Cooking Low Carb: Cheesy Chicken Soup

I made this the other day when I had a batch of truly wonderful chicken broth in the house. You'll see in the instructions I mention that the quality of your chicken broth is essential to this recipe. Use good, strong, flavorful (not just salty) broth, and the flavor of this soup will be balanced just exactly between chicken and cheese. Mmmm.

Cheesy Chicken Soup (or is it Chickeny Cheese Soup?)

6 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
guar or xanthan to thicken
3 cups frozen chopped broccoli (optional)

This soup's flavor is heavily dependant on good chicken broth or stock. I use broth I make myself from the naked chicken bones I save in the freezer after every roast chicken supper. I very much doubt the soup would be anywhere near as wonderful with cheap canned chicken broth, though I'm sure it would be okay. You might consider using good-quality packaged chicken broth (Kitchen Basics brand is widely available) that you've simmered down to about 2/3 of the original volume to intensify the flavor.

Anyway, have your broth hot. Add the milk or half-and-half, and bring it back up to a simmer.

Now whisk in the shredded cheese a small handful at a time, stirring each addition until it melts before you add more.

When all the cheese is melted in, use your guar or xanthan shaker to thicken your soup till it's about the texture of heavy cream.

If you like -- I sure do -- add 2-3 cups of frozen broccoli "cuts", and simmer the soup till they're tender. But it's quite wonderful even without it.

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8 servings, each with: 183 Calories; 12g Fat; 11g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 5 grams usable carb. (This analysis includes the broccoli.)

Without the broccoli you'll have 8 servings, each with: 168 Calories; 12g Fat; 10g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber, 4 grams usable carb.

Don't bother substituting half-and-half for the milk. I ran the numbers, and the carb count comes out just the same, but the calorie count goes up. You could use 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup water and drop the carb count by 2 grams a serving. You'll add 65 calories.