Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup & Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I haven't ever made a cream of chicken soup before (that I can remember) and thought it was about time I tried.  I bought two Costco Rotisserie Chickens the day before.  That evening, I took the meat off and threw the carcasses into a crock pot.  I added an onion, celery, carrot, fresh parsley & thyme, 2 bay leaves, Gruyere cheese rind, S&P and filled water to about an inch from the top.  I started the crock pot after dinner and set it on low for twelve hours.  I reset it to twelve hours again when I went to bed.  My crock pot goes off when the timer is done and turns to "warm" so I knew the broth would be fine when I got home from work.

When I got home, I immediately strained the broth into another pot and put it in the fridge to cool.  The house smelled wonderful.

How the broth looked when I got home

Strained - rich and dark and beautiful!

I went about preparing the soup.  I used:

• Tri-color baby potatoes (yellow, red & purple), cut in quarters
• 2 stalks Carrots sliced
• 2 stalks Celery sliced
• 1 Leek sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic minced
• 3/4 lb Mushrooms sliced
• Large Onion diced
• 1 cup Dry White Wine
• Fresh Thyme
• Fresh Parsley
• Leftover Rotisserie Chicken diced
• Cayenne pepper
• Kosher Salt cracked
• Fresh cracked Pepper
• 1 cup Half & Half Cream

I chopped all my veggies first.  I got a dutch oven out and I started by sauteing the mushrooms, leeks and onions with garlic in some olive oil.  I added a cup of wine and reduced it down to a quarter.  Then I added some flour (about 1/2 cup) and stirred until it was cooked out.  Then I added in the broth, stirring to incorporate everything and brought it to a boil to thicken.

I added in the potatoes and carrots, more S&P, fresh thyme & cayenne and let it simmer (covered) for 20 minutes.  Then I added back in the chicken, fresh parsley and cream.  I let it simmer for 20 more minutes (covered) while I made my son the grilled cheese sandwich.

For the grilled cheese, I just diced some chicken, added a plop of blue cheese dressing, pepper and my favourite hot sauce which is Louisiana's "Crystal".  I mixed it until all combined.  I sliced some Monterey Jack cheese.  I buttered the outsides of the bread and stacked it in frying pan by bread, cheese, chicken, cheese and finished with bread.

Son said the grilled cheese was excellent and tasted like "Buffalo Chicken".  I found the soup comforting on this cold winter, ending the work week, Friday night.  I am still more a fan of clear broth soups but I am glad I tried something different for a change...Lucky for me, I didn't pour in all the broth while making the soup and there was some left over...