Turn Chicken Noodle Soup Into Part Of A New Meal With Only One Ingredient

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If there's one thing we love, it's repurposing the contents of our pantries to make even better food. The best specimens of store-bought chicken noodle soup (which we ranked, along with the worst ones) are packed full of meaty chicken and hearty veggies with a flavorful, warming broth. All good stuff, to be sure, but soup alone can be a bit of a stingy meal. Thanks to social media, we've discovered a way to bulk up your favorite chicken noodle soup ... literally!

All you have to do is add a thickening agent to your soup to turn it into a hearty sauce that you can pour over the starch of your choice for a complete dinner. Cornstarch, which you can even pick up on Amazon, can be used to make a slurry. Just take a tablespoon each of cornstarch and water, and whisk them together until smooth. Add the slurry to the soup, then simmer until it thickens up. If you have time, you could also make an Emeril Lagasse-style roux as the thickener.

What was once a thin broth will become a silky umami sauce similar to a chunky gravy. You have a wide variety of choices for serving it, depending on what you have in your pantry. At its best, this jazzed-up soup topping is akin to a dead-simple four-ingredient chicken and rice meal that we love whipping up on weeknights, but even more versatile.

Once you've made your thickened soup, will you serve it atop rice, potatoes, or a biscuit? Ladled generously over a couple scoops of rice or couscous, it's pretty much the easiest meal around. Poured atop a split, crispy baked potato, it's everything you need to fill your belly in one bowl. Or, for a spin on chicken pot pie or chicken and dumplings, stick some frozen biscuits in the oven until they are hot and fluffy, then throw them on top of the thickened soup. We're even game for a little pasta-on-pasta action, pouring your chicken noodle soup over even more noodles!

If you feel like gilding the lily, there are some logical additions that would make your meal extra-amazing. Got some veggies that you could steam and smother in your sauce? How about a rotisserie chicken that you can shred for a protein boost? Honestly, if it's in your spice cabinet, there's probably a great way to incorporate it into your souper supper. A bit of curry powder gives it Indian flair, thyme and rosemary amp up the freshness, or add some ginger for a bit of nuanced heat. An easy weeknight dinner with endless potential for creativity is right up our alley, so we're gonna need lots of canned soup to start experimenting.