Skip the cans and make your own tasty homemade cream of chicken soup. It’s easy to make and only requires a few ingredients.
This delicious soup is also free from preservatives and additives, and even tastier. Try this addition in Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, One-Pot Creamy Chicken Pot Pie, or over rice for a quick and easy meal!
Skip the Canned Stuff!
Whether you are trying to eat more “whole foods” and staying away from processed ones, or you just plain ran out of the canned version…this cream of chicken soup is for you! Not only is it delicious, but easy to make!
This delish version only requires a handful of ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Homemade Cream of Chicken soup is great for thickening, adding flavor, and making sauces. Use it any recipe that you would use the canned version, or create your own dish of yumminess!
This soup could be use as a belly-filling meal on it’s own. This hearty and comforting creamy chicken soup will keep you cozy all night long.
Cream of Chicken Soup Ingredients
Flour: All purpose flour will work just fine, if you would like to you can use whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour.
Milk: You can use just about any type of milk as long as they aren’t flavored. For example don’t use vanilla almond milk, but if you need to use dairy alternatives that is totally fine!
Spices: This recipe calls for onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, dried parsley, and a dash of paprika. Depending on what chicken broth/stock you use, you might need to decrease the amount of additional salt you add. This helps you keep the sodium of the soup in line.
Chicken: The chicken in this recipe is totally optional. If you use the right chicken broth or stock, you won’t be missing any chicken flavor, although, if you have some shredded or cubed chicken that you would like to add, it contributes some great texture.
How to Make Cream of Chicken Soup
HEAT. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, add the butter. Once melted, add the flour and whisk to combine.
THICKEN. Cook for about 1 minute, then slowly pour in the chicken broth, whisking as it thickens. The slower the better.
WHISK. Slowly add the milk and continue whisking. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.
SEASON & SIMMER. Add the garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, parsley, paprika, and chicken(if desired). Let simmer for 6-8 minutes until thickened.
COOL. Remove from the heat and let cool. Use in recipe or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Get the right texture
What if it’s too thin / thick?
- If it is too thin, add in a slurry of cornstarch and water. Do this in equal parts, try 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water.
- If it is too thick, add in extra milk or chicken stock.
How to keep from getting lumpy? The lumps in your soup could be from flour not being properly incorporated. This can be avoided by creating a flour slurry that you add to the stock. Take your flour and start adding the milk from your recipe until it forms a slurry. Mix your flour and milk until there are no lumps. Then add this slurry to your stock as well as any extra milk.
Storing and Using
Store: Keep your soup in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks (a mason jar works great). It is suggested that you let it come to room temperature before cooking with it, because normal store-bought stuff isn’t kept in the fridge.
Freeze: Cream of chicken soup can be frozen in an air-tight container for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the fridge, or defrost it in the microwave in 20/30 second intervals.
You can use your homemade soup in any recipes that call for a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. Cream of chicken soup is known best for being used in all kinds of comforting casseroles, hot dishes, and soups. Just keep in mind that one 10 ½ oz can is equivalent to about 1 ¼ cups.
For more chicken soup recipes, try:
- Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Fajita Soup
- Italian Chicken Noodle Soup
Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp dried parsley
- dash paprika
- 2 tbsp chicken breasts - OR thighs, finely diced, (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, add the butter. Once melted, add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook for about 1 minute, then slowly pour in the chicken broth, whisking as it thickens. The slower the better.
- Slowly add the milk and continue whisking. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.
- Add the garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, parsley, paprika, and chicken(if desired). Let simmer for 6-8 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from the heat and let cool. Use in recipe or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Can you freeze the extra from the recipe?
Yes. Cream of chicken soup can be frozen in an air-tight container for up to 2 months. When you are ready to use it, thaw it in the fridge, or defrost it in the microwave in 20/30 second intervals.
I see the recipe makes 2 cups. Is that equivalent to 2 (10 oz) cans of store bought cream of chicken soup? Or what do you think? I have to make a huge batch equivalent to 17 (10oz) cans for my catering business. So I need 170 oz and I’m struggling doing the math. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Sara, it can be very confusing using 10 oz. cans of store bought cream of chicken soup, because the 10 oz. is a measurement of weight, not volume, like fluid ounces. It is compounded by the fact that most are condensed, and you have to add a can of water to the condensed soup. Even the servings on the can are hard, because they say 1/2 cup of condensed soup, but you don’t serve condensed soup. So, my recommendation is to not to try to convert from cans, but just figure out how many people you want to serve and how many cups you want to serve, then the math is very easy. So, here is an example. Let’s say you need to serve 50 people and you want to serve them 1 cup of soup each. So, you need 50 cups of soup. Since this recipe makes 2 cups, then you will need 25 times the ingredients in this recipe to make 50 cups. By the way, there is a very easy way to do this on our website. Click the Print button and you will get a new window with a Print option. Before printing, you can change the servings from 2 cups to however many cups you need and the quantity for each ingredient will change accordingly. Then, you can hit Print and get the right number for each ingredient and the math is automatically done for you!
Thank you – made your version of cream of chicken soup tonight, it is delicious!! Very easy to make, I had all the ingredients on hand. Cooked up chicken tenders, and added them to the soup mix (gravy) and topped off our mashed potatoes with the extra!!