Tasty Tuesday: Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup

 

Dearest eaters and readers,

Welcome to another Tasty Tuesday.  Someday, I am going to share a recipe for something other than soup.  But not today!!  Yup, sharing another soup recipe, this time for chicken cordon bleu in a bowl!!  And in a bread bowl, at that.  Or in a ceramic bowl for the low-carb version.

You know how I have whined about gaining weight while I was in Kentucky?  I’ve been thinking about what all I ate while I was there.  Lots of oatmeal (with brown sugar, raisins and cinnamon) but that isn’t too bad for you, is it?  Dessert at lunch and dinner.  Yeah, probably not terribly figure friendly.  And there were those soup-n-bread bowls at Panera.  We don’t have Panera in El Paso so I had to take full advantage of having one close while I was in Lexington.

Today’s recipe is a whole lot like a hardy bread bowl of Panera soup.  You can put together this chicken cordon bleu soup in a large pot on the stove and have it ready in less than an hour.  Or, you can grab your crock pot, like I did, and let this soup simmer all day.

Meet you in the kitchen?

Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup

Guess where I found this recipe?  Two guesses and the first one doesn’t count.  I’ve pinned it here.  The original recipe is called low carb chicken cordon bleu soup.  But something just occurred to me.  Serving this soup in a bread bowl kinda negates that whole low-carb thing, huh?  Oh, well.  You decide whether you want the carbs or not!

Ingredients

In case this is the first time you’ve joined me for Tasty Tuesday, I should share right upfront that I don’t measure much.  Certainly not salt and pepper!  So my recipes are rough versions of the original and my meals never taste the same way twice.  More exciting that way, don’t you think?

Now that we have that bit of housekeeping out of the way, here are the ingredients.

• 2 pounds chicken, cooked and diced  (okay, right off the bat I didn’t measure the chicken, used about 5 chicken tenders, frozen)
• 1 pound diced ham (close enough)
• 4 teaspoon butter
• 8 ounces cream cheese (used fat free)
• 1 cup heavy cream  (my former anorexic self couldn’t bring myself to use heavy cream, subbed in half and half)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1.5 cups shredded Swiss cheese  (didn’t shred but should have)
• 1 teaspoon parsley  (eh, mas o menos)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• round bread roll about the size of your first, one per serving, if you are doing the carby version

Directions

Since I made my soup in the crock pot, I did it a little differently.  Imagine your surprise.  So, the original directions are listed first with my adaptation for the crock pot in parenthesis.  Ready?

• (Put frozen chicken tenders in the crock pot with 4 cups of chicken broth.  Except I accidentally added some beef broth.  Need to have my eyes checked!  Cook on low for 6 hours.)

• Melt butter in a Dutch oven or large pot. (Yup.)

• Add cream cheese to melted butter and melt. (Ditto. And I added a shake of onion flakes.)

• Add ham and heavy cream (Or half & half) to melted butter and cream cheese.

• Stir to combine.
• To the ham, add chicken and 4 cups of the chicken broth. (When chicken is cooked, shred in crock pot then add ham and cheese mixture to the crock pot.)

• Simmer on low for 5-10 minutes.  Stirring occasionally. (Cook on low for 30 minutes until broth has thickened some)
• Stir in 1 cup of shredded Swiss cheese and continue to stir until the cheese is melted.  (Should have grated, it didn’t melt very well.)

• Add salt and pepper and parsley.
• (Slice top off of roll, scoop out soft bread, spray with non-stick spray, toast in toaster oven until slightly brown and crispy around the edges.)

• Ladle soup into bowls – bread or ceramic or fine china.

• Serve with additional shredded cheese.

Next time I make this, or even when we have the leftovers, I will probably cook them on the stove.  My cheese didn’t melt well.  Possibly because I was too tired to grate it and cubed it instead.  And my soup was a little thin for my liking.

Your Turn

Do you ever serve soup in a bread bowl?  Do you have a Panera near you?  Not sure why we don’t!  If you give this soup a try, please let me know how you like it.

My PC is having a steroid injection in his spinal cord tomorrow.  OUCH.  The doctor has prescribed 2 Xanax just to help him be less anxious for the procedure.  Prayers and good thoughts invited and much appreciated.  One day soon, we are going to have a quiet week!  I just know it.

Family hugs,