Potato Cheese Soup

I love my Mom’s Potato Cheese Soup!  It is one of my favorite meals.  Unfortunately Matt does not like cheese – so I don’t make it that often.

The week before our wedding, we had a house full of people for dinner – Matt’s Dad, Aafke, Emily .. and my entire family!  I made my Minestrone Soup (recipe coming soon!) and my Mom made Potato Cheese Soup.  Both were a HIT!   I am posting this because I have gotten several requests for it!

Ingredients:

4 or 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Diced celery

Diced onion

Salt & pepper

2 cans of cheddar cheese soup (or cheese dip if you can’t find the soup!)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

2 cans of cream of celery soup

4-5 large potatoes

1 bag of frozen (defrost first) peas & carrots (optional)

Directions:

In a large pot, cover chicken with water.  Add diced celery and diced onion along with a little salt & pepper.  Cook on stove until chicken is tender.  Remove from pot and let it cool.  Keep the stock!

Pour stock into crock pot.  Add soups (and Cheeze Whiz – if using instead of soup).  Stir until well blended.  When chicken has cooled, cut into small pieces and add to the crock pot.  Stir until blended.  Add the defrosted bag of peas and carrots.  Stir again.

Peel and cut potatoes into small pieces.  Boil in pot on the stove.  Using a large slotted spoon, add potatoes to crock pot. It is okay to add some of the potato water if you want.  Stir until blended well.

If you want the soup a little thicker, mix 3 large tablespoons of flour with a little water until it looks like buttermilk.  I usually use the Cheeze Whiz jar (if you used Cheeze Whiz instead of soup) and shake it really well to get the lumps out.  Then pour it slowly into the hot soup mixture.  After soup is as thick as you like, taste it to see if you need to add more salt and pepper.

Let the soup cook on low for at least two hours to set the flavors.  Serve with warm bread or cornbread.  YUMMY!!!