This Mexican Noodle Soup recipe is full of all the flavorful Mexican spices we love and couldn’t be any easier! Make it with chicken, or for a vegan version, use chickpeas! A quick, healthy, one-pot meal on the table in under 30 minutes.
Here’s a fast and easy broth-based soup that will warm you to your bones- Mexican Noodle Soup. It’s very adaptable, made with your choice of chicken breast or chickpeas (or both!) and noodles, infused with Mexican spices. Top it with cilantro, avocado and lime. It can easily be made vegan by substituting chickpeas for the chicken, which, seriously, is just as good, if not better.
Why You’ll Love This!
- Quick, one-pot recipe. This easy soup recipe is made in just 30 minutes! The best part is that it is prepared in one pot so cooking and clean up are a pinch. This Mexican Noodle Soup calls for simple ingredients that you probably already have!
- Vegan adaptable! You can easily substitute the chicken for chickpeas to create a flavorful vegan Mexican Noodle Soup. We LOVE to enjoy it this way.
- Family-friendly. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner, this soup is one everyone will love! Set up a colorful toppings bar and invite everyone to dig in.
- Healthy, brothy soup. I don’t know about you, but I love broth-based soups! They are so nurturing, warm, hydrating and comforting. This soup is bursting with nutrients from a variety of spices, vegetables, chicken (or vegetable) stock, and fresh toppings. Enjoy a satisfying, protein-rich soup thanks to the chicken or chickpeas.
Ingredients
- Olive oil: Adds richness and a subtle fruity flavor to the soup.
- Onion & garlic: Provides a savory and base for the soup, enhancing the overall flavor with its aromatic and pungent taste.
- Protein: Chicken breast or chickpeas ( or both!) add protein and a heartiness to the soup.
- Spices: Salt, cumin, chili powder, coriander, dried Mexican oregano (or bay leaves), chipotle powder (or cayenne). These spices add warm, earthy, and smoky flavor to the soup, providing mild heat with a touch of citrusy, nutty, and herbal notes. The chipotle/cayenne offers a spicy kick!
- Tomato: Adds a hint of tanginess to the soup.
- Diced green chilies (optional): Adds a mild heat and subtle smoky flavor to the soup.
- Chicken stock: Provides a rich and savory base for the soup, enhancing its depth of flavor. Use vegetable stock if making this vegan. Chicken broth, vegetable broth, or chicken bouillon work fine here too!
- Noodles: Linguini or spaghetti add texture and substance to the soup, but can be substituted with other types of pasta or gluten-free/rice noodles. Vermicelli noodles, angel hair pasta, or thin spaghetti all work great in this recipe.
- Fresh Lime juice: Brightens the flavors of the soup with a tangy and citrusy kick.
- Garnishes: Avocado slices, sour cream, fresh cilantro, scallions, hot sauce, queso fresco. Or add anything else that you enjoy!
- Chopped veggies: Try adding carrot, celery, bell pepper, or other veggies to the soup for additional flavor, texture, and nutritional benefits!
How to Make Mexican Noodle Soup
- Saute. In a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven, saute onion in olive oil over med-high heat for two minutes.
- Add chicken. Add chicken and garlic. Saute 5-6 minutes until it begins to turn golden brown. Stir often. (See notes for chickpeas!)
- Add spices, tomato, chilies, and liquid. Add salt and spices, oregano and cook 1 more minute. Add tomato, chilies, stock and water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat.
- Add pasta. Once boiling, add pasta, resisting the temptation to add more (it will swell). Bring to a boil once more, turn heat to medium, and simmer ten minutes or until pasta is done cooking.
- Taste and adjust for lime and salt. Squeeze the lime, taste, add more salt to taste. If soup tastes bland, it need more salt and lime. 🙂
- Serve with fresh garnishes! Place in bowls and top with sliced avocado, fresh cilantro and scallions, and serve with a squeeze of lime juice.
Serving SuggestionS
Dish it up tonight and top the flavorful soup with avocado slices, jalapeño, scallions, cilantro and lime wedges. If you like richness, add a dollop of sour cream. For extra spicy, serve with hot sauce on the side.
