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, just 352 calories for a big bowl. Use any noodles, any vegetables, any protein – or not! Terrific fridge forage food.
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);
- 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
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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 have some pork broth in the freezer do you think that will work as a substitute to chicken broth? Or can you recommend another recipe?
Hi Jo – you can use pork broth, the flavour will be slightly richer but still delicious! N x
this soup is AMAZING!!! I used shrimp instead I’d chicken. Of course I am also adding chili paste to my bowl.
Made this tonight, aged coriander root and a chilli to the broth.
Was so damn good
Sounds fabulous Vanessa! N x
Would I be able to replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth for a vegetarian dish?
Yes 100% Jo! N x
I’ve cooked so many of your recipes already and this one was another winner! I loved how quick this was to cook. I did not expect this wow factor! The whole family loved it.
Loved this recipe tried it tonight was very light but still felt pleasantly filled. Nagi if i used star anise to add a little more flavour how long should i simmer it for with out being to over powering. 🤔
Thank you for yet another delicious recipe xoo
Could I poach the chicken in the broth?
Hi Aimy, you sure can – your broth mat be a little cloudy though. If you want to poach it separately use this method here: https://www.recipetineats.com/poached-chicken/ N x
Fantastic fresh flavorful delicious!! Thanks for a wonderful recipe. Subbed pork for chicken, added snow peas and cilantro. Will go into my favorites pile!
Is it possible to make it in advance and re-heat it? What if you have some left over and want to eat it the next day?
It looks so good, We want to make it, but our schedules are unpredictable especially when the rest of the family comes to visit.
Hi Pam – it’s fine to make in advance, I like to keep the noodles separate though 🙂 N x
Is this freezeable? Looking for something to make ahead / batch cook. Many thanks.
Hi Mrs F. You can freeze the broth – just add the noodles and chicken upon serving 🙂 N x
The depth of flavour is incredible for such a simple, quick, easy soup.
I made my own broth but fine tuned it w/ YOUR recipe..Oh my gosh best soup ever.
Nagi thank you it was delicious but what’s the secret of getting the buk Choi tender- I never have success with this vegetable
Hi Diane, you need to blanch it before adding it to the soup – I do this in step 4 🙂 N x
This recipe is fast and amazingly delicious. I used it for a base for egg drop soup. also added poached chicken. Healthy and delicious!
Yum! Sounds great Linda!! N x
This was AMAZING! My whole family loved it. Used oyster sauce and added onion to the broth, topped with chicken and carrots. So delicious and so easy! Thank you!
Oh my gosh, Nagi, I came across your page after seeing the recipe for Cheese and garlic crack bread, and started looking and saving several others. I saw this recipe for Chinese noodle soup, and it made my entire day! my boyfriend is Chinese, and his mom made this for us this past weekend, and i fell in love! i kept asking him for the recipe but just got basic answers.. after just making this tonight only hours after finding it, I’m in absolute love!! the flavors are out of this world! thank you so much for this, and all of the others I can’t wait to try!!
Delicious! Perfect fridge clearing food!
Needed something quick, warming, to use up the Raman noodles my girls loved last week but no longer like today… and the 5 billion sugarsnap peas that seem suddenly need picking and eating right now.
I couldn’t find cooking wine, and accidentally bought fish sauce instead of oyster sauce. Would this work in place of the oyster sauce?
Nagi, your recipes are always such a pleasure to make and to eat…and this one was no exception! We loved it – especially topped with slices of leftover char siu pork…mmm! Sooooo good – thanks for another trusty dish!
Yum, sounds perfect June!! N x
This was fantastic! I doubled it and did half soy half oyster, made the broth and let it simmer for a couple of hours and then pulled out the garlic cloves, mashed them into a paste and stirred them through the broth. Used a variety of veg and tried your poached chicken breast recipe, turned out perfectly. Thank you for a wonderfully flavourful and simple recipe!
I was looking for a recipe which had Bok Choi in it, as I grew something. I whipped this up and the whole family LOVED it. Adding it to my ‘best recipes’ cookbook and will check out your other recipes!! Thank you from NZ. xx