Healthy and delicious, this is the best authentic asian chicken soup you’ll ever eat! Marinated in a Chinese Five Spice and sauteed with fresh ginger and garlic, this chicken is so tender that it will melt in your mouth! Nothing screams savory like homemade chicken noodle soup…especially with an Asian flair!!
Not only is this the best chicken noodle asian soup you’ll ever have, it’s also very near and dear to my heart. Let me tell you why….this chicken soup recipe comes from my long time friend Jessica Miller. Jessica and I were college friends 20 years ago. When I moved to the west coast, I lost touch with some of my friends but thank God for Facebook! After 20 years, I found her! It turns out, Jessica is in culinary school on her way to becoming an official chef!
One night on Facebook, I was scrolling my newsfeed and saw a yummy looking soup Jessica posted. She said she had been experimenting and putting stuff together from everything she’s been learning in culinary school. Of course I messaged her and said, “Can I PLEASE have that recipe!! I want to make that soup!!”
Jessica graciously shared her recipe and I made it last weekend. Let’s stop right there for just a minute…
Oh my goodness…hands down the absolutely best soup recipe I’ve ever tasted.
Like so amazingly good!
Why This Soup Works
- it’s super easy to make,
- the chicken is marinated in a Chinese Five Spice that tenderizes the chicken thighs,
- when you saute the marinated chicken with the fresh ginger and garlic, the taste combination is out of this world…I’m talking restaurant quality!
- and it’s healthy and gluten free since it’s made with Mei Fun noodles!
Video: How To Make Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Visuals are always helpful, right? Let me show you how easy it is to make this chicken asian noodle soup.
Ingredients You’ll Need
You’ll use boneless and skinless chicken thighs for this soup. You’ll want to marinate the chicken for 24 hours in Chinese Five Spice. Do NOT skip the marination part! Chinese Five Spice can be hard to find, but you can typically find it at a Asian grocery store or on Amazon .
If you’re not a fan of Bok Choy, you can use cabbage. What makes this soup stand out from the rest flavor wise is the marinated chicken in the Chinese Five Spice sauteed with fresh ginger and garlic. The taste is out-of-this-world delicious!
Marinating the Chicken
Like I stated earlier, don’t skip the marinating the chicken part. For the marinade, you’ll need olive oil, Chinese Five Spice powder, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Don’t worry, the red pepper flakes don’t make this dish “spicy”. It just adds additional flavor.
Once you’ve mixed the marinade ingredients, add the chicken thighs to a large bowl and baste each thigh thoroughly. Cover and place in the refrigerator and marinate for 24 hours.
Sauteing The Chicken
Once the chicken has marinated, warm a stock pot with olive oil over medium high heat. Pan sear the chicken thighs in small batches for about 5 minutes. Only sear the chicken, you do not want to cook it all the way through at this point. Remove the pan seared chicken thighs from the heat and set aside on a plate to cool.
Making Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
After you remove the chicken, keep the oil and chicken drippings in the pot and reduce the heat to medium. Add in the fresh chopped ginger and garlic and scrape the bottom of the pan to get the flavor from the drippings. Saute for about 1-2 minutes. Add in the mushrooms and saute for another 1 minute.
Add in the soy sauce, chicken broth, and water. After adding in liquid, cut the chicken in bite sized pieces and add into liquid. Reduce heat to medium low and allow to cook for 30 minutes.
Cooking Rice Noodles
For this asian noodle soup recipe, you don’t need to actually “cook” the mei fun. Simply place the noodles in a 9×13 glass dish and pour boiling water over them until completely covered. Let them soak for 10 minutes until they soften.
Once softened, add the rice noodles to the pot of soup. While the soup is cooking, cut the Bok Choy by removing the base and dice all of the remaining green leafs. You want the Bok Choy cut chunky. Soak the Bok Choy in cold water to thoroughly remove all dirt, about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes have passed, drain the Bok Choy and rinse one more time and then add into the soup to allow to cook.
Top this asian chicken noodle soup with chopped green onions. Grab a spoon or a pair of chopsticks and you are ready to serve!
Expert Tips & FAQs
- Marinating Chicken – Do NOT skip this part! This is the secret to making this recipe taste so amazing!
- Rice Noodles – a lot of rice noodles I’ve used in the past fall apart quickly when submerged in liquid for a long period of time. But these mei fun noodles hold their firm consistency. This soup lasted us all week.
- Substitutions – if you don’t want to use Bok Choy, feel free to use cabbage. Just chop it up in large chunks.
- Storage – leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. And it freezes really well!
- Adding More Broth – The noodles do tend to soak up some of the broth so feel free to add more chicken broth when reheating.
- Reheating – this soup easily reheats in the microwave or the stove top.
More Asian Inspired Recipes You’ll Love!
