Cozy and Hearty Dinners
It’s January and it’s chilly, which means it is the season for our coziest and heartiest recipes. There is nothing quite like a bowl of soup or stew that warms you right up, even if it’s cold outside. Some of our favorite soups include some Danish classics, like soup with kød- og melboller (meatballs and dumplings) and gule ærter (split pea soup). If you are looking for some inspiration this winter, check out those recipes as well as today’s recipe down below. Soups are great because they are easy to adapt to what you already have, so don’t worry too much if you don’t have all the ingredients. You can substitute and make a delicious soup anyway! All that matters is that it is a surefire way to bring coziness and delicious flavors to the dinner table.
Today’s Recipe Inspiration
This soup recipe is not necessarily a traditional Scandinavian soup, but it is inspired by a Danish dish! We wanted to put a special twist on it and tried it out, and it turned out so well that we had to share it with you here on the blog. We absolutely love eating tarteletter, which are little pastry tartlets filled with a creamy chicken and asparagus sauce. In fact, we just had them around Christmastime, and they are a family favorite! So today, we bring you the soup version of this delicious sauce. It is made with chicken, asparagus, onion, celery, potatoes, various seasonings, milk, stock, and heavy cream (optional). The end result is a creamy and tasty dinner perfect for these cold winter days and accompanied nicely by a crusty piece of bread! Feel free to substitute other veggies or add pasta if you want.
Making this Soup
The process of making this soup is reasonably simple. In many ways, it is similar to making a sauce, but we want a less thick end result. We start by cooking our chicken separately, or you can buy a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket and shred it up. Then, cook your veggies for a little while in some butter. Add the flour, which you should let cook for a minute or two before adding milk and then stock. Starting the soup with a roux as the base means the end result will be really glossy and creamy, and you can actually adjust the liquid to make it thicker if you like. Finally, add your chicken back in and finish off with some heavy cream and parsley. We hope you try it out and enjoy!
Kyllingesuppe med asparges (Creamy Chicken Soup with Asparagus)
Ingredients
- 900 (~2lbs, or 3 large) grams chicken breast
- 2 tbsp olive oil (for cooking the chicken)
- 375 (1 bunch) grams asparagus
- 300 (1 large) grams onion
- 170 (2 stalks) grams celery
- 600 (about 5 medium) grams potatoes (weighed after peeling and dicing)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp dried thyme (you can also use fresh thyme instead!)
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 475 (~2 cups) milliliters milk
- 950 (~4 cups) milliliters chicken stock (you can also use water and a bouillon cube in place of this, or just water, though it may be less flavorful!)
- 120 (~1/2 cup) milliters heavy cream (this is optional – but we love the creamy finish it gives the soup!)
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chicken breast and cook until done, about 15 minutes (flip halfway!). If you prefer, you can use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken for this instead, just skip cooking the meat! Another alternative is that you can boil a whole chicken in a pot of water for a few hours on the stove – this will give you chicken stock as well as the chicken meat! We use chicken breast because it's readily available and whole chickens can occasionally be expensive.
- While the chicken is cooking, dice your onion, celery, and garlic.
- Peel and dice the potatoes.
- Remove the chicken when it is cooked through. Add in 2 tablespoons of butter, then add the onion, celery, and potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes until the onions begin to turn translucent.
- Add in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds to one minute, until fragrant. If anything starts to stick to the bottom of the pot, add a little bit of water to release from the bottom.
- Add in the dried thyme and the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Once the butter has melted, add in the flour. Stir well until the flour has coated the vegetables.
- Begin adding milk a little bit at a time, stirring well to make sure that the flour is hydrating and evenly mixing without clumps.
- Once you've added the milk, begin adding the chicken stock. We like to add a full four cups of liquid but if you like your soup on the thicker side, you can begin with 2 cups of stock and adjust accordingly.
- Let the mixture cook on medium heat until simmering (then you can turn the heat down and cover) for around 15 minutes, and until the potatoes are just beginning to get tender.
- While the soup is cooking, clean, trim, and cut the asparagus into pieces about 1-1.5 inches in length.
- Add the asparagus to the soup, cooking for an additional 5-10 minutes.
- After adding the asparagus, you can either dice the chicken breast, or shred it. We like the texture of shredded chicken. If you're using a rotisserie chicken, remove all usable meat from the bones.
- Add the chicken to the soup. Season with salt and pepper at this stage and taste for seasoning. Cook on medium heat for around 5 minutes until the chicken has heated through.
- Add chopped parsley and half a cup of cream (optional) to finish.
- We like to serve this soup with some toasted bread; enjoy!
Made this for my family this past weekend and they loved it!. I poached the chicken breasts ahead of making the soup to retain maximum tenderness & moisture. Will definitely be making this again. Mange tak 🇩🇰😊
Selv tak 🙂 Wonderful to hear that it turned out great, it’s a perfect meal for this time of year! Thanks for leaving a comment and using our recipe.