Main Steps for Making Chicken Soup with Frozen Chicken Breasts
You can definitely cook frozen chicken breasts directly in soup without thawing first. The process is straightforward
- Start by creating a flavor base with aromatics (onions, carrots, celery, garlic)
- Add chicken broth or stock
- Add the frozen chicken breasts directly to the simmering liquid
- Simmer until chicken is fully cooked (30-40 minutes)
- Remove chicken, shred it, then return to the pot
- Add noodles or other ingredients and finish cooking
The advantages of using frozen chicken include convenience less waste and actually maintaining more moisture in the meat (cooking from frozen often results in juicier chicken).
Key Ingredients Needed
For a basic chicken soup with frozen chicken breasts, you’ll need:
- 2-3 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 8 cups chicken broth
- Aromatic vegetables (onion, carrots, celery)
- Herbs and seasonings (thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper)
- Optional: noodles, rice, or other additions
Cooking Time
When using frozen chicken breasts, expect the cooking time to be around 30-40 minutes of simmering to fully cook the chicken. The internal temperature should reach 165°F to ensure it’s safe to eat.
This is one of the easiest comfort foods to make, even when you don’t have time to thaw chicken in advance.
Doesn’t this soup take a long time to cook?
It does take about an hour to cook, but you’re doing all the preparation work while it’s cooking. You can prep and cut the vegetables while the frozen chicken thighs boil in the water and chicken stock, then add the vegetables and clean up while the soup finishes cooking. The noodles cook in the soup while you are shredding the chicken.
You are also saving all the time that you would normally use to defrost the chicken in the microwave or the fridge. You are also lowering the risk of bacteria, like salmonella, growing while you defrost the chicken by cooking the chicken from frozen.
Save even more time by keeping all the ingredients on hand in your pantry or fridge for emergencies. In a pinch, you can easily replace any favorite noodle for the egg noodles. If you use rice, vermicelli, or mung bean noodles, make sure to soak them in room temperature water before you add it to the pot to avoid crunchy noodles!
If waiting for noodles to cook is not an option, add leftover or frozen cooked rice and for chicken and rice soup.
Don’t forget to check out these other soup and stew recipes to help you get ready for the cold weather seasons!
What makes this soup so great?
Cooking your own chicken noodle soup is easy and saves a lot of money. If you get all the ingredients on sale, you are only spending about $14.00 for 6 servings of soup. That’s cheaper than buying the fresh soup in the deli section, and about the same cost (or cheaper) than the canned stuff!
Save even more by using chicken bouillon and water instead of chicken broth. Just watch the sodium – you may have to use less than recommended to avoid a salty soup.
Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup with Frozen Chicken!
FAQ
Can you cook frozen chicken breast in soup?
You can, but you will get better results if you’ve thawed it first. Depending on the type of soup, you may want to season and brown it, or just go straight to the boil. If you have an instant pot, or similar, you can go from frozen to completely done (may need a little longer for fork-shreddable) in less than 30 min.
Do you need to defrost chicken for chicken soup?
Boil it frozen, I do it all the time, that will be the stock up out use for your soup (I ALWAYS add some bouillon). Put the chicken breast in the pot of good seasoned water/ chicken stock and boil it, you do not need to defrost it. Once it is done then you can shred for your soup then add your other ingredients…