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Recipes

Buffalo Chicken Soup

In the winter this is a great comfort soup recipe, quite low fat so good for watching your waistline, and also suitable for Friday Night Football or Super Bowl. Add more blue cheese as desired and use cream instead of milk and half and half for an amazing creamy taste, but also huge increase in calories. Do this for parties, but stay with low fat for family meal. Coconut milk or coconut cream can be used instead of milk. I don't know what dairy free cheese substitutes would taste like.

I saw a 2 line description in an online menu of this soup ‘ chicken breast in a creamy sauce with hot wings sauce, cheese and topped with blue cheese’. So I took the idea and created my own version. It only has a slight bite from the peppers and a mild blue cheese taste. I don’t like the raw taste of most buffalo chicken dishes, just raw heat with no depth of flavor makes no sense to me. Adjust the amount of heat to suit yourself and use whatever bottle, ground chili, hot sauce you are used to using that is also gluten free. Just remember the hotter you make soup, the more people will drink at a party to cool down their mouths, and you could be liable for any car accidents. I have a girlfriend who lived in San Antonio, Texas for several years and I always have to remind her that not everyone likes or can tolerate 10 Alarm dishes. Make this 1-2 days in advance of party, refrigerate then reheat and serve in slow cooker.

One of my January 2011 recipes for National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (now Beyond Celiac)

Gluten Free Buffalo Chicken Soup

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

5 slices of bacon, finely scissored (I use Costco pre-cooked, less fat than raw, Jones Dairy Farm bacon or Oscar Meyer center cut raw bacon.)

1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into small dice.

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely crushed

1+1/2 -2 lb (750-1000g) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Take off excess fat, then cut chicken in half lengthwise and then cut into thin strips - I do this all with scissors. Chicken breast becomes too dry and chewy.

2 tsp (10ml) Penzeys smoked paprika - don’t bother to substitute Szego brand.(Penzeys.com or Arlington, Ma store for New Englanders. Penzey’s have other stores in different States.)

¼ tsp of Penzeys ground chipotle or about 1 tsp pureéd canned chipotle or to taste or other hot sauce you like. Be careful measuring the ground chipotle. I was heavy handed with another pot of soup and it was much hotter. Bearable but definitely more of a kick.

4 c (32 fl oz, 1 ltr) gluten free chicken broth, fresh black pepper

1/4c (60ml) gluten free cornstarch - I use Argo brand that is labeled gluten free. Corn is very easily contaminated in processing.

1 c (8 fl oz, 240 ml) 1% milk

1/2 c (4 fl oz, 120 ml) half and half. For less calories either substitute fat free half and half or use whole milk. Heavy Cream is wonderful.

¼ c (60ml) blue cheese crumbles.

You can buy small plastic packets of crumbled blue or Gorgonzola cheese at about $2 for 4 oz. There are many varieties of blue cheese out there and they will all give a different flavor and strength. This amount of blue cheese is very mild since I am not a blue cheese lover, but you do know it is blue cheese. You can also serve additional blue cheese in a bowl for people to help themselves. Please don’t get over enthusiastic adding the blue cheese. I had about 1 extra tablespoon left in packet and added it. Then, even my husband wouldn’t eat the soup and he loves blue cheese.

Note: not all blue cheese is gluten free since originally the mold was grown on wheat bread.

1. Put onion, bacon and oil in large pan, and gently cook until onion is soft and turning golden.

2. Add carrots and cook gently for about 5 more minutes.

3. Stir in chicken strips, smoked paprika and chipotle, stir well so chicken is covered in spice mix and let cook for about 5 minutes until chicken is seared on all sides.

4. Stir in garlic, chicken broth and freshly ground black pepper, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cook covered for about 30 minutes until carrots and chicken thighs are tender.

5. Blend cornstarch with 1% milk, and add this mix to pan. Cook stirring occasionally until soup thickens and then let cook for about 3 more minutes to ensure cornstarch is cooked out with no raw flour taste left. Add fat free half and half at this stage, it has a tendency to break up if it is cooked too long.

6. Taste soup and see if you want more pepper or hot pepper. You probably won’t need salt since the blue cheese will add salt.

7. Add blue cheese, turn off heat and allow soup to stand for a few minutes. Then stir well to mix blue cheese throughout the soup.

8. Serve and enjoy.

I have also added small cubes of cooked Yukon gold or other firm potatoes to the soup. I didn’t cook the potatoes from raw in the soup as they became too soft. I have also added leftover home made creamed spinach to the soup and that was also really tasty.

If you don't care for blue cheese, just use a cup of sharp cheddar or Swiss cheese instead.

Note: the mold for blue cheese is normally grown on wheat bread, so you have to check that the blue cheese available to you is gluten free.

I also used Landolakes fat free half and half. The finished soup did not taste as rich as soup using cream but without comparing soup with cream against soup with fat free half and half, I think most people would be happy and it is a large saving of fat calories.

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