Our family's heirloom Recipe: Cream of Chicken

Every family has a food dish that identifies them,
a food that symbolizes their bond. For my family, that
honor goes to Cream of Chicken.

My Dad who was a cook in the US Navy for 25 years,
introduced this dish to the family and it was only made
on special occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas Noche Buena.
During his career, he must have cooked and prepared this dish
on ships and military base Galleys.

Dad never formally passed down the dish to his children
as a heirloom recipe. Well, I was lucky enough to get
the dish from him firsthand. One vacation day in 2007, while in
Baguio City, I stood at his Kitchen , pen and paper in hand
and started taking notes on how he made his Cream of Chicken.

The recipe in Word format sat on my Laptop for years, gave a printed copy
of the recipe to my siblings. One day, my laptop was stolen
along with my Cream of Chicken recipe.

I prepared Cream of Chicken for our Thanksgiving dinner
and I am rewriting the Cream of Chicken recipe again
based from memory. This time, I'm uploading
the recipe to my Cooking Blog website so it doesn't get lost again
and for everyone who is willing to make it follow along.

I hope you take time to make the dish and enjoy it.

So, what is your family's special Recipe?

Cream of Chicken


Ingredients:

1 whole poultry chicken, cleaned
5 eggs
3 ribs of celery cut into strips
2 green bell peppers cut into squares
2 red bell peppers cut into squares
1/2 cup butter in room temperature
1 cup button mushroom cur longitudinally
1-1/2 cups all-purpose four
~ 6 cups of water
2 cups of fresh or a can condensed milk
salt and pepper to taste



Serving: 6


Cooking Procedure:

1. In a Dutch oven or large pot, put in the whole chicken.
2. Put in the eggs in the pot being careful not to crack them.
3. Fill the Pot with water until the chicken is submerged.
4. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil.
5. Refill pot with water as they evaporate.
6. Cook the chicken in boiling water to soften it for a good 20 minutes.
7. Use a kitchen tong tool to transfer chicken to a plate or pan to catch the drippings.
8. Patiently tear off  chicken meat strips from the carcass and place in bowl. Discard the chicken skin. Set it aside. 

    9.  Blanche the vegetables by putting them into the boiling Chicken broth mixture.

    10. Use a colander to strain and remove vegetables from chicken broth and cool down with ice cold

          water. Place in bowl and set aside.

     11.  Use the colander to remove hard boiled eggs from Chicken broth and peel off shell. Chop the eggs.

  12.  Transfer Chicken broth to a bow and set aside.

  13. In the same Cooking Pot, under low heat, melt butter.

  14. Make a rue by doing the following:

      A. Gradually introduce the flour to the pot with the left hand while

           stirring the mixture using a wire whisk with the right hand.

          Reverse the order if you're left handed ;-)  

        B. Keep stirring until the mixture has a nutty aroma and color turns golden brown in color.

        C. Adjust heat to medium level.

        D. Use a ladle or measuring cup to gradually introduce chicken broth to the rue until you attain a thick consistency. Keep stirring the rue with a wire whisk.

 15. Add the chicken strips to the rue.

  16. Add the chopped eggs followed by cut mushrooms.

    17.  Add in the blanched vegetables.

    18. Gradually introduce the condensed milk being careful to maintain that thick cream consistency. Stir the mixture with a wire whisk.

    19.  You should have a Cream of Chicken consistency as shown below.

    20. Season the Cream of Chicken with salt and pepper to taste.

    21 Serve Cream of Chicken while its piping  hot.