Best Chicken Soup Recipes – Chicken Noodle Soups, Spicy Chicken Soups, Chicken Rice Soups and More

Our best chicken soup recipes include recipes for chicken noodle soups, spicy chicken soups, chicken rice soups and more. We’ve compiled our most popular chicken soup recipes into this collection, which include recipes for Southeast Asian soups such as the Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup, ohn no khao swe, and hearty Russian soups, such as the barley pickle soup with chicken, rassolnik.

This collection of our best chicken soup recipes includes some of the most-read recipes on Grantourismo at the moment and it’s no surprise. There are few things more comforting than chicken soup and with all the uncertainty in the world right now we are all in need of some comfort.

From an old-fashioned chicken noodle soup to get us through the day and a hearty barley chicken soup to share with loved ones, to a chicken rice soup to nourish us when we’re feeling ill and a spicy chicken soup to warm the body and soul, you’ll find some of our best chicken soup recipes below.

But before I tell you more about our best chicken soup recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.

Another option is to use links on our site to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.

Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about our best chicken soup recipes.

Best Chicken Soup Recipes – Chicken Noodle Soups, Spicy Chicken Soups, Chicken Rice Soups and More

These chicken soup recipes are our picks of the many comforting soups we have on our site. See these warming winter broths for more meal ideas, and if you’re a fan of the chook, peruse our collection of best chicken recipes.

You can also browse our recipe archives (link above), use the search tool if you’re looking for a specific recipe, or ask us a question in the comments at the end of any posts. Do bookmark this page as we’ll add more chicken soup recipes from time to time.

Best Chicken Soup Recipes – Chicken Noodle Soups, Spicy Chicken Soups, Chicken Rice Soups and More

Russian Barley Pickle Soup with Chicken and Vegetables for Rassolnik

This recipe from my Russian family recipes for the barley pickle soup with chicken and vegetables makes rassolnik, a healthy, hearty soup or stew, depending on how dense you like this beloved Russian dish, is one of our best chicken soup recipes. While borscht might be the best known Russian soup – also found in Ukraine and Belarus, the three nations that formed from the Kievan-Rus Empire – rassolnik has a special place in the hearts and stomachs of Russians.

My recipe makes a very old Russian soup that in its early form was far less dense and less like a stew and more like a consommé from my research. As I don’t recall eating this when we were in Russia – I was too obsessed with sampling the many different regional variations of borscht – I’m not sure if rassolnik thickened up in the post-Soviet years or in the Russian diaspora.

If you enjoy this, do try my borscht recipe, based on my Russian grandmother’s recipe. If you’ve cooked this dish or any of my Russian family recipes, our Cambodian recipes, or any recipes at all from our site and you’ve enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo so that we can keep producing delicious recipes and food stories.

Russian Barley Pickle Soup Recipe for Rassolnik with Chicken and Vegetables

 

Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup Recipe for Ohn No Khao Swe

This ohn no khao swe recipe for Myanmar’s Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup is another of our best chicken soup recipes and one of the most popular chicken recipes on the site. Our ohn no khao swe recipe will make you one of Myanmar’s most-loved soups alongside mohinga.

Terence’s rendition combines the best of the many bowls we slurped on our travels, starting with the first ohn no khao swe we savoured at Yangon’s grand old hotel, The Strand. Ohn no khao swe consists of egg noodles in an aromatic chicken soup with a coconut milk base, chicken drumsticks (although you could use chicken breasts if you prefer), garnished with crunchy fried noodles, boiled eggs, shallots, fried garlic, dried chilli, lime, coriander (cilantro), and sometimes fried chickpea fritters.

Generally considered to be a street food dish, offered by roving vendors and available from markets and roadside stalls, you’ll also see it on menus everywhere from simple family-ran eateries and cafés to hotel restaurants and shopping mall food courts. Make sure to order it – and make it.

Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe for Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup

Classic Cambodian Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe for Kuy Teav

This traditional Cambodian kuy teav recipe makes one of Cambodia’s most popular breakfast noodle soups, kuy teav sach moan. We use succulent poached chicken breasts, which are shredded, but you could also use other chicken parts. It’s also another one of our best chicken soup recipes and one of my personal favourites.

This chicken soup is in the restrained style you’d typically find in a simple local eatery or market or street food stall in Cambodia. A good clear flavourful stock is the hallmark of this soup rather than a bowl abundant with ingredients, so my best tip to making this classic Cambodian kuy teav recipe is to have a good chicken stock on hand.

