recipe of the week: chicken cordon bleu soup

i'm not necessarily a 'soup in the summer' girl
but last week was a bit cooler (low 90s...haha)
and anthony said to "surprise him" for dinner one night

a few months ago i'd spotted a recipe for this soup online
and have seen a few variations
but (as usual) decided to create my own rendition of it

and
it.was.excellent

so, here's my spin on chicken cordon bleu soup!

chicken cordon bleu soup

makes 6 1-cup servings
nutritional info and printable recipe can be found here

2 tbsp olive oil
4-5 chicken tenderloins, cut into cubes
½ large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
½ cup white wine (i used sauvignon blanc)
2 ½ cups chicken broth
85 ounces diced cooked ham (i used ½ a package of trader joe’s rosemary ham)
3 stalks celery, diced
½ tsp white pepper
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
--if not using rosemary ham, which is admittedly pretty specialized, 2 tsp rosemary should add the right amount if flavor--
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup skim milk*
4 slices of swiss cheese, cubed (OR 3 slices of swiss and 1 slice havarti)

heat olive oil in large pan
add cubed chicken, heat until pink is cooked out



add garlic and onion, sauté for 5 minutes



add wine, reduce (about 3 minutes)



add chicken broth, ham, celery and spices. bring to a boil






while waiting for the broth mixture to boil, in a second (medium) pot, mix cream, milk and cheese. heat until cheese is melted









pour cheese mixture into the broth mixture



reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes



we found pita bread an excellent side for this soup, and i also cooked some edamame for the table.
anthony liked this soup enough to have 3 bowls! I loved it too, but tried to refrain from more than another ½ serving since i AM watching my calorie intake!

this is definitely staying in the rotation, and i am thrilled that it’s not horrid as far as calories/fat go. *i played around with the cream/milk mixture on sparkpeople until i got it down to where i was happy. i'm sure that using fully cream like most of the recipes i searched online would be fantastic, but truly i didn’t miss the fat and calories added by that…and the flavor was incredible as it was!