If you like chicken soup, you're going to enjoy this cream of chicken soup.
When I think of cream of chicken soup, I'm reminded of the Campbell's condensed version my mom served us growing up. Loved it back then.
I even used it as a base in college for my mac and cheese dinners for an inexpensive culinary delight. As much as I enjoyed Campbell's growing up, I think you will find this version a little different.
This is a great recipe to use up leftover roasted chicken that you may have in your refrigerator. Take the meat off the bones and use the carcass to make homemade chicken stock.
You can be elaborate and follow the recipe on the link or just boil the carcass for a quick and easy chicken stock that can be used in other recipes. I do this all the time especially when preparing risotto.
You can use this as a road map for making cream of chicken soup but don't be shy from playing around with ingredients and come up with your own version. Change an herb, add another ingredient, have fun with it.
Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons butter 1 stick
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 4 carrots chopped
- 1 medium onion diced
- ½ cup flour
- 7 cups chicken stock homemade but commercial works too
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 cups chicken shredded, chopped or diced
- ½ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start by heating up a large soup pot over medium heat and then adding the butter. Once the butter melts, add the celery, carrots and onions and cook until the vegetables soften up. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Add the flour and cook for a couple of minutes being sure to keep stiring until the flour is incorporated nicely with the vegetables.
- Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil but this time use a whisk to keep the liquids moving in the pot.
- Make a sachet, a small bag of cheesecloth, with the bay leaf and fresh thyme and tie it closed with a piece of kitchen twine. You can add other herbs and spices to add additional flavors to the soup. Place the sachet into the pot.
- Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add the chicken and continue cooking long enough to heat up the cooked chicken.
- Whisk in the heavy cream, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Before serving, remove the sachet. Nobody wants to find a sachet in their soup.
- If you have some parsley, you may want to use it as a garnish to make the soup look even better. Homemade croutons are good too.
- Enjoy!
Tammy Gardner
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!! I have been looking for a cream of chicken soup that I could make with all healthy ingredients that would fool my family in a casserole usually made with Campbell's. It has been hard to find one, but this one is amazing! I used sprouted wheat flour, raw cream, and chicken bone broth (nourishedkitchen.com), which are all pretty close to superfoods compared to their processed counterparts. Oh yes, and the butter was homemade from raw milk also. 🙂 I am ecstatic with the results and my family is gobbling it up. I can't thank you enough for this perfect recipe.
Tina
This is a wonderful recipe- exactly like restaurant quality but better! Grateful I found this recipe as I make it often.