I’m lucky to be married to a man who almost always has stock ready to use. When Terence needs chicken stock for a dish, he’ll make a big batch and we’ll split it up re-sealable plastic bags or plastic containers and freeze the stuff. We provide tips in this recipe for making chicken stock at home.

Classic Cambodian Kuy Teav Recipe for Cambodia’s Favourite Chicken Noodle Soup

Northern Thai Chicken Curry Noodle Soup Recipe for Chiang Mai’s Khao Soi Gai

This khao soi gai recipe makes the delicious Chiang Mai curried chicken noodle soup that is as beloved by culinary travellers to the Northern Thailand city, as much as it is loved by locals. Khao soi gai is a one-bowl meal of egg noodles, a rich, oily coconut cream-infused stock, and a leg or thigh of bone-in chicken (‘gai’ is Thai for chicken) topped with crunchy noodles.

Slurped at market stalls, simple eateries and fancy restaurants, khao soi gai is perhaps the best known of the wonderful Northern Thai-style Lanna specialties and quickly becomes addictive. We’ve based whole trips to Chiang Mai in the past on seeking out the best bowls of khao soi.

It’s a lunchtime favourite across Chiang Mai and it’s so popular that I reckon that when locals meet and ask each other “have you eaten rice today?” to mean “have you eaten yet?” that they should be asking “have you eaten khao soi gai yet?” It’s easily another of our best chicken soup recipes.

Khao Soi Gai Recipe – How to Make Chiang Mai Curry Noodle Chicken Soup 

Cambodian Pickled Lime Chicken Soup Recipe for Sngor Ngam Ngov

This Cambodian pickled lime chicken soup recipe makes sngor ngam ngov, a slightly sweet, slightly sour, perfumed citrus-driven soup that brims with pieces of succulent chicken thighs, fragrant from the lime and aromatics such as lemongrass and coriander that swim in this nourishing broth.

In contrast to a ‘samlor’, which describes anything from a hearty soup to a stew to a curry and is often kroeung-based, a ‘sngor’ is a clearer soup that’s still distinguished by herbs, but herbs added whole rather than pounded into a paste. ‘Ngam ngov’ is pickled lime in Khmer, which is what gives this soup its punchy zingy flavour.

While a Cambodian pickled lime soup is almost always made with chicken or ‘moan’ in Khmer, moan rarely appears in the name as the soup is really about those pickled limes. Many Cambodians have a lime tree in the garden and will have big jars of pickled limes in the kitchen.

If you can’t get hold of any, use preserved lemons. Easy to make, this is one of my favourite Cambodian chicken soups and another of our best chicken soup recipes.

Comforting Cambodian Pickled Lime Soup with Chicken Recipe for Sngor Ngam Ngov

Russian Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe with Chicken Meatballs for a Comforting Old-Fashioned Soup

Our Russian chicken noodle soup recipe with chicken meatballs makes another one of my Russian family recipes, my Russian grandmother’s chicken noodle soup – with a few tweaks. It’s an old-fashioned chicken noodle soup – let’s call it a retro soup – but it’s also a comforting soup as only chicken soups made from scratch can be.

This Russian chicken noodle soup recipe is also an easy soup to make, coming together quickly, in just 30 minutes or so.  The juicy chicken meatballs cook in the soup and there’s no stock to make, the flavour coming from the meatballs and subtle use of spice. It’s also a fantastic soup for leftovers, refrigerating well, and tasting even better the next day.

The flavours are well balanced, but if you want even more punch, you could add a little paprika to the chicken meatballs, or a sprinkle of chilli flakes to the broth to give it a little kick.

That’s not such a Russian thing to do, but plenty of fresh fragrant dill, a dollop of sour cream, and a dish of dill pickles and slices of dark rye bread on the side, will well and truly ensure this Russian chicken noodle soup recipe doesn’t lose its identity.

Russian Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe with Chicken Meatballs for a Comforting Old-Fashioned Soup

 

Indonesian Soto Ayam Recipe for a Chicken Noodle Soup from Yogyakarta

Our soto ayam recipe for Indonesia’s favourite chicken noodle soups is based on the aromatic breakfast noodle soup we became smitten with on our last day in Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java, and it’s another of our best chicken soup recipes.

