We are getting our first real snow of the season. I’m excited because it’s December and so far this year, we’ve had wonderful fall weather and the start of a very mild winter. Now I probably just jinxed us all and we’ll be stuck in tunnels of snow like the famous midwestern blizzard of 1978 that I’ve heard so many stories about. A great year, by the way! 🙂 So let me find some wood to knock on real quick so we’re all covered. My girls are ready for a snow day, that’s for sure and our little George thinks he is part husky for sure. He sits and looks out the back door and whines until we give in and let him out to play. He hops around like a bunny out there, plays ice hockey with frozen chunks of ice and snow and never wants to come inside. We’ve never had a dog that loved the cold and the snow as much as crazy George!
A few weeks after my husband’s surgery, we were out to lunch at Zoup. It’s a casual restaurant chain that serves a yummy variety of soups, along with sandwiches and salads. Their soups rotate and they let you sample them if you are not sure which one to order. On this visit, I had the spicy crab and rice soup that was delicious (and I must try to make some sort of version in the future!). My husband who had never been to Zoup, ordered the Chicken Pot Pie Soup. It hit the spot and he cleaned that bowl right up! He hadn’t had much of an appetite since his surgery so I tasted the soup and knew I could make a pretty tasty version at home. I make chicken pot pie, so it’s basically just a soup version of the chicken pot pie filling. A few days later, I whipped it up and it turned out pretty darn well if I do say so myself. I had made an Oven Roasted Chicken a few days before and knew I’d use that leftover chicken for this soup. You could always just cook a couple chicken breasts or combination of light and dark meat for your soup, but the leftover oven roasted chicken is a time saver and has wonderful flavor. I kept the veggies super easy with using the frozen corn, peas and carrots. Very little chopping which makes it even quicker to pull together. I’m sure you could definitely slap this in a slow cooker and let it go on low. My husband said my Chicken Pot Pie soup was not quite as thick as Zoup’s, but that was fine with him and the flavor was even better than Zoup’s version. You can adjust the thickness to your liking. The topping was a toss up when I decided to make the soup. At Zoup, they served the Chicken Pot Soup topped with some crumbled pie crust. I thought about using baked puff pastry cut into pieces or baking up a pie crust to crumble, but I decided to bake up some frozen Grands buttermilk biscuits and everyone could choose if they wanted to crumble the biscuit on top of the soup or if they wanted the biscuit served on the side. My husband loved the biscuit addition and they are always gobbled up by the girls (slathered with butter and honey of course). Check your pantry for the ingredients and if needed, run out to the store to gather up the items for this soup because you won’t want to delay this dish! It’s so tasty and comforting. Unfortunately, I don’t have any step by step pictures of the cooking process of this soup. Honestly, because I wasn’t sure it would live up the Zoup’s Chicken Pot Pie standard and I wasn’t sure it would be worth even sharing, but when I tasted the final soup and the flavor was right on, I knew it was a keeper and I wanted to share it with you so I just snapped a few pictures at the end.
Luckily, I wrote down the ingredients and adjusted them as needed as the soup came along so I have that for you.
Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Ingredients
1-2 C cooked chicken cut or shredded into small pieces
3 garlic cloves – minced
1 onion – diced
1/2 C butter
1/2 C flour
2 TBS olive oil
5-6 C Low sodium Chicken Broth (more or less depending on how thick you want the soup)
1/2 C heavy cream
1 16 oz bag frozen carrots and peas mixture
1/2 C frozen corn
(Lately to make this even quicker, I’ve just been using two 12 oz bags of frozen steamable veggies from Aldi that have carrots, peas, corn, and green beans)
1 TBS fresh rosemary – minced
1 TBS fresh Thyme – minced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Baked Biscuits, puff pastry, or Pie crust crumbled for topping
Directions
In a large pot, heat olive oil and add in diced onion. Sauté for a couple minutes until translucent.
Add in minced garlic and sauté for a minute, stirring to avoid burning.
Melt the butter in with the onions and garlic.
Add in the flour and stir until all combined with the melted butter, onions and garlic.
Keep stirring to make a roux and continue to cook on medium heat for a few minutes until the roux is thick and starting to get golden in color.
Slowly add in 4 C chicken broth (saving the last cup of broth to add in gradually near the end so the soup is the right consistency).
Stir well to mix the roux with the broth to form a smooth base.
Add in the frozen peas and carrots and frozen corn.
Stir in the cooked chicken.
Stir in the rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.
Slowly stir in heavy cream.
Let this come to a boil and boil just for 10 minutes or so, stirring often. Check the thickness and slowly pour in more of the chicken broth if desired.
Turn down to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes until you are ready to serve. In the meantime, bake up your pie crust, biscuits, or puff pastry.
Enjoy!
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