Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup like you find in a can is a homemade version you can use in casseroles and dips without any guilt and it’s freezer friendly!
This recipe flies in the face of that response. Yes, use your family recipes with the packaged products and if you want to swap for homemade I am here to make that easier for you! You don’t need to purchase Campbell’s Cream of Chicken Soup to enjoy your favorite casserole anymore!
Here is the exact serving I made used in a Slow Cooker Hash Brown Casserole that I made for my friend Jill’s blog Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons this past Monday:
Looking for more kitchen pantry recipes?
- Cream of Mushroom Soup (Condensed)
- Homemade Cool Whip
- Best Homemade QUICK Enchilada Sauce (Top 10 Ways to Use It!) (Not technically part of the series it is one of the first recipes on the blog)
This Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe is so easy to make and with just a few ingredients you’ll be making your own in no time. ESPECIALLY when you have leftover rotisserie chicken or chicken stock!
If you don’t have a chicken carcass you can definitely make this cream of chicken soup recipe with chicken breast. In fact I added it to the recipe to be thorough.
Making a cream soup like this recipe is really quite easy, you can either start with a roux and slowly add in the dairy to the butter/flour mixture, or you can simmer this soup on the stove and whisk it well while it cooks and you can skip the butter altogether.
Now that we have this recipe on the site I’m going to be making more recipes using cream of chicken soup. I will be updating this page with links and I will be referencing this recipe when I use it in other recipes.
Now that we have this recipe on the site I’m going to be making more recipes using cream of chicken soup. Don’t worry I will be updating this page with links and I will be referencing this recipe when I use it in other recipes.
Some tips and info about this Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup recipe:
- Yes, you can freeze it, I usually freeze it in 1 1/4 cup increments since that is what comes in the canned variety.
- The milk won’t curdle, but when you defrost whisk it well if you can. If going directly into a casserole don’t even worry about whisking.
- If you want to make this Cream of Chicken Soup gluten free you can replace the flour with cornstarch. Start with 2 tablespoons mixed in as directed, but if you need more make sure to make a slurry (1 part cornstarch to 1 part water).
- Feel free to play with the spices as you’d like, I used the ones in the recipe by analyzing the ingredients and the flavors of the canned variety. I use this variety as an ingredient in other recipes so I don’t tend to look for the flavor of the recipe to come from this piece of the puzzle as much.
- If you don’t whisk as much and it gets a little lumpy don’t worry about it, this is meant to be added to forgiving casserole recipes!
- I love (I mean genuinely love) these freezable containers in pretty much every size. I don’t buy branded containers like Rubbermaid, hefty or pyrex because we use these instead for almost everything.
Tools Used in the making of this Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe:
Better Than Bouillon: I almost never buy boxes of broth because I keep the beef, chicken and vegetable version of this Better Than Bouillon.
Perfect Freezing Containers: As a chef I keep a giant stash of these in the kitchen (we used to use them in culinary school), they’re heavy duty, freeze well and stack great. I can write on them with permanent marker or attach labels and they last forever.
Cream of Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken broth *
- 1/4 cup chopped chicken (or a rotisserie chicken carcass - I use the rotisserie chicken)**
- 2 1/2 cups milk I use whole milk
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper ***
- 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 1/4 cup flour
Instructions
- Bring a saucepan with the chicken broth to a simmer with the chicken carcass/chicken meat.
- Remove 1 cup of the broth to a large measuring cup, add in the milk, celery salt, white pepper, onion powder and flour to the large measuring cup and whisk well until fully combined.
- Pour the mixture into the pan in a slow stream while whisking.
Continue to whisk regularly for 5-7 minutes or until the sauce is thickened (like the canned variety).
- If you used the chicken carcass, remove it and discard it.
Recipe Notes
* ?You can also use Better than Bouillon with water (I do this sometimes, I just double the concentration of it to get a lot of chicken flavor).
** The reason I use the carcass instead of cubed chicken is because to be a good copycat I wanted to keep the chicken pieces minimal. In the Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup cans I opened the chicken bits were quite small. Plus, the flavor in that rotisserie only adds depth!
*** I use white pepper because the canned variety doesn't use black pepper. If you don't mind the black specks go right ahead and use black pepper!
PS YES, I freeze this all the time, and to have a ratio of how many cups to a can, Campbell's lists one can as containing 1 1/4 cups of condensed soup. You can freeze the leftovers easily if you just need one can or cut the recipe in half.
So if I use this as cream of chic in can for a recipes do I dilute it with a can of water like campbells? Thanks!
Yes, you would use this just like the canned version.
