Cream of Chicken Soup

I first tried a creamy soup in Kerala. It was a Cream of Garlic. I came back home and set to work My cousin Appu was with me. "We need lots of garlic," I told her and we both peeled around two heads of garlic, ground them to a paste, mixed water, cornflour, salt and pepper and boiled the pungent thing into a "soup". As you can expect, it was too strong to drink... But I was determined to make a good and edible) creamy soup. 

Many trial and errors later I have succeeded in making Cream of Garlic Soup. Day before yesterday, I thought of adding some chicken, that was sitting in the fridge, and converted my Cream of Garlic to Cream of Chicken soup. I had a cup of frozen broth (It was a side product from a Stuffed Chicken I made three weeks ago) in my freezer which I had stored intending to add it to some undecided future soup. I went for it and the soup turned out to be excellent. My best Yet :)

Ingredients:

Chicken - 250 grams

Onion, chopped - 1- 2

Cloves of Garlic, Chopped - 10

Bread slices, torn to pieces - 6-7

Milk - 1/2 cup

Heavy Cream - 1/2 cup

Cornstarch - 1-3 tbsp(according to your desired consistency)
Water: for broth - 8 cups
           for cornstarch slurry - 1 cup

Onion pwdr - 1 tsp

Garlic pwdr - 1 tsp

Vegetable Oil or Butter - 3 tbs

Salt & Pepper - to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil or butter in a pot. Add the chopped onion and garlic and saute for around 7 minutes or till they begin to brown and caramelize.

They are beginning to caramelize

2. Meanwhile Bring 7-8 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add the chicken into it and reduce heat to medium. Let the chicken cook through. Remove the chicken from the broth and cut the into small pieces.

Making the chicken broth

Debone and shred chicken

3. Add the broth into the pot. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

The colour changed here because I added a cup of frozen broth which I got from another chicken dish. I'll share the recipe soon ;)

4. Turn off heat and add the bread pieces. Let them soak for 4-5 min.

5. Strain and separate the solid through a sieve/mesh
.

Strain 

6. Blend the solids to a fine paste and return it to the pot.

7. Add the strained broth as well. Keep the pot back on heat. Mix and add salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders. Add 1-2 tbs heavy cream (mine is homemade and not at room temp which is why it is solid like butter)

8. Make a slurry with cornstarch and water. Pour it in a thin stream into the soup while stirring. Let the soup simmer and thicken.







9. Add the chicken pieces and serve.