Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Soup

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Soup



I rarely venture into soup-making, but when the weather is threatening to turn cold, and you've got a sick hubby to think of, soup seems just the ticket.

A variation of Cheddar Broccoli soup sounded quite appropriate for the ingredients I already had at home, but after at least two cumulative hours online searching for recipes (exhausting Pinterest along the way), I found not one recipe to my liking. Therefore, I decided to make my own.

This evening was the first and, so far, only time I've made this soup, so the recipe could, indeed be tweaked.  However, I was so incredibly pleased by the product of my labor and thought, that I may not change anything about it! Plus, as an added bonus, this meal, from start to finish took only about 35 minutes. 

Enough talking...




FIRST WAVE:
2                  Boneless/skinless chicken breasts (partially thawed, cubed into 1/2" pieces)
1/2               of a very large onion (I used red onion), chopped
1 TB           Coconut oil
1/2 - 1 tsp   Cajun seasoning (I thought a rosemary blend might be tasty, instead)

• Saute first wave in large pot over med/high heat until chicken is just done. (I used my 5 quart ceramic non-stick pot)  Drain, and return to pot.

SECOND WAVE:
2 cans           cheddar cheese soup (I know, totally not healthy....but easy!)
1 box            Pacific Foods Cream of Chicken soup, 12 oz
24 oz             organic free range chicken broth (buy 32oz carton-save 8 oz for next line)
1/4 cup         Spelt flour (or any gluten-free flour), whisked with remaining 8 oz broth
16 oz             organic frozen broccoli florets, steamed until warm on stove or microwave
1/4 tsp          sea salt
1/4 - 3/4 tsp  fresh ground pepper (do this to taste...we like pepper)

• Add second wave ingredients IN THAT ORDER to the pot, stirring between each.
• Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until very hot, and broccoli is as soft or pulverized as you'd like it to be.

THIRD WAVE:
cheese.

• The third wave, I'll be honest, I eyeballed it.  I had a 1 lb bag of fancy shredded Colby/jack, so I added all but a cup to the soup, about 1/3 cup at a time while stirring. I'll admit, cheddar would probably give a better 'sour' taste to the soup, but it's all I had.

EAT!


Notes:
       I added the flour (whisked in broth) to thicken the soup, since I didn't use any cream. If you want as few carbs as possible, you can omit it, and have a more broth-type of base. Honestly, it probably won't change it much.
       After making, and slurping, this soup, I split the remainder in half.  Half went to the fridge for tomorrow, and half I put in a Foodsaver bag for freezing.  I'll comment later on this post how the thawed-from-frozen version is.