Guess what? Today is a good day to make your own homemade cream of chicken soup.
And just to clarify, by cream of chicken soup, I do mean the goopy gloppy condensed stuff that usually comes in a can and is magically useful in all sorts of down-home comforting casseroles, soups, and hot dishes.
How to Make Our Cream of Chicken Soup (45 SEC):
First things first. I have no problem occasionally using the canned condensed soup nor do I pass any judgment on others who use it. I promise you that this is not my soapbox food issue or anything. It’s more like if I had to choose, I would choose to have it homemade because everything is better homemade, right? Except Fruity Pebbles. Those would be too hard to make.
But there’s something nice about feeling like you’re using milk and flour and chicken broth in a recipe instead of an unnaturally jiggly mystery substance, yeah? And you read that correctly: milk and flour and chicken broth is just about all you need to make this yourself. It’s so easy. SO easy.
Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup
Prep Time: 5 mins- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3 cups
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This is a super easy recipe for making your own homemade cream of chicken soup. Just four ingredients and sooo delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (I used 2 cans)
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon seasoning mix (or on your own, 1/2 tsp. onion powder, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. parsley, etc)
Instructions
- Combine the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of the milk in a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour and seasonings into the remaining 1 cup milk until a smooth, thick mixture forms.
- Pour the flour and milk mixture into the saucepan with the broth mixture over low heat and stir continuously, whisking as the mixture simmers. Continue to simmer and stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick, 5-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken a bit as it cools.
Notes
The seasoning possibilities are really open-ended. I change the spices I use every time I make this depending on what I’m going to use the soup for.
The texture can get lumpy really quickly so I suggest keeping the heat as low as possible and whisking continuously for a more smooth consistency.
So here’s the really exciting thing → I made this because I needed it for a down-home comforting Minnesota winter night casserole with chicken and brown rice that you’re going to be seeing later this week. Did I mention the word comforting?
Make this and keep it at the ready. Casserole coming right up.
PS. What’s your take on freezing this?
I’m so glad you shared this- what a great idea. What are your thoughts on making a large batch and freezing it for when recipes call for “can of condensed soup?”
From what I’ve read, it works to freeze it! Seems like the consistency might get a little weird as it thaws, but it wouldn’t really matter if you were just using it in a recipe. I haven’t tried it myself though. 🙂
I’ve made and frozen this a number of times and had great success. I portion it out into snack sized ziplocks and pull them out whenever I need them. Depending on what recipe I’m using it for I sometimes even just pop in the frozen cube.
Would this recipe be for cream of chicken soup in its unconstituted form, or ready to use?
Thank you in advance for your response:)
I like to put cinnamon on toast, with a little butter and some sugar, and cook it until it is nice and warm. My Grandma taught this special recipe to me. I’m thinking about getting a patten and selling the recipe in CookBook. What do you think?
★★★★★
Everyone knows how to make cinna-sugar toast. Hate to burst your bubble but that has been around for many, many years.
My mother, who would be 86 if she was still alive, was making cinnamon toast when she was a five year old child, so your granny didn’t teach you any “secret” recipe, sorry. And you can’t get a “patent” for a recipe since anyone is free to make it in any way they wish.
I think sharing your grandmothers recipe would be wonderful, although selling would be hard. You might think about putting together an ebook of ALLyour grandmothers comforting, delicious recipes and put that out there. Whether you charge for it is up to you. But there are those of us who enjoy the old recipes from the past, and are always looking for them. Good luck, sweetie!
This sounds great, but I am a little confused on the instructions. Do you combine the broth and the milk or do you only bring the broth to a low boil so that you can add the milk to the flour/seasoning mixture. Thanks! Love finding these kitchen staples!
The milk should be divided, so 1/2 cup is added with the broth and then the rest is whisked with the flour.
Thanks!! My brain couldn’t process this for some reason. Really excited to try this out.
I had it worded confusingly, that’s why. 🙂 I went back and changed the wording. I always rely on my commenters to help me be more clear in my instructions!
Miss Amy what I want to tell you take the recipe step by step for you to get it.
Okay, cream of chicken soup homemade. Not to burst a bubble, but this is a classic white sauce, albeit flavored. Look at Betty Crocker’s cookbooks. White sauce works for this recipe, sausage gravy, cream of potato soup. Just change up the seasonings…You can adjust thickening with milk or broth. Checking this recipe tonite as I see nothing wrong with it 🙂
Would this recipe be equivalent the condensed version like out of the can or the reconstituted version after you add that extra milk to the store bought kind?
This is equivalent to the condensed version (straight from the can).
im pretty sure that you just mix the seasonings together with the flower then add it to the milk and broth once it has come to a boil then reduce heat mix it in and keep whisking
Thank you for sharing this! I hate all of the “processy” (you know what I mean. ;)) ingredients in canned soups. I love simple recipes for pantry staples that can be swapped out for a homemade version!
