Recipe(tried): Cream of Chicken Soup

Cream of Chicken Soup

This is the best chicken soup, well everyone here thinks so .... TRY IT! It is an Australian recipe.

2 1/2 lb. chicken
8 cups water
2 large onions
4 sticks celery
3 oz. (90g) butter
1 medium parsnip
salt and pepper
1/3 cup flour
2 chicken stock cubes
1/2 cup cream

Wash and clean chicken, place into large pan add water, one peeled and chopped onion and two chopped sticks of celery. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer covered for 2 hours. Remove chicken from stock, reserve 7 cups of strained stock or makeup to 7 cups with water.

In separate pan, melt butter , add remaining peeled and finely-chopped onion, remaining finely-chopped celery and peeled and finely-chopped parsnip, cook gently until onion is tender. Add flour, stir until combined, cook 1 minute, remove pan from heat. Add reserved stock to pan all at once, stir until combined. Return pan to heat, stir until soup boils and thickens, reduce heat, simmer gently for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add crumbled stock cubes. Cover pan, simmer gently 10 minutes.

Remove skin from chicken, remove meat from bones. Cut meat into very small pieces. Just before serving, add chicken and cream to pan, heat through gently.

Spoon soup into bowls.

For extra thick soup:
8 slices of bread
8 rashers bacon
2 oz. (60g) butter
1 oz. (30g) butter, extra
1 medium onion
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley,
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup milk

Remove crusts from bread. Cut bread into 1cm cubes. Chop bacon finely. Place bacon and butter into frying pan, fry gently until bacon is crisp. Remove bacon from pan, leave fat in pan. Add bread cubes to pan stir until golden brown, remove. Place extra butter in pan add peeled and finely-chopped onion, cook gently until onion is light golden brown. Place bread, bacon, onion mixture, salt , pepper, parsley, flour and milk into bowl. Mix well. Allow to stand 15 minutes. Then before adding the chicken and cream stir into soup. The soup really is better the next day.