We’d travelled to Java to explore the spectacular sites of Borobudur and Prambanan, but became just as enamoured with the food. We’d noticed signs for soto ayam on rickety old food carts all over the city, but it wasn’t until our last morning that we had time to taste Yogyakarta’s take on Indonesia’s soto ayam from a spotlessly clean 30-year-old food stall ran by a fastidious cook near, located by the walls of the Sultan’s Palace. ‘

Soto’ means soup and ‘ayam’ is chicken and this Indonesian chicken soup with noodles is the go-to street food breakfast for many locals across the country.

It’s essentially an aromatic chicken broth with rice noodles, garnishes and condiments, and while there are countless versions of this Indonesian chicken noodle soup, the Yogyakarta cook’s soto ayam stood out for the consommé-like clarity of the light soup and fragrant aromas from the stock.

Soto Ayam Recipe for Yogyakarta’s Indonesian Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul

 

Mexican Sopa de Tortilla or Tortilla Soup Recipe from San Miguel de Allende

This Mexican sopa de tortilla or tortilla soup recipe is based on a hearty chicken stock. While there’s no chicken in the soup we make, you could add chicken pieces.

Our recipe is a combination of a tortilla soup Terence had been making for years before our first trip to Mexico in the Nineties, and a tortilla soup that we learnt on our last trip at the excellent cooking school in San Miguel de Allende. The most important thing is to get the chicken stock right.

Most stock-based soups were invented to extend the yield from meats that are used in a kitchen. But the quality of the stock made is as important as the quality of meat. Even if you only make stock as a home cook a few times in your life, at least try it. Only then can you judge other stocks and compare them to store-bought stocks.

How important is stock to cooking? I’ve never been in a Michelin-star kitchen during prep and not seen an apprentice chef dutifully clarifying stocks. Having said that, we do use quality store-bought stocks and bouillon in dishes loaded with other flavours.

Sopa de Tortilla or Tortilla Soup Recipe from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Cambodian Chicken Rice Soup Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan

This Cambodian chicken rice soup recipe for borbor sach moan, Cambodia’s chicken congee, and it’s another of our best chicken soup recipes. Our Cambodian recipes are incredibly popular with our readers.

But while it’s no surprise to see that our fish amok recipe for amok trei, a rich fish curry steamed in banana leaf, ranks as one of our most popular recipes on the site year after year, it’s a delightful surprise to see this recipe for Cambodia’s take on Chinese congee is so popular.

This nourishing dish is a classic Cambodian-Chinese comfort food favourite that is also another of our favourites. This recipe uses chicken breasts poached in stock. Here in Cambodia, however, you’ll find anything from chicken, pork, meatballs, fish, dried fish, seafood, snails, to frog legs used in rice soups and rice porridge.

You’ll also see a range of condiments sprinkled, splashed and doused on Cambodian congee, including fish sauce, dried fish floss, chilli oil, chilli flakes, pickles, and fresh aromatic herbs.

It doesn’t get as much attention as Cambodian breakfast noodle soups, such as kuy teav and nom banh chok, but it’s just as delicious.

Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan, Cambodia’s Congee

Indonesian Chicken Rice Soup Recipe for a Balinese Bubur Ayam

This authentic bubur ayam recipe for a traditional Indonesian chicken congee with shredded omelette has long been one of our top chicken recipes on Grantourismo. A classic local breakfast in Indonesia, this recipe makes the Balinese version of congee eaten all over Southeast Asia, made with poached chicken breast.

This recipe dates back to 2010, the year we launched Grantourismo with a yearlong grand tour of the world aimed at inspiring our readers to travel more slowly, more locally and more experientially, and launched a series called The Dish, based on quintessential dishes we learnt to cook in the places we settled into.

Terence learned to make this bubur ayam recipe while cooking with Desak, the cook at the villa we settled into for two weeks in Bali, as part of Terence’s quest to learn as much as he could about Balinese cuisine during our time there.

Desak taught him everything from this bubur ayam recipe to a basa gede Balinese sauce recipe and Balinese-style saté and ayam betutu, a steamed chicken dish wrapped in banana leaf made with the basa gede, and Terence taught her some Australian and European dishes. 

Bubur Ayam Recipe for Indonesian Congee with Chicken and Shredded Omelette

Do let us know if you in the comments below if you make any of our best chicken soup recipes as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.