A fiesta for the senses! So much flavor and goodness happening here friends. It’s one of those meals that the whole family can dig into, comforting, satisfying and very adaptable. I hope you enjoy this variation of Mexican sopa de fideo.
FAQs
Traditionally called sopa de fideo, Mexican Noodle Soup is a traditional Mexican soup made from toasted fideo noodles cooked in a flavorful tomato-based broth. This variation of the sopa de fideo recipe does not toast the noodles. Instead, the noodles are added after the stock and water and cooked in the soup.
Yes! Use gluten-free linguine or rice noodles. Cook the noodles separately and then add them to the soup. If they are cooked in the soup they can turn the broth milky.
Store this soup (once cooled) in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. It tastes even better the next day! When reheating leftovers, heat back up in the microwave or bring to the stovetop and cook over medium heat until warm.
Yes, this is a freezer-friendly recipe. Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Other soup recipes you may enjoy
Hope you enjoy this Mexican spin on Chicken Noodle Soup. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
xoxo
Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup | Video
Mexican Noodle Soup Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4-6
- Category: Soup, main, dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
This Mexican Noodle Soup recipe is full of all the flavorful Mexican spices we love and couldn’t be any easier! Make it with chicken, or for a vegan version use chickpeas! A quick, healthy, one-pot meal, on the table in under 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion- diced
- 4 garlic cloves- rough chopped
- 1 – 1 1/4 lbs. chicken breast diced into small cubes (or sub 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained)
- 1 teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoon coriander
- 2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano (or a couple bay leaves)
- 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoons chipotle powder or cayenne, or to taste
- 1 tomato – diced
- 1 small can diced green chilies (optional)
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 4 cups water
- 4–6 ounces dry linguini noodles (or pasta, or gluten-free or rice noodles– see notes)
- Juice of one lime
- Garnish with avocado slices, sour cream, fresh cilantro, scallions and lime
- Optional: feel free to add chopped veggies ( carrot, celery, bell pepper, etc)
Instructions
- In a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven, saute onion in 1-2 T olive oil over med-high heat for two minutes.
- Add chicken and garlic. Saute 5-6 minutes until it begins to brown, stirring often.
- Add salt and spices, oregano and cook 1 more minute. Add tomato, chilies, stock and water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, add pasta, resisting the temptation to add more (it will swell). Bring to a boil once more, turn heat to medium-low heat, and simmer ten minutes or until pasta is done cooking and chicken is cooked through and tender.
- Squeeze the lime, taste, add more salt to taste. If soup tastes bland, it need more salt and lime. 🙂
- Place in bowls and top with sliced avocado and fresh cilantro and scallions and serve with a wedge of lime.
Notes
- Note: if substituting chickpeas, saute with the garlic for just a couple minutes before continuing with the recipe. You can also use both chickpeas and chicken for a heartier version.
- If using Gluten-free noodles, cook separately before adding ( they can cause the soup to turn milky).
- Feel free to use other protein: ground beef , ground turkey, chicken thighs etc.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 347
- Sugar: 4.8 g
- Sodium: 508.4 mg
- Fat: 5.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 51.5 g
- Fiber: 5.7 g
- Protein: 26.5 g
- Cholesterol: 55.2 mg
Gorgeous broth and soup recipe. I kept it vegetarian with chickpeas and added carrots and jalapeños to mine. I served it with avocado and multigrain crackers. So perfect on these cold Nashville days! Thank you for the recipe 🙏🏾💗
Hi Angeleli! Happy you liked this one. Always love how you enhance and adapt. Thanks for the helpful review!
easy, satisfying, and much less messy than classic chicken soup.
Glad you enjoyed this Barbara!
this is another great and simple recipe from you amazing ladies! I have made it several times now , with the carrots, celery, and chickpeas, instead of chicken. Only thing I change is to cook my noodles separately, and then put them in the individual bowls and ladle the soup over top of the noodles. I find, for me, that the noodles swell and get too soft if they are cooked in the broth. Love this recipe!!
I prefer that method too Sandy. So glad you are enjoying!
Love your recipes
This soup is fantastic, on rotation in our house!
Great to hear!
This recipe looks great, like all of your recipes! Will try this in my instapot using dried chickpeas. Thanks!
