Homemade Cream of Chicken

So I have a confession to make... I LOVE CREAM OF CHICKEN!!!

But lately cream of chicken has not been loving me.  Recently, I  have been trying harder and harder to get my home free of heavily processed foods.  So, my body was not used to all the processed junk in cream of chicken, and every time I ate it, I felt awful! 

But getting rid of processed foods is not an easy task!  Processed foods are every where.  And at times it can seem REALLY DAUNTING to get rid of all the processed foods, especially a staple like cream of chicken. :)  

What I decided to do was to take baby steps to making my menus more natural.  The first thing I did was to really look at labels for High Fructose Corn Syrup and eliminate it wherever I could.  Most thing I could find a different brand with no HFCS.  But somethings there is just no alternative... syrup being one of them.  And I am not ready to switch to real maple syrup because I have heard it doesn't taste like "syrup", as ironic as that is!! ;)

The second thing I wanted to cut out was cream of chickens soup.  Have you ever looked at a label of cream of chicken?!  You can hardly pronounce the ingredients, let alone know what they are!  I decided I was going to learn how to make my own cream of chicken.  I searched Pinterest high and low to find a recipe that I liked and sounded good.  But I had no clue where to start.  I was also really looking for simplicity so it wouldn't be too much more work than just opening up a can of cream of chicken.

Looking at recipes and doubting my abilities to make a copy cat type recipe left me going for months without some of my favorite recipes.  And then one day I ran across this recipe, and let me tell you, it is GOOD!  It doesn't taste just like cream of chicken, because it is natural, but I honestly think it tastes even better than cream of chicken. 

I got the original recipe from this website, but I have made a few tweaks to the original recipe and I will explain my recipe below.

Homemade Cream of Chicken

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups milk, divided

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp parsley flakes

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1.  Bring the broth and 1/2 cup milk to a low boil.  (Just a side note, that I do not use chicken broth. I use 2 1/2 cups water and about a tablespoon of chicken broth flavor/bouillon.)

2.  Whisk all the spices and flour together with the remaining 1 cup milk. (Another side note, I have found that using whole milk makes this much thicker.  2% milk is OK, but I wouldn't go any lower than that!)

3.  Once the liquid is at a low boil, slowly whisk in the flour and milk mixture. 

4.  Continue to simmer and whisk for 5 to 10 minutes.  As the sauce cools, it will thicken.  

This will make the equivalent of about 2 cans.  Once you have this base made, just treat it like you would in any recipe you usually use cream of chicken in.  

One thing I have done to make this recipe easier is I make up about 10 packets of the flour and spice mix at a time. 

This way, I just grab one out of the cupboard and get my liquids boiling.  It really is a fast process and the more you do it, the faster it seems to go!  And it is SO much better for you than the processed stuff from the can!

I hope you and your family enjoy! :)

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Bake Recipe

My Bug does not like meat... any meat.  It is really hard to get him to eat meat.  The best way to "trick" him into eating meat is to mix it in with other stuff... like a hotdish or in a sauce or something like that.  

Tonight for dinner I was going to make chicken, alfredo, and broccoli.  Everything was going to be cooked separate and then put together on the plate to eat.  I knew that he would only eat the noodles and alfredo sauce, and maybe the broccoli if I mixed it in.  But he would not eat any of the meat.  So I had an idea to make it into a hotdish. (casserole for all you non-North Dakotans! :) )

And it actually is really yummy and I was able to get Bug to eat the meat (chicken).

Here's the recipe:

1 pound noodles, cooked - I used bowtie for fun

1 1/2 cups chicken pieces or cubes, cooked

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 jars of alfredo sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix it all up in a 9x13 pan and bake with foil for 30 minutes at 350*.

Take off the foil and bake for another 10.

And enjoy!  

This was super simple and way easy to make!  And the fact that it is more kid friendly is a HUGE bonus too!

Cassandra :)