Making a soup from scratch should not feel scary, overwhelming, or complicated. I love our easy Asian inspired home made chicken noodle soup, with a spicy broth base. Easy and flavourful ingredients that can be thrown together in 30 minutes? Sold!

Let me preface this with this fact: comfort food – basic or with a twist – is my favourite thing on the planet. Comfort food doesn’t have to be labelled as not healthy.

Where it all started

My aunt has always known that she wanted to pass down recipes to her kids and nieces.

Growing up, I used to love going to my aunt and uncles house. My aunt and I would make something. If my uncle wasn’t working his tail off, we’d play Nintendo together (where are my 80’s & 90’s kids at).

Being at my aunt and uncles house, always meant getting myself in the kitchen and making a mess or two. The only difference now, is that I have to clean it up!

The Binder

My aunt has been putting recipes aside for years and she always kept the most common ones in the kitchen in her own binder.

I moved out on my own at 18 (technically 17, but who is nitpicking), and I was constantly asking when I would get my version of the binder.

Throughout the years, my aunt stood firm on her stance – you get the binder when you get married.

She did break the rules, and regretted it. It makes for a funny story for the rest of us 😉

Now, that was all the way back in 2004/2005. Shockingly, I got engaged in 2017 after being with Jason for 11 years. That’s right; we were together for ELEVEN YEARS and bought a condo together! We joked we’d stay engaged forever.

I really wanted that binder full of recipes.

After being engaged for a whopping 7 weeks, and shocking our families, I knew I was this close to having that binder.

I’ve since added recipes from my husbands family. The only thing I don’t have is his grandmothers chicken soup. There is no recipe – she just chucks things in. Please let COVID be over soon, so I can go over there and make meticulous notes.

Future generations cannot survive without Seda’s chicken soup!

Nothing Beats Home Made Soup

We meal plan every weekend. With a ton of rain in the forecast, I was adamant that soup be a part of our upcoming menu.

I knew I wanted a spicy broth based soup this time. Previously we made a butternut squash soup from Damn Delicious. With that, I knew I wanted to switch up the style of soup.

My aunt has a recipe for a chicken noodle bowl in the binder, and that’s what I used to inspire. Depending on my mood, I’ll swap out or add ingredients to suit what I’m in the mood for. This time, I wanted a spicy broth.

The Asian inspired chicken noodle soup was born.

For the record, I am not the main cook in our household.

Ultimately, when I am in charge of cooking, odds are the meal has a certain level of spice 😉

Sometimes I really do wonder how I’m related to my parents as they are not lovers of the spice!

Asian Inspired Chicken Noodle Soup

Option: Spicy Broth Base

I start off by marinating the chicken in a mixture of sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper.

Ingredient List

• 1 package pad thai noodles
• 1/2 large sweet onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• Fresh ginger – approx 1-2 tbsp
• One package chicken thighs (ours usually comes in a 6 pack)
• 8oz bottle of Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp Chilli garlic sauce (more or less depending on your spice level)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1.5L Chicken Stock
• 7-8 Cups of Water
• 1 bag frozen peas or peas and carrots
• Green onions

If you have corn on hand, that works really well in this recipe as well.

Directions

Take marinating chicken out of the fridge, and throw in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Boil a pot of water for the Pad Thai noodles. As you wait for the water to come to a boil, its time to work on the base of your soup.

Mince garlic and ginger, and chop up your onion. Grab your soup pot, combine your chicken stock and water to create the base of your broth.

Take your ginger, garlic, and onion and sautee with sesame oil in a separate pan. After a few minutes, add the sweet chilli sauce, oyster sauce, chilli garlic sauce, and soy sauce along with salt and pepper. I let simmer together for about 5 minutes.

Add the ginger garlic mixture to the soup base, and continue to simmer. Your spicy broth base is done!

Once your water is boiling, add your Pad Thai noodles. These typically take about 5-7 minutes, but check the directions on the package to make sure you don’t over cook.

After the noodles are done cooking, remove from water and rinse with cold water.

After the chicken thighs have cooked, chop up and throw into the broth base along with the peas (or peas and carrots).

Now Serving: Home made chicken noodle soup

Divide the Pad Thai noodles into your dishes. Ladle the soup mixture over top. Garnish with green onions, et voila – home made chicken noodle soup! Happily consume your easy chicken noodle soup, and I promise not to judge you if you go back for more. In the event you need a little more of a spice kick, go for it!

FYI – you can easily make this vegetarian. To do so, just replace chicken with tofu, veggie stock, and remove the oyster sauce.

The aromatic and spicy broth is what makes this dish so comforting for me. That, and the face that it’s home made. You can’t beat a soup made from scratch!

This makes enough for four hearty servings.

Spicy Broth Based Goodness

There you have it; the perfect spicy broth based soup for chilly fall nights. This Asian inspired chicken noodle soup, with a kick, is now on Jason’s request list.

And what is it? Not complicated. Just an easy home made soup, that can be whipped up in no time!

Additionally, this soup pairs well with a glass of red wine – just sayin!

What is something you always make sure is in your rotation in the fall? Did you try this soup?? Let me know below!