Creamy Chicken Artichoke Soup

If you have any experience with my recipes you already know that I am not a rule follower.  At all.  This especially includes recipes that have too many ingredients, recipes that call for ingredients I forgot to buy at the store, and directions that are overly complicated.

This original recipe was all three of those things.

I have included the original recipe here (because you may be a rule follower and chose to make this the "right" way) as well as my own version.  

INGREDIENTS

• 4 medium fresh artichokes (or... a can of artichoke hearts)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 medium russet potato, diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 pound (about 2 cups) cooked chicken, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 Tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan or Romano cheese
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Croutons for garnish, optional

DIRECTIONS

Place artichokes in a steamer tray in a large stockpot with the water. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top of the artichokes. Cover and steam until tender, 30 to 45 minutes, depending on size. Remove artichokes, reserving the liquid, and let cool until you can handle them. 

Scrape the flesh from the bottom of each artichoke leaf into a stockpot. Add the reserved cooking liquid. Discard the fuzzy choke from the bottoms of the artichokes and chop the hearts. 

(or.... skip that ridiculous step and just grab your can of artichoke hearts.  Open the can, dump into stock pot.)

Add to the stockpot along with the chicken broth, wine, potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and oregano.

Boil the soup uncovered, about 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Remove and discard bay leaves. 

Puree vegetables, with their liquid in a food processor. (It took me two batches to get it all in there)

Return artichoke puree to the stockpot. Stir in chicken, cream, and parmesan cheese. Bring back to a low simmer, stirring constantly until heated. (Make sure your heat is on low!  Cheese gets gritty and nasty when it's too hot!)

Serve creamy artichoke chicken soup with croutons sprinkled on top. 

VERDICT

I'm not much of a creamy soup person.  But this was pretty good.  I suppose it would taste a bit different if you steamed your fresh artichokes for 45 minutes and then went through the process of peeling the leaves and whatever... but it tasted just fine with the canned hearts to me.