Chicken breast cooked in its own broth with carrot, potato, onion and cumin, then blended with milk and cream, and the shredded chicken put back in at the end.
Cool it before the blender
The fourth step says to let it cool and does not explain why, so it is easy to skip. It is the one genuinely dangerous moment in the recipe.
Hot soup sealed inside a blender jug produces steam. The steam expands, the lid is the weakest point, and it leaves at speed with several cups of scalding purée behind it.
Let the pot drop to warm. Fill the jug halfway at most, hold the lid down with a folded cloth, start slow. Or use a stick blender in the pot and forget all of it.
The chicken comes out and goes back
A chicken breast simmers in the broth for about twenty minutes with the potato, carrot, onion and cumin. Then it is lifted out and everything else gets blended.
While the broth cools, the chicken is shredded. It goes back into the bowls at the very end, on top of the blended soup.
That order is what makes this a cream of chicken soup rather than a soup that used to have chicken in it. Blended together, the chicken disappears entirely.
Where the body comes from
Six cups of liquid is a lot, and three potatoes are what turn it into something thick. Potato starch released during twenty minutes of simmering, then broken up completely in the blender, is doing the work.
The half cup of milk and half cup of cream at the end are for richness and colour rather than thickness. They go in after blending, back in the pot, for a few minutes over low heat.
Seasoning it
The ingredient list used to carry a teaspoon of salt and black pepper as a single measured line, which is the plugin's default rather than the recipe's intention. Season to taste, in the fourth step, before anything is blended.
Taste again after the cream goes in. Dairy mutes salt, and a soup seasoned correctly before the cream will taste flat after it.
More soups
- Cauliflower cream soup — the same method, no meat.
- Chicken vegetable soup — unblended.
- Creamy corn soup — the other blended one.
- Chicken consommé — the clear opposite.
- Chicken pie — with a lid on it.
- Chicken casserole — in the oven.
Creamy Chicken Soup FAQ
Because hot liquid in a sealed blender jug turns to steam, and the steam forces the lid off with the soup behind it. The fourth step says to let it cool and this is why. A stick blender used in the pot avoids the problem.
So it stays as recognisable shredded chicken. Blended in, it disappears into the purée and you get a thick beige soup. Taken out, shredded and returned at the end, you get cream of chicken with chicken in it.
The potato, mostly. Three of them blended into six cups of liquid give the body, and the half cup of cream at the end adds richness rather than thickness.
Yes, and the ingredient list allows it. With a chicken breast simmering in it for twenty minutes, water becomes broth on its own along the way.
About twenty minutes of simmering, and it should shred easily with two forks. A breast that resists needs a few minutes more.
Not well. Blended potato goes grainy after freezing and cream can separate on reheating. It keeps two or three days in the fridge.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 carrot (peeled and cut into pieces)
- 3 potatoes (peeled and chopped)
- 6 cups chicken broth or water
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Salt and black pepper (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a large pot, add the diced onion and the chopped garlic and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes.
- Add the chicken, the cumin, the broth, the peeled and chopped potatoes and the carrot, peeled and cut into pieces, and bring it to a boil.
- Let it cook until the chicken is tender, about 20 minutes.
- Season with salt and black pepper, lower the heat and let it cool a little, then lift the chicken out. Letting it cool matters, because hot liquid in a sealed blender jug builds up steam.
- While the broth cools, shred the chicken and set it aside.
- Once the broth has cooled enough to handle, blend everything except the chicken.
- Return the mixture to the pot, add the milk and the cream and let it cook for a few minutes.
- Lower the heat, ladle the soup into bowls, put a share of the shredded chicken in each and serve immediately.
Comments
No Comments