I love this! Since I’m lactose interlorant, those cream of whatever soups don’t sit well with my tummy. This I can make with lactose free milk! Have you tried making a mushroom flavored one, to be cream of mushroom?
Maybe use a vegetable broth for cream of mushroom instead of chicken
I made Cream of Mushroom this way: 2 sm cans of mushrooms, finely blended.
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
I use corn starch as a thickener
Follow directions on container
Garlic, salt, pepper as spices.
I use spices to taste but my guess would be 1/4 teaspoon each.
Holy moly this is easy! I never would have thought to do this, awesome! I CANNOT wait for your chicken and rice casserole recipe. In fact, I have some MN grown wild rice sitting in my cupboard right now 🙂
Love this!!!
Wow that looks tasty!…looks pretty simple too!
This looks great – I never used canned foods so this would be a great substitution. It would also work great as a roux to make a creamy chicken vegetable soup.
You *could* freeze this – but because of the milk it would separate and curdle a bit when defrosted, so I wouldn’t really recommend freezing in large batches. Freeze a small batch & try it out. One thing you could possibly try to make it freezer friendly is to subsitute dried or condensed milk.
Looking forward to your chicken/rice casserole recipe!
Just for people who might use the milk suggestion- *dont* use condensed milk. I’m pretty sure she meant evaporated milk 😉
Milk doesn’t curdle after being frozen (you may be confusing it with cream). It is stable to freeze – hence all the people who freeze milk – and is made extra stable by being cooked with flour. The soup may separate slightly on thawing, but a quick whisk will make it perfect again.
I am all for making homemade versions of things that are unnaturally jiggly when they’re store bought. P.S. What IS your soapbox food issue?! I want to know!
Good question. I’m not sure I have one, except maybe eat chocolate every day? 🙂
Casseroles rejoice! Every one of my grandma’s secret dinner recipes calls for a can of cream of chicken soup (thanks for not judging). I can only imagine how much better they would be with HOMEMADE soup!
Hmm! I have never made cream of chicken at home (although there is definitely plenty of plain old chicken broth happening). I think freezing it could work out okay, but I’m interested to see if anyone has tried it too! Or maybe it’d be better to just make an entire casserole or two and freeze them for future application. 🙂
Perfect! We have a few favorite quick recipes that call for condensed soup, and though I don’t have a huge problem with it personally, it seems that the greater food community frowns upon it (which is understandable). It can take the “home-made” feel out of the recipe. But now I can make it myself and still claim that the whole dish is home-made from scratch 🙂
Love this! I just made some cream of mushroom soup and couldn’t believe how easy and tasty it was. I actually wanted to eat the soup, not just add it to a casserole. 🙂 So excited to have another alternative to condensed soups!
Thank you for creating this recipe. I will make this for sure. I really try not to use processed foods except for chicken broth. I tell myself this story that if I use my chicken to make broth I somehow just took all the flavor out the chicken and it’s in the broth. Yes, I know I have to work on that. LOL
Hi Lisa,
I know it’s been awhile since you posted, but I have a friend with the exact same thoughts! What I told her (and what I do) is to roast the chicken like you would normally, have a nice dinner with it, remove all the meat from the chicken (save for leftovers or another recipe) then make the stock from the carcass.
I love that you just said carcass.
I love how simple this is! We eat a lot of soup in my household so I always like trying new ones out. I am pinning this to use later! Thanks.
Brilliant. I knew there had to be a way to make this kind of thing at home. I finally just stopped buying but I do miss some dishes using cream soups. Love it!
You’re so smart to make your own cream of chicken soup! Who would have thought it would just be three ingredients, love it!
I’m not sure it would freeze well though. Most cream soups tend to separate in the freezer into a watery mess, not the same consistency at all. Maybe this is different though, not sure.
I guess it would be four ingredients, if you add chicken.
I bet this will become a new Flanagan family favorite! (Guess what tonight’s dinner is… You betcha, we’re having condensed canned cream of chicken soup over noodles… Good old’ Minnesota comfort food… All white/cream colored, except for the dried parsley flakes.)
Sounds like it would freeze fine but the bigger question is – how did you find Swanson’s broth in the Philippines? 🙂
Metro Ayala! Gotta love a good international aisle. 🙂
I make a casserole (often) that calls for cream of chicken soup and I’ve always used canned. I’m going to try your homemade soup next time. The casserole is a favourite around here and I’m willing to bet that with your homemade soup it is going to be in even bigger demand.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
So, what’s your casserole recipe???
I don’t like canned cream of chicken soup so this recipe is a keeper! It looks so easy. Thanks!
I made this last night and it was amazing! So much better than canned. Thank you!
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for the comment Holly, I’m glad you liked it.
Why is a Minnesotan using the word casserole?
Hi Lindsay! This recipe makes my day! I have a casserole recipe that I’ve wanted to “clean up” and it includes a can of cream of chicken soup. I had no idea how to get around that. Now, I can make my own! Thanks so much!
I’m not much of a canned condensed soup person either so this here is just perfect!