. In California, Hawaii and Washington (where lived most of my life) the diversity was mch greater which I loved.
I’ve been looking for a perfect noodle soup recipe for years after my favourite noodle bar closed down, and you hit the flavour right on the nail. Made with king prawns and coriander, just perfect, thank you so much!! My daughter says she’s in heaven (she’s 10)
Hi! I made this last week and oh wow. Sooooo good!
I want to make it again tonight but with wontons. Never made those so we’ll see how that goes. Anyway just wanted to ask. Can I make the soup part in the day and put it in the fridge to heat up for later? Without all the toppings of course.
Hi Emily – absolutely! Perfect for making ahead and reheating later!
Ah, I would love to try more of your Chinese recipes, but the sodium content is so very high. This soup looks perfect, except for the sodium content. Is there any hope for those of us who are trying to keep their families on heart-healthy diets?
Hi Mariko! If you use low sodium chicken broth and low sodium soy sauce that will reduce the salt considerably!
Thanks so much for the reply! In re-reading the recipe, I see your Note 7 mentions this. (Sorry that I didn’t read more thoroughly the first time.) There must be some very salty commercial chicken broths in Australia! Must be very tasty, though. 🙂 Since reduced sodium soy sauce and chicken stock are alwin my pantry, I’ll definitely give this soup a try.
Low sodium stock would be great for this recipe, although I make my own with just water, chicken and all my left over veg scraps ( when I peel carrots, onions, garlic skins ,celery etc I freeze them and use for stock.
we don’t eat salt at all due to kidney disease in our daughter.
Tasted so good! You’re absolutely right about chicken broth and soy sauce not being enough to make a good soup I’m glad I found this recipe.
That’s great to hear! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
Tonight I made Chinese chicken noodle soup, and although it was good, my brother and I both thought it lacked something important, but we aren’t sure what. 😣
I didn’t have the cooking wine, but I wonder if fish sauce would be helped.
Any suggestions?
Hi Carey! Chinese cooking wine is the secret ingredient 🙂 Trust me – get some, try it with that and I bet you will notice the difference! N x
made this again, yummo great bowl of goodness, I poached the chicken in the broth and then shredded it, so easy.
Thank you
That’s terrific to hear Joecool! So glad you enjoyed this! N x
Another fantastic recipe. Made this last night, ate left overs for breaks. Thx for sharing. The broth was incredible.
That’s terrific to hear Tania! So glad you enjoyed this! N x
This is AWESOME. I added the star anise, used a LOT of ginger, used mirin instead of rice wine and added fresh chilli at the end. Well done Nagi, this was so easy, hearty and delish – exactly how cooking should be, in my opinion! 🙂 Now, excuse me as I head back for seconds.
Made this last night. Girl you rock. My best friend’s first response was “Oh my God, this is good!”. Even though it was 96 degrees we love good soup. Gotta do this again and again.
Wonderful to hear EJ! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
I really enjoyed this recipe a lot! Tastes so good!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this Sherita!!! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂 N x
I made this about a week ago as an alternative to chicken noodle soup for my husband who had a cold. We loved it! I’m making it again tonight for the same reason as I got the same cold! It really hits the spot and is a nice alternative to traditional chicken noodle. I also love how simple yet tasty it is! My husband makes bone broth from scratch Which I think heightens the flavors.
Woah! Homemade bone broth – amazing!!
Hi Nagi,
I really liked how my soup came out, although it was very mild. Next time if I let my broth cook longer with the ginger and garlic, will it have more flavor? Also, I searched high and low this afternoon for Chinese cooking wine at all of the stores in my town, but I could not find it. Instead I used mirin.
Hi Amanda! The broth for classic Chinese noodle does have a subtle flavour, but I wouldn’t say bland, not like just using plain broth! Feel free to double the ginger and garlic and cook for longer, and if you want more flavours, try adding chilli! Oh, also the flavour will be affected by the quality of broth used 🙂 I use Campbell’s brand which is a popular brand in Australia. I’ve tried cheaper no-frills brands and the flavour is not as good. N x
Nagi, the other day you posted a miraculous recipe for Chinese Noodle Soup from June 22, 2016. I couldn’t wait to get ingredients and set it up for supper! But, Nagi, there was no nutritional chart. I RELY ALWAYS on you for nutrition details, because I’m on a 2,000mg low-sodium diet (whoever HEARD of something so horrible for a human to have to eat!). I had an emergency 10-day stay in the hospital 2 months ago, and my life has been turned upside-down. Those charts are now life-savers for me. . . I don’t know how long this is going to go on, but I sure need your guiding hand to help me plan meals.
Is it a lot of trouble to put such a chart together for this recipe?
Sharon in D.C.
I’m sorry to hear about your health troubles Sharon! On it 🙂 Give me 5 minutes and the nutrition will be in the recipe! N xx
PS Also added low sodium tip 🙂
You are MY HERO! (. . . and Dozer too!)
Hi, I’m by myself, so always just cook for one person. Can I make the broth and freeze it, and add the meat, noodles and toppings after defrosting?
ABSOLUTELY! 🙂 N x
Not to be a downer but I’m going through a bad divorce and my affordable food choices was literally down to Ramen noodles every day for all meals. But I really missed the clear broth soup I used to get at my favorite Chinese restaurant. So I looked up how to make it and what it would cost me and came across this recipe. Nagi, your soup is so good, I feel ten times richer just having it. And trying the little add ons that everyone else has posted makes me feel like I’m making a new meal every day. Thank you for adding richness into my life again. I look forward to exploring all your other recipes. <3
Made this last night to use up left over roast chicken meat – created a chicken broth from the chicken bones. I was very excited to eat it when I had sampled the broth before adding the chicken and noodles! Very delicious, very easy. My husband was very happy with the dinner as well!
I’ve created a few chicken noodle soup recipes this is by far the easiest and tastiest.
So glad you enjoyed this Chantelle! N x ❤️
I’m glad I came across this recipe. It is very flavorful, and I love the different variations or options to make the soup. On my first attempt, I used 1 and 1/2 C vegetable and 1 and 1/2 C beef broth instead of chicken broth. I also used Sherry cooking wine and a dash or two of ginger powder since I had them in my cabinet. I also opted to keep the crushed garlic in my soup along with thinly sliced carrots, and celery. I topped with scallions and tortilla strips for soups. The family loves this recipe. It is not only delicious, but quick and easy. I look forward to trying other variations.
That’s so great to hear Sherri! Thanks for sharing your feedback – N x
Great recipe! Thanks from up here in Saskatoon!
We added a bit of 5-spice while roasting our chicken before making broth out of it. Worked well with your recipe on our 2nd go-round.
That’s so great to hear Troy and Tam! Thanks for sharing your feedback – N x
This is the best chicken soup I have ever eaten the broth is awesome
Thank you
I love hearing that Lorraine!! Thanks for letting me know – N x ❤️