Yay for fall weather and warm, spicy soup! I haven't blogged about food in quite a while, so I'm very happy to share this post with you. I made this soup on Sunday and have enjoyed it for lunch everyday so far this week. This recipe comes from the Cuisine at Home magazine, the source for most of my favorite recipes. I'll be posting more recipes from this October issue soon. The cream soup is thickened with a roux and then cheese is added for texture and flavor. Cheese can easily separate when added to a hot soup. Here's a few suggestions from the magazine to prevent curdling:
{1} Don't let the soup boil or the cheese will break when it hits the boiling liquid and curdle.
{2} Use an acid like wine or beer to help prevent curdling.
{3} Be sure to use whole milk. It's high milk fat content means it's less likely to curdle.
Yeah, we drink skim milk 'round these parts. (well Jake does) so I added some heavy cream to the 3 cups of skim milk to add more fat to the mixture.
Makes about 8 cups.
Southwestern Cream of Chicken Soup
from Cuisine at Home Issue 83 Oct 2010
INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 poblano chile, seeded and diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. hot chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
6 tbsp. all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups whole milk
1 cup beer (such as Corona)
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry converted white rice
2 1/2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges
tortilla chips
DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a large pot. Stir in bell pepper, poblano, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin and coriander. Sweat mixture until peppers begin to soften, about five minutes.
Whisk in three tbsp. flour to coat vegetables; cook two minutes. Whisk in milk, beer and broth until smooth. Bring mixture to a simmer. Stir in rice; simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
Combine cheese with remaining three tbsp. flour in a resealable plastic bag; toss to coat. Add cheese to soup a handful at a time, stirring to melt completely before adding the next handful. Add chicken and cilantro to heat, 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish each serving of soup with lime slices. For a crunchy addition, add some tortilla chips!
hhhmmm we drink skim milk here too...so I would have to make an extra milk purchase for this yummy looking soup:-)
Yes, next time I'll just buy some whole milk. I'm sure it will taste even better.