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This homemade condensed Cream of Chicken Soup is easy to make in just minutes with a few spices and pantry ingredients. Eaten all by itself or in your favorite casserole, it’s a much-needed improvement on canned soup.
Technically, this recipe is considered a substitute for the canned condensed cream of chicken soup, which you can add to casseroles, gravies, and noodle recipes. But in my opinion, it’s delicious on its own, eaten by the bowlful on a gloomy day.
Recipes using condensed soup first appeared in the 1950s, in an effort to promote buying more…canned soup. Instead of a store-bought version, making it from scratch makes those vintage recipes we all love taste so much better.
Recipe ingredients:
Ingredient notes:
- Chicken broth: Homemade chicken broth or your favorite store-bought brand.
- Poultry seasoning: Make it yourself with sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and a little bit of nutmeg or substitute store-bought.
Step-by-step instructions:
- In a saucepan and add the chicken broth and all the spices (it’s okay if you wait to season the soup with salt and pepper until later). Bring the chicken broth to a gentle simmer on the stove using medium heat.
- Then whisk the flour and milk together in a small bowl. The mixture should be smooth. Pour this slurry into the saucepan of simmering chicken broth and keep whisking until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Recipe tips and variations:
- To use in a recipe: Use the full in your recipes exactly as you would use canned condensed soup.
- To eat as a soup: Add 1 cup chicken broth or water and heat until piping hot. You’ll have 2 (1-cup) servings.
- Freezing: Let the soup cool completely, then portion it out into freezer-safe containers. Leave about an inch at the top for expansion. When you thaw it out, give it a good whisk to blend everything up again.
- Canning: Unfortunately, this recipe isn’t a good candidate for home canning. But it freezes well, which is the next best thing.
More comfort food recipes to make:
- Chicken Soup with Wild Rice
- Slow Cooker Green Bean Casserole
- Biscuits and Gravy
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
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Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 pinch dried parsley
- 1 pinch paprika
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan combine broth, onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, parsley, paprika, ½ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Bring to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, whisk together milk and flour until smooth. Pour into saucepan, whisking continuously, until the mixture bubbles and thickens, about 1 minute.
Notes
- Chicken broth: Homemade chicken broth or your favorite store-bought brand.
- Poultry seasoning: Make it yourself with sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and a little bit of nutmeg or substitute store-bought.
- To use in a recipe: Use the full in your recipes exactly as you would use canned condensed soup.
- To eat as a soup: Add 1 cup chicken broth or water and heat until piping hot. You'll have 2 (1-cup) servings.
- Freezing: Let the soup cool completely, then portion it out into freezer-safe containers. Leave about an inch at the top for expansion. When you thaw it out, give it a good whisk to blend everything up again.
- Canning: Unfortunately, this recipe isn't a good candidate for home canning. But it freezes well, which is the next best thing.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Thank you for this and the condensed mushroom soup base. I use these recipes a lot. Quick, easy, and no MSG!
Thank you
😀
You’re so welcome, Sabrina! I’m glad you love them! – Meggan
HI MEGGAN I JUST CAME ACROSS YOUR RECIPE AND I WANT TO TRY IT OUT FOR MY GRANDKIDS BUT WOULD LIKE TO ADD CHOPPED CHICKEN BREAST OR THIGHS CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHEN SHOULD I DO – THANKYOU
Hi CJ, thank you so much for the question! I would add chopped cook chicken at the end to warm it up along with the extra broth to warm it up. I hope your grandkids love it! – Meggan
This was so delicious and easy! I definitely love knowing what’s in my soup. Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome, Dani! – Meggan
A family member gave me this recipe today. (She loves this recipe!) Made it today for putting chicken and rice together with this soup. It looks great but tastes like flour. But it should mellow out once the whole recipe is together. I actually converted it to GF and DF. I’m excited! Thank you so much!
I used my math, dividing the broth, milk and flour by 4. Then, I added 3 Tbsp. broth, 2 Tbsp. milk, and 1 Tbsp. flour to the original recipe. I added minimal amounts for the spices and came up with 11 1/2 ounces – per my liquid measuring cup – an ideal measure to correspond with the canned condensed soup. AND, very important, I do not do dairy or gluten. So, I used Krusteaz gluten free flour and organic Rice Dream Rice Milk. It was DELICIOUS, and worked perfectly in my recipe that called for condensed cream of chicken soup. THANK YOU, Culinary Hill Team!
Wow Mary, I’m so glad that all worked out for you! Thanks for sharing! – Meggan
Hello Megan,
My name is Cindy but everyone here in Truth Or Conquences, New Mexico calls me by my middle name Marie. I was so grateful to finally come across a culinary center for homemade recipes. I’ve been on several online sites for homemade recipes but just couldn’t seem to find anythin that resembled close to home cookin recipes until now. Thank u so much for the new invented recipes provided to b able to convert several different recipes into simplicity for me…. True fan of culinary recipes,
Cindy Marie Chavez
Hello from Tennessee ~ I just came across your website and I am going to make an Italian pesto sauce with toasted pine nuts. I looked up your procedure on how to toast the nuts and they came out perfect! Also, thank you for the info you provided on them. I also ran across your recipe for cheesy potato casserole and it looks yummy. My question is, should you squeeze the water out of the frozen shredded potatoes? Merry Christmas…
Hi CJ! You don’t need to squeeze out the water from the frozen shredded potatoes. Or at least, I never have (I don’t know anyone that has). So you should be fine! I’m so glad the pine nuts roasted well for you, and I hope you like the pesto! Merry Christmas to you too!!! -Meggan
Hi Meggan, This looks like a wonderful substitute for the cans. It makes it much easier for me to cook for a lactose intolerant person when I can sub lactose free milk and make the cream soup myself. I’ve been missing my yummy creamy crockpot recipes. I was just wondering if I wanted to make this in advance how long do you think it would keep in the fridge before going bad.
Hi Michelle, thanks for your kind words! You can definitely make this in advance. It should keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator before going bad (and indefinitely in the freezer, if that’s a better option). Thank you! I hope you have a great day. -Meggan
How much of this do you use to replace a can cream soup? I believe the cans are 10 1/2 ounces, do you use that amount or 1 cup?
Hi Mary, I just use one cup. In theory the recipe should make 3 (1-cup) servings. You’re right, a can is 10 1/2 ounces, so you could do that. Depending on what you’re using it in, you could also add an extra ounce or two of milk, or cream, or whatever your liquid is. I will work on altering this recipe so it makes at least 10 ounces, or 11 ounces, so it truly replaces a can of the stuff (that obviously makes the most sense). Thank you! -Meggan
can i use home made condensed
cream of chicken soup for broccoli rice and cheese recipe.
Thankful to have found this recipe. Can’t wait to try it. I’m a casserole lover on a medical ordered total salt-restricted diet. I have been looking for a no-salt condensed soup everywhere and found it just doesn’t exist. Now I can re-create some of my favorite dishes with this homemade recipe. Thank you so much!!!
May i substitute almond milk for cow milk?
Hi Tammy! Sure! I don’t know how it will affect things exactly because I haven’t tested it. But you are welcome to try it. Good luck!
Thanks for the simple receipe. It was easy to create it gluten-free free by just using gluten-free flour and making sure broth is gluten-free. Thanks! Look forward to using this in many recipes.
Thank you Jane, that is so wonderful to hear!