Let us know how it goes!
I have made this soup several times. SO good and easy! I added carrots and celery with the onions and used 505 green chilies instead of a can of chilies. This is one of my favorite comfort foods.
Great to hear Leah! Do you usually make it with chicken or vegetarian with chickpeas?
I’ve made it both ways, which are equally delicious. I have also made it with both the chickpeas and chicken for a little extra heartiness.
Great to hear!
Outstanding recipe! I used orzo as the pasta with chicken, and added some frozen veggies to make it a one-dish meal. A scant 1/2 tsp of porcini powder was the grace note. I left out the green chiles. Perfect for a winter dinner!
Perfect MaryJane- love the orzo here!
Another fabulous recipe! I made a variation of this for many years as a house staple but your recipe really steps up the flavour!!! Thank you!
Thank Moira-appreciate this!
Amazing flavors! And so fast and easy! Added sliced carrots, diced celery and red bell pepper and frozen corn along with the chicken and homemade chicken stock. I think the people who find it lacking flavor need some better chili powder and chipotle. I use chili powder from Chimayo which enhances and spices up the dishes. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
Thanks Sharon!
Two cans of chickpeas is too many, and lacking veggies! But with some bell pepper or other veggies and one can of chickpeas, this is a healthy, tasty, and very easy meal with minimal cleanup!
Gottcha- you are right Amanda. Recipe adjusted. 😉
Sooo good. We made the chickpea version. Had a couple rounds of pita bread in the pantry, and it hit the spot. Wonderful flavors, but I also want more veggies and less beans. Suggestions?
Awesome Kimberly! Feel free to add more veggies-as long as the broth is flavorful -you can easily change up the proportions here!
Delicious and easy. We loved it!
Perfect!
Fabulous and easy. I would only use one can of beans next time. It was a wonderful mixture of tastes!
Good to know Genna- thanks and glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastic soup!
I used to live I Houston, TX, where Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen was rated one of the 10 best Tex-Mex restaurants in the US. She made a version of this soup where her recipe called for the vermicelli pasta to be sautéed in oil first, to toast the pasta. Absolutely delicious!
I have to say that Sylvia’s “Feasting at Home” recipe is absolutely superb! Right up there with Sylvia’s authentic Tex-Mex award winning cuisine.
Paula
Great to hear Paula! Glad you enjoyed this!
You are always there with the best recipes and techniques!
Paula
thanks Paula!
This is a great soup! Total comfort food with the noodles added in. Super easy and quick to make too! Yum!
Glad you liked this Leah!
Very satisfying!
Next I would rub the chickpeas while the onions brown to get the skins off (most of the skins separated during the boiling which isn’t the most appetizing)
I broke the noodles as someone suggested and used 3 cups of water and 5 of broth.
I threw in some frozen shrimp at the same time as the noodles.
I wonder what other veggies would work well in here?
next time**
Thanks Milly- you could add zucchini,corn and peppers?
Hi Sylvia!
I LOVE HEAT but I didn’t have a can of green chili’s…thankfully! This soup was so extremely hot I was concerned. I ended up adding another large tomato and a can of coconut milk. It sort of helped. My bf typically can’t take much spice which is a huge drag to me, so I tend to give him a heaping spoonful of sour cream as part of the garnish in his bowl to cool it down. I think it worked but as a vegan, I couldn’t try his doctored bowl!
Additionally I fried up cubes of tofu (dredged in cornstarch so they’d crisp up when fried) I added those as garnish. A very delicious soup that I’ll definitely make again but I will halve the spice quantities to adjust for our tastes!
For the future, as a chef, Sylvia, what else could I do to cool the heat if I find a meal too spicy for my taste? I know dairy helps but I’m vegan.
Thanks!
Hi Mandy- I’m not sure what made it overly spicy here? Did you happen to use canned jalapenos instead of canned chilies? Just curious!
I didn’t use canned chili’s or jalapenos at all! I didn’t have those ingredients so I skipped them! I think my measurements were off. I didn’t use a proper measuring teaspoon, I just used a small cutlery teaspoon instead but it must’ve been too big!
Yes, maybe that was the problem?