Cream of Chicken Soup / Supa crema de pui

Directions

1. Peel and chop onions and garlic.

2. Sauté onions in a little oil over a medium-low flame until soft. Add garlic and sauté two more minutes.               

3. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.

4. While stock is heating, clean chicken breasts (remove bones, skin and excess fat). Slice into cubes.

5. When broth boils, add chicken and rice. Monitor soup pot, when it returns to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered (stir occasionally).

6. Clean root veggies, and peel if you’d like. Chop carrots, one potato, and the celery root into bite sized pieces and add to soup pot. Reserve greens from celery root.

7. Peel and grate the remaining 2 potatoes (should be about 2 c) and set aside.

8. Clean and chop mushrooms – add to the soup pot.

9. Add tarragon, salt and pepper and paprika. Simmer covered until rice and root veggies and soft (check chicken to make sure it’s not pink in the middle).

10. About 15 min before soup is done, add grated potato.

11. While soup is simmering, finely chop the greens from celery root. Add to the pot 5 minutes before the rest of the ingredients are done.

12. When all ingredients are cooked through, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Turn off the burner and add milk. If needed, carefully re-heat to almost boiling (do not boil soup after milk has been added).

                                                              

Notes: This is quite a healthy cream soup, because it’s not made with cream or butter. Instead potatoes act as a thickening agent, and milk offers the “creamy” aspect. This soup is easy to make, and doesn’t require a lot of time. It makes great leftovers, but be sure you don’t boil it when re-heating it, or the milk may curdle. If you can get it, wild or at least brown rice is recommended for this soup.

 

Variations: You can add or omit vegetables as needed – turnips, rutabaga, winter squash and parsnips are also nice options. 2 Tbs dry white wine is also a nice addition. You can change the spices to fit your mood or situation (basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, marjoram or anything else you can think of will probably be good).

 

Substitutions: Chicken broth/6 c water (1 bouillon cube – optional). 3 Chicken breasts/6 chicken legs or ½ chicken. Milk/Cream.

 

References: *See the Chicken Broth recipe