Every crockpot chicken noodle soup recipe tells you to throw the noodles in with everything else. That’s the mistake turning yours into mush by hour four.
Two raw chicken breasts go in whole, no browning, no searing. Add 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 6 cups chicken broth, 3 diced celery ribs, 1 cup diced yellow onion, 1 cup diced carrots, 1 teaspoon each of chicken bouillon powder, onion powder and garlic powder, and black pepper. Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, until the chicken pulls apart with barely a touch of a fork. Shred it right in the pot, stir it back into that broth, then add 2 cups of egg noodles and cook on high for 20 to 30 minutes, no longer. That’s the entire trick, the noodles get their own separate window at the very end, so they come out tender instead of falling apart into the broth.
What’s left is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, loaded with shredded chicken and vegetables that have been simmering all day, and it tastes nothing like the version you get from a can.