Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

I've linked to a recipe for this before, I think in my "Basics of Cooking in India" post, but I thought I'd go ahead and spell out the recipe on here to make things easier. 

Unfortunately, this does not exist in India:

Sad, sad reality. Yes, I'm aware that making it from scratch is probably healthier from the "clean eating" standpoint, but truth be told, I'm all about convenience. 

However, India forces you to "eat clean" more often, so here's how to make a cream of chicken soup substitute from scratch!

First you need to make some chicken broth. Boil 1 cup of water and dissolve 1 chicken cube in the boiling water. You'll only need 1/2 cup of the chicken broth, so you can either pour the rest down the drain, or use it in whatever recipe you're making, or save it in the fridge/freezer!

Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

2 TBS butter

3 TBS flour

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and whisk for a minute until smooth and bubbly. Whisk in the chicken broth and milk. It will initially get really thick, then thinner, then thicken again as you continue to stir it over the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. That's it!

This recipe equals about the amount of a can of cream of chicken soup! It's also versatile - you could add in some sautéed mushrooms to get cream of mushroom soup, or some sautéed celery to make cream of celery soup (does anyone ever actually use that for anything??). 

I use this in recipes in India allllll the time, so it's become second nature to make it. Takes a little more time than popping open a can, but it's pretty darn easy!