Loved a recipe? Have a question? Please share a comment. 🙂
This easy sopa de fideo recipe is pure Mexican comfort food. Tender noodles and shredded chicken are served in a flavorful, lightly spiced broth just like Nana used to make.
This Mexican soup brings me back to my nana’s kitchen. She always had something simmering on the stove and with so many grandchildren to feed, soup was often on the lunch menu. Sopa de fideo was one of our favorite meals – it was right up there with albondigas soup! Nana would ladle it into big bowls then serve it with a stack of warm tortillas and some sliced cheese. To me, recipes like this are pure comfort food.
Sopa de fideo is easy to make and features ingredients most children love: flavorful broth, tender noodles, and shredded chicken. It fills bellies, warms hearts, and lifts spirits!
Why You’ll Love this Mexican Soup
- Simple. There are less than 10 ingredients in this recipe, all of them super simple to find. Sopa de fideo is a staple of Mexican moms and grandma’s everywhere for a reason.
- Filling & Flavorful. Tender shredded chicken and a flavorful broth will satisfy hungry bellies!
- Comforting. There’s a reason the idea of “chicken soup for the soul” is a thing. Many cultures have some form of cozy, comforting soup and this Mexican version checks all the boxes.
What is Sopa de Fideo?
Sopa de fideo is basically Mexican noodle soup. In Spanish, “sopa de fideo” literally means “noodle soup.” Because this recipe includes shredded chicken, it is technically “sopa de pollo con fideos,” or “chicken noodle soup.”
There are many variations of sopa de fideo: some without chicken, some made with albondigas (meatballs), and also one made with beans. There is even a version called sopa de letras, which is alphabet soup. Which one is “authentic,” you wonder? Well, whichever one your mama (or abuela) used to make!
What Are Fideos? Is It Just Cut Spaghetti?
Fideos are very thin, long noodles that are broken into smaller pieces and then lightly toasted before being made into soup. In Mexico, fideos are a specific kind of noodle but you can also use thin spaghetti, angel hair, or vermicelli pasta. You can even use letter-shaped pasta noodles.
What You’ll Need
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need to make sopa de fideo. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for specific amounts.
- Olive oil – You can also use vegetable oil.
- Mexican fideos – You can also use angel hair spaghetti or vermicelli noodles.
- Roma tomatoes — Feel free to substitute with canned diced tomatoes.
- Onion – I prefer yellow onion but white onion also works.
- Garlic cloves
- Water and vegetable broth – You can also use chicken broth.
- Chicken breasts – No skin.
- Jalapeño – You can also use a serrano chile.
- Ground cumin
- Salt and pepper – To taste
- Fresh cilantro – Chopped, for serving
How to Make Mexican Sopa de Fideo
Are you ready to make Mexican fideo soup? Here’s how to do it:
- Blend the tomatoes. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and 1 cup of water in the blender. Process until you get a smooth mixture.
- Fry the fideos. Add the oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add the fideos and stir them for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
- Add the tomato mixture, remaining liquid, and seasonings. Add the tomato mixture into the pot and stir the fideos immediately. Pour in the remaining water and broth, then mix well. Add the kosher salt, black pepper, and ground cumin. Mix well.
- Add the chicken. Place the chicken in the pot. Increase the heat to high. Once it gets to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and let the soup simmer for 35-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the chile. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, use a sharp knife to carefully score the jalapeño. Add it to the pot and cook the soup for another 6-7 minutes.
- Adjust seasonings. Remove the jalapeño. Taste the soup and adjust salt/pepper to taste if needed.
- Shred the chicken. With two forks, shred the chicken breasts.
- Serve. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with cilantro.
Tips for the Best Sopa de Fideos
- Use rotisserie chicken. You can skip the step where the chicken is cooked by using rotisserie chicken.
- Add veggies. You can add diced carrots, potatoes, zucchini, or yellow squash for even more nutrients. Make sure you cut them into bite-sized pieces.
- Adjust the amount of liquid. If you prefer your sopa de fideo to have more stew-like consistency, reduce the amount of water used. Likewise, if you want it to be soupier, add more water or broth.
Serving Suggestions
- Warm tortillas. I recommend serving your sopa de fideo with some warm tortillas. Corn or flour tortillas both go equally well with this classic Mexican soup.
- Sliced cheese. Cut a block of cheddar cheese, pepper jack, or Monterrey Jack cheese into slices and serve with the tortillas. Add a couple of pieces to your tortilla and wrap the tortilla around the cheese so it can melt. Then take bites out of the tortilla roll in between mouthfuls of soup.
- Lime wedges. I love adding a few squeezes of fresh lime juice to each bowl of soup. Let people decide how much they want by giving them a couple of lime wedges with their bowl.
How to Store and Reheat Extras
- Store the fideos separately. They’ll absorb most of the broth within a couple of hours. Use a strainer spoon to remove them from the soup before storing leftovers.
- Fridge. Let the soup and fideos cool, then transfer them to airtight containers and store them in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat. When you’re ready to eat some of your soup, ladle the desired amount of soup and fideos into an appropriately sized pot and warm over medium-low heat until it reaches the desired temperature. You can also reheat single-servings in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through.
I don’t recommend freezing sopa de fideo because the texture of the cooked noodles will change too much.
More Soup Recipes to Try
Sopa de Fideo
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
- 3.5 oz dried Mexican fideo
- 3 ½ cups Roma tomatoes, diced
- ½ small white onion, roughly chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 4 cups water
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 lb chicken breasts, no skin
- 1 small jalapeño
- Fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Blend the tomatoes. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and 2 cups of water in the blender. Process until you get a smooth mixture.
- Fry the fideos. Add the oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add the fideos and stir them for 2-3 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Add the tomato mixture, remaining liquid, and seasonings. Pour the tomato mixture into the pot and stir the fideos immediately. Pour in the remaining water and broth, mix well. Add the kosher salt, black pepper and ground cumin. Mix well.
- Add the chicken. Place the chicken in the pot. Increase the heat to high. Once it gets to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and let the soup simmer for 35-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the chile. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, use a sharp knife to carefully score the jalapeño. Add it to the pot and cook the soup for another 6-7 minutes.
- Adjust seasonings. Remove the jalapeño. Taste the soup and adjust salt/pepper to taste if needed.
- Shred the chicken. With two forks, shred the chicken breasts.
- Serve. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with cilantro.