This Asian Sesame Chicken is super quick to make, healthy, and perfect for any weeknight dinner. Love a good stir-fry? Then you’re going to adore my Garlic Ginger Shrimp Stir Fry. The garlic ginger sauce is out of this world delish! And if you love the lettuce wraps at PF Changs, then you’ll love my version of these Asian Lettuce Wraps. Perfect for a healthy lunch or snack!
If you loved this recipe, give it a star review! Also, snap a picture of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #recipesworthrepeating and tagging me @recipesworthrepeating.
Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1.5 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice Powder
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flake
- 2.5 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 1 Tablespoon fresh minced garlic
- 1 pound Portobello mushrooms
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 pound Bok Choy
- 1 6oz. package of Mei Fun Noodles
- green onions, optional (for garnish)
Instructions
- I a large glass dish, marinate the chicken thighs using a 1/2 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Chinese Five Spice Powder, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes for at least 24 hours.
- After the chicken has marinated, warm a stock pot with 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over medium high heat.
- Sear the chicken thighs in small batches for about 5 minutes. (Only sear the chicken, you do not want to cook it all the way through at this point).
- Remove seared chicken from the heat and set aside on a plate to cool.
- Keep the oil and chicken drippings in the pot and reduce heat to medium.
- Add in the ginger and garlic, allow to cook for about 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the mushrooms and stir thoroughly. Scrape the bottom of the pot to lift the droppings for extra flavor.
- Add in the soy sauce, chicken broth and water. After adding in liquid, cut the chicken in bite sized pieces and add into liquid.
- Reduce heat to medium low and allow to cook for 30 minutes.
- While the soup is cooking, cut the Bok Choy by removing the base and dice all of the remaining green leafs. (You want your Bok Choy cut chunky). Soak the Bok Choy in cold water to thoroughly remove all dirt, about 20 minutes.
- After the 30 minutes have passed, drain the Bok Choy and rinse one more time and then add into soup to allow to cook.
- Prepare the Mei Fun by soaking in hot water for 10 minutes which is the perfect amount of time for the Bok Choy to finish cooking in your soup.
- When the Mei Fun is done, drain Mei Fun and add into soup.
- Top this soup off with chopped green onions.
Video
Notes
- Marinating Chicken - Do NOT skip this part! This is the secret to making this recipe taste so amazing!
- Rice Noodles - a lot of rice noodles I've used in the past fall apart quickly when submerged in liquid for a long period of time. But these mei fun noodles hold their firm consistency. This soup lasted us all week.
- Substitutions - if you don't want to use Bok Choy, feel free to use cabbage. Just chop it up in large chunks.
- Storage - leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. And, this soup freezes really well!
- Adding More Broth - The noodles do tend to soak up some of the broth so feel free to add more chicken broth when reheating.
- Reheating - this soup easily reheats in the microwave or the stove top.
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in September 2017, but was re-published with updated step-by-step instructions, pictures, and tips in April 2020.
The video shows 5 cups broth, 1cup water! The recipe says 5 cups water and 5 cups broth! ????
It’s 1 cup of water. I updated the recipe card just now.
Thank you!
Forgot to take a picture! This was very good, the only thing we changed was the Chinese five spice amount, we went with 1/8th of a teaspoon and it was plenty for us, and we added some chopped cilantro.
Yeah! I’m so glad you liked it!! Nice add with the cilantro!! Next time you make it, definately take a picture!
Came out really well. These are the variations I did.
I didn’t have time to marinate chicken for 24hours so did a quick marinade (chicken breast) for an hour.
Along with mushrooms, after I added broth, I also added 3 chopped carrots, 1 capsicum and cabbage chunks in the end(didn’t have bok Choy in hand) and sprinkled some dried basil and red pepper flakes in the broth.
Garnished with cilantro, mint leaves and spring onions, sliced green chilies and lemon wedges.
Used refigerated fresh rice noodles(pho).
Since we like spicy so added pepper flakes and green chillies. Who don’t like it spicy can omit these:)
Wow -those are some edits to the recipe for sure but it sounds great! I think you created a new recipe lol! It just proves how versatile this recipe it! Glad you liked it!
If you get chance to try the recipe as it is written ( marinating the chicken thighs overnight) I think you will find it is well worth it. I have made it twice now and the tender tasty chicken really makes the dish. I think the soup you made would taste completely different.
This was excellent. I added some water at the end to give it more volume. The broth was very rich so it really didn’t need the chicken stock. Really delicious and healthy recipe.
Thanks, Hazel! I’m so glad you loved it!! I agree – super yummy and healthy!
This is a really delicious soup. As the author says you really need to marinate overnight and definitely use boneless skinless chicken thighs. The chicken comes out tender and so tasty. The broth is amazing. I couldn’t find that brand of rice noodle so just added mine a couple of minutes before the end of cooking so they wouldn’t go mushy. I will be making this again!
Thanks Jenny! I’m SOOO glad you loved it!!