Warm up with some delicious cream of chicken soup with bacon and mushrooms. It’s sure to take the chill out on a cool fall or winter day and satisfy hunger.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doing a lot more real cooking these days. In the warmer weather, I typically eat a lot of simple meals like grilled meats and salads.
Now that fall is in full swing with the leaves in their pretty colors, I’ve been craving comfort foods like soups and casseroles. Last week, I had the urge to make some cream of chicken soup.
Cream soups have always been my favorite. I don’t like ones that are overly thick, though.
I used to thicken soups a little with xanthan gum, but now I don’t bother. The only advantage is that it sticks better to the spoon. Not a big deal to me and I’d rather not put any extra fillers in the soup.
I wanted the soup to be extra filling and full of fat so I used chicken thigh meat and added yummy bacon. For a little crunch, I put in some celery towards the end.
I thought about picking up a daikon radish for some potato like chunks, but didn’t feel like trekking to the one store that I know carries it. I did add some mushrooms as I’m crazy about cream of mushroom soup, too. To make it a bit different than my normal, I used shiitake mushrooms.
This soup is hearty enough to serve as a main course which is how I served it. You could serve it in smaller portions at the start of a meal as well. Or, make it ahead and keep it in the fridge to heat up as a filling snack.
It wasn’t that long ago that I would only buy chicken breast meat. Now I prefer the leg meat because it’s got a lot more healthy fat to it and I find it more flavorful.
It took me a while to really embrace a high fat diet. Like a lot of people, I was brainwashed into thinking too much dietary fat was bad.
In fact, when I first started on a low carb diet over a decade ago, I thought low carb high protein was the way to go. I never really understood how it all worked.
I was under the impression that it was the protein that keeps one full rather than the fat. However, I didn’t realize that too much protein can turn into glucose in the body.
It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that I needed to up my fat intake to truly take advantage of my low carb diet. I eat so much less when I’m eating high fat foods because I can go so much longer without feeling hungry.
I’ve found that I do best when I get 70% or more of my calories from fat. I don’t even pick the fat off the meat any more like I used to. I no longer choose the leanest cuts of meat or drain off all the fat anymore and my meals taste much better now.
Low fat foods aren’t always the healthy choices and so many people fall into that trap. I really wish that products geared towards kids would go back to being high fat.
Even the fast food restaurants use low fat milk and yogurt products in the kids meals. I only give my daughter whole milk so she wants nothing to do with milk that doesn’t have the full fat.
It’s tough when we are out on the road because it’s often difficult to get whole milk with a kids meal. A lot of times, I just get some water and let her have full fat ice cream for dessert.
I really am looking forward to spending more time making more savory dishes. The holidays always seem to be about the sweet treats, but I’ve been getting more into the meat and vegetable dishes instead.
I still haven’t decided on what to make for Thanksgiving. But, I’d like to try some new creative sides to serve along with the traditional turkey.
Next time I make this cream of chicken soup with bacon and mushrooms, I need to make a double batch. It was super delicious and didn’t last long. I would have liked a few leftovers to heat up and enjoy in my lunch crock pot at work.
I don’t have a lot of soup recipes so I’ll have to spend some time developing more to cook and enjoy over the winter. What kind of soup do you prefer, clear broth or creamy?
Keto Chicken Soup with Bacon Recipe
Keto Cream of Chicken Soup with Bacon
Ingredients
- 6 slices no sugar bacon
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3.5 ounces shiitake mushrooms sliced
- 1/3 cup white cooking wine or water
- 1/2 cup coconut milk or almond milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 cups chicken bone broth
- 4 ribs celery chopped
- 4 pieces deboned skinless chicken thighs cooked and chopped
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
Low Carb Sweeteners | Keto Sweetener Conversion Chart
Instructions
- Cook bacon in 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat in large soup pot until crispy. Remove bacon from pot and set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon butter to pot, add garlic and cook until golden. Add mushrooms and cook until they are softened.
- Add wine or water and cook until liquid is reduced by half.
- Stir in coconut milk, heavy cream, and chicken broth. Add celery and chicken. Simmer until heated throughout. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley and bacon.
Notes
Nutrition
Additional Info
- Net Carbs 3.9g
- % Carbs: 6.2%
- % Protein: 29.4%
- % Fat: 64.4%
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Note on Nutritional Information
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Chris says
April 3, 2019 at 12:45 amWow!!! I made a couple of adjustments. Cooked the bacon, then browned raw chicken thighs in the bacon fat. Cooked (extra) garlic, 1 chopped onion and the celery in the bacon/ chicken fat. Later, I used 1/2 cup of cream cheese instead of coconut cream, and tossed the chopped bacon back into the pot.
The flavor of this soup is absolutely ridiculous. I’m a soup dork, but this is insane…
Beverly Williams says
March 10, 2019 at 4:35 pmI would like to substitute cream cheese, in place of the coconut milk. This would help to thicken the soup, but I am guessing that it might need some additional liquid, Would I use four ounces of cream cheese to substitute for the i/2 cup of coconut milk? I know that the macros would change but I can figure that out.
Lisa MarcAurele says
March 11, 2019 at 5:18 am4 ounces of cream cheese is equal to about 1/2 cup volume so it should be fine without additional liquid.