Eastern Home Kitchen

Soup Recipes

Chicken and Mushroom Soup

A clear, light soup built on separately fried mushrooms and a soffritto of onion and carrot, with potato and poached chicken. An hour, one pot and one pan.

A bowl of clear chicken and mushroom soup with potato and browned mushrooms

https://easternhomekitchen.com/recipes/chicken-and-mushroom-soup/

Prep
15 mins
Cook
45 mins
Total
1 hr
Yield
5 servings
Cuisine
Eastern European

This is a weeknight soup that tastes like it took longer than it did. The trick is that nothing is boiled that should be fried: the mushrooms go into a hot dry-ish pan and brown properly, and the onion and carrot are cooked to gold before either meets the water.

Boiled mushrooms taste of very little. Browned ones taste of mushroom, and the whole pot follows.

Ingredients

Makes 5 servings

  • 150 g5 ¼ oz chicken breast
  • 200 g7 oz chestnut or button mushrooms
  • 3 medium potatoes, about 400 g
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 l2 qt water or light chicken stock
  • salt, black pepper and a bay leaf, to taste
  • dill, to serve

Instructions

  1. Set out the chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, onion and carrot.

    Chicken breast, mushrooms, potatoes, onion and carrot on a board

  2. Poach the chicken breast in the water with a bay leaf and a little salt for 15 minutes, then lift it out and keep the broth. Cut the potatoes into small cubes, add them to the broth and simmer.

  3. Cut the mushrooms into thick slices — thin ones disappear.

    Mushrooms cut into thick slices

  4. Chop the onion and grate the carrot, then fry them in the oil until golden and sweet, about 8 minutes.

    Onion and grated carrot frying until golden

  5. In the same pan, or a second one, fry the mushrooms over high heat until they have released their water and browned at the edges.

    Mushrooms browning in a hot pan

  6. Shred or dice the poached chicken and add it once the potatoes are soft. Ten minutes later add the mushrooms, then the onion and carrot. Season, lower the heat and simmer another 10 minutes.

  7. Serve hot with plenty of chopped dill.

    Finished chicken and mushroom soup in a bowl with dill

Notes & tips

  • Brown the mushrooms in a pan hot enough that they sizzle. If they stew in their own liquid, keep cooking until it evaporates and they start to colour.
  • Skim the broth after the chicken has poached for a clearer soup.
  • Add the fried vegetables near the end. Boiled for half an hour they lose exactly what frying gave them.

Substitutions

  • Chicken breast — Thighs make a better broth and stay juicier; poach for 25 minutes instead of 15.
  • Button mushrooms — A handful of dried porcini, soaked, with the soaking liquid strained into the pot.
  • Potato — A handful of small pasta or pearl barley, added with enough extra time to cook through.

Storage & freezing

In the fridge
3 days. The potatoes soften but the flavour deepens.
In the freezer
Freezes for 2 months, though the potato texture suffers.
Reheating
Gently on the hob until steaming. Add fresh dill at the table, not before storing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use stock instead of poaching the chicken?

Yes — use 2 litres of light chicken stock and add diced raw chicken with the potatoes. Poaching a breast in water gives you both the meat and a clean broth from one step, which is why it is written this way.

Why fry the mushrooms separately?

Mushrooms are mostly water. Dropped into a pot they release it and poach; in a hot pan they release it, it evaporates, and then they brown. That browning is most of the soup's flavour.

How do I make it creamy?

Stir 100 ml of cream into the pot at the very end and warm through without boiling. Do not add it earlier or it can split against the acid from the vegetables.