I didn’t have whole milk on hand when I made your cream of chicken soup recipe last night that I used it in my Chicken Chili Enchiladas. It was so-o good. I made one change because I saw that Campbell’s adds cream to their Cream of Chicken soup. I substituted 1 c. Organic Valley Whipping Cream for 1 of the cups of whole milk. The rest of the milk (1 1/2 c.) I used was Kirkland Organic Low Fat Milk). I was so-o yummy I couldn’t stop tasting it! I thought about leaving out the sour cream in my chicken enchilada recipe, because the soup was so tasty and creamy. It really didn’t need it! Thank you for sharing the recipe! P.S. I can wait to try your Cream of Celery Soup recipe in my “Alfredo Sauce.”
Sounds delicious!! Glad you liked it!
I recently ran across this recipe while trying to find out if I can freeze canned cream of chicken soup. Since there are only 2 of us, I usually scale down casseroles to make 2 small ones (1 for now & 1 to freeze) & a can of soup is too much. I’m very frugal & hate to throw that partial can of soup away. I’m not a huge fan of canned cream of chicken soup flavor so decided to give this recipe a try. Since we hadn’t had a rotisserie chicken in a while, I picked one up for dinner, then the next day proceeded to use that carcass & frozen chicken broth I had. After the carcass cooked for a little while, I just pulled it out of the broth, pulled off those little pieces of chicken & put them aside. I tossed the carcass at this point. The directions were confusing as the last step was to remove the carcass. I think this should have been step #2. That is the only negative thing I have to say about this recipe.
Since I always worry about tiny pieces of bones cooking off a chicken carcass, I strained my broth then put it back in the saucepan (minus the 1 cup). I proceeded with the directions as written (except I had already removed my carcass).
After cooking about 7 minutes I was worried it was a little too thin so I cooked it a couple minutes longer. I didn’t realize how much it would thicken up as it cooled so mine came out a little thicker than I think it was meant to be. Next time I will know this & stop by the 7 minute mark. I got 7 cups out of this; I divided into 1 cup portions, froze 6 & used one to make Tater Tot Casseroles. Normally I think this casserole is a little bland but with this homemade cream of chicken soup, the flavor was so much better! All the seasonings from the chicken carcass/skin + those in this recipe came through in the taste, taking it up several notches.
Is there a way to lighten this up? I have problems with full fat milk. Could I use a1% or fat free?
Sure 🙂
I made this last night to go with with some homemade bread that I’d made the other day. I had been looking for a GOOD recipe for so long to go in my chicken pot pie recipe and as a stand alone soup. It was SOOO good! I added parsley, creole seasoning, onion powder and garlic powder along with a couple of pats of butter. I used the roasted (bone-in) chicken breasts from the night before. WOWSERS!!! It was really good! I’m so happy! I am going to use this for cream of broccoli too. I don’t like cheese in my cream of broccoli soup which seems to be a trend now. I can’t wait to freeze a few batches!
Wow! That does sound amazing!!
Have you ever made this with a dairy free milk alternative?
Because it’s a cream of chicken, I’m not sure there would be an alternative to use that wouldn’t completely change the structure of the recipe. So sorry.
I like this option so much better than the store bought version!
Thank you!
This is genius because you know exactly what is going into it!
You know, I’ve never thought to make my own cream of chicken soup. We use it a lot.
What a great substitute for canned soup!
Thank you Delaney!
LOVE this homemade version… I started making homemade cream of mushroom soup last year and never went back to canned. Now I can do that with cream of chicken too!
Homemade is so much better! Stay tuned for more!!
I’m a bit confused as to how much this makes in total. using 4 c broth (stock) and 2.5 C milk would get you close to 6+ cups? you’re just using the 1 C broth mixed with milk etc to make the roux mixture and to avoid lumps? then you pour everything back into the stock? or does it cook down quite a bit? typical roux is 1 part flour to 1 part fat, but there is no fat in this. I always make stock from my rotisserie chicken leftovers and then freeze it in ziploc bags if not using it right away.
would you suggest freezing the condensed soup the same way? not sure how milk freezes.
It makes about 3 cups, that’s equal to a little over 2 cans worth. You can definitely freeze this recipe and I linked above to amazing containers that I use. Hope this clears up any confusion!
Im still confused about the 4c of chicken broth. Remove 1 cup, add everything, whisk and return to the remainding 3 cups broth??
Yes, after the broth has simmered, remove 1 cup of it, add everything to that 1 cup and whisk. Once whisked, pour that mixture slowing back into the reaming 3 cups of broth. I hope this clears up any confusion.
I’ve never even thought to try to make this at home, but what an awesome idea! So much better for you!
I can’t wait to make this & store it in my freezer for a quick meal. I have avoided so many casserole recipes because they called for condensed cream of chicken & I try to avoid pantry items with too many questionable ingredients. Thank you so much for this. I really enjoy all of the recipes on your blog.
Thank you so much Angela!
Yum! I love cream of chicken soup. Oh my gosh, It makes chicken taste AMAZING! I like to add a little mushroom, just finely chopped. I will have to pass this recipe along to my mom, she will never buy it again.