Ingredients
1 chicken (about 5 pounds)
2 1/2 qt water
1 soup
3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup flour
2 cup light cream (or half-and-half)
6 cup chicken stock, heated
1 1/2 cup cooked chicken breast, finely chopp, ed
1 salt, to taste, if desired
1 freshly ground black pepper, to tas, te
1 cup fresh parsley, snipped, to garnish
Directions
STOCK
BROTH: Simmer the chicken for about 1 hour. Remove the chicken and
cool; remove the meat from the bones. Reserve the white meat and save
the remainder for other uses.
SOUP: Blend the butter and flour together in a medium (3-quart)
saucepan. Warm the cream in a seperate pan. Add the warmed cream to
the butter-flour mixture and stir until smooth. It will start to
thicken when it is heated. Stir in two cups of the hot stock. Cook
over low heat, stirring, until heated through and blended, about 4
minutes. Add an additional 4 cups of stock and the chopped chicken.
Season to taste with salt, if desired, and pepper. Heat to serving
temperature--steaming, but not boiling or the cream will break. Watch
the pot closely to keep from coming to a boil.
SERVICE: Serve from a heated tureen and ladle into heated bowls.
Garnish with snippets of fresh parsley. YIELD: About 8 servings.
[[ THE COMPLETE BOOK OF SOUPS AND STEWS: Bernard Clayton, Jr.: Simon &
Shuster; 1984 ]]
Servings: 8 servings
Chicken Velvet Soup Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chicken; Chicken Soup; Poultry; Soup
The History of Recipes
Recipes as a concept can be tracked way back into antiquity, at least as far as the early Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. Interesting though that is, generally, these early cookbooks were just very simple pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for food preparation.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to food historians is a collection of clay tablets in Sumerian which recount the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making drinkers feel `blissful`. Much later, in Roman times a roman called Apicius compiled a number of documents describing recipes enjoyed by wealthy roman citizens. In his publication, he tells us how the roman meals were separated into starters, entrees and afters, something we still use today. Aspicius recounts how the Romans made use of many different herbs, including a few that are still present in modern kitchens like thyme, mint and parsley. Over the succeeding few hundred years, the rich and powerful families of Wesstern Europe competed with each other to serve up the most exotic banquets, and because of this the best chefs and their recipe collections could command a high salary. However, it was during the 1800s that cooking and recipe books became really popular. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, dedicated years of their lives to collating, verifying, and recording recipes to allow everyone to enjoy them. When we get to the twentieth century, cookery books were in high demand, due to higher levels of literacy, people having increased spare time and having more money to spend. The TV revolution brings us cooking programs and the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, permitting everybody to search through thousands of recipes like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Chicken Velvet Soup recipe.
