It’s Chicken Noodle Soup Season & Giada De Laurentiis Uses This Unexpected Ingredient To Brighten Up Her Recipe

Whether you’re suffering from a bad cold or just need to warm up on a chilly winter day, a bowl of chicken noodle soup can work wonders. And Giada De Laurentiis’ classic chicken soup recipe contains one surprise ingredient that brightens up your bowl and makes the soup so much tastier.

“What’s more comforting than a classic chicken noodle soup?” the caption to a December 19 Instagram post on The Giadzy Instagram account reads. “We like to use a bit of lemon juice to brighten up the flavor, and it adds such a welcome element. Get cozy with this recipe!”

Lemon? In chicken noodle soup? You bet! It doesn’t make the soup sour, but instead adds a bit of zest and heightens the flavors of each ingredient in the pot.

A post shared by Giadzy (@thegiadzy)

To make De Laurentiis’ Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup, which you can grab the full recipe for right here, you’ll want to make sure you have all the staple ingredients already on hand: chicken broth, carrots, cooked chicken (preferably breast meat), a bay leaf, lemon, and a small pasta of some sort — “I love to use a fun pasta shape for a soup like this, such as farfalline or gnocchetti,” De Laurentiis writes in her recipe. “Kids love the fun shapes, and they’re perfectly bite-sized.”

She also likes to add a small piece of Parmesan cheese rind to her soup to add some body to the broth.

And what’s even better is that this soup is a one-pot meal. You add all your ingredients to a large stockpot at different points during the process and make sure everything is heated and cooked. Finally, when it’s time to serve, season your soup with salt and pepper and sprinkle with grated Romano cheese and a bit of parsley.