I know that when you saw the name of the post, you immediately had visions of glorified macaroni and cheese sauce with chicken in it, but really this isn’t like that. This soup is cheesy and brothy. It’s chothy!

Okay. That was dumb, but the soup is delicious. Even if it does call for processed cheese food. Stop rolling your eyes and get the Velveeta out.

Cheesy Chicken Pepper Soup:

3-4 slices of bacon, cooked crisp then cooled and crumbled.
4 tablespoons bacon grease, divided
2 chicken breasts (I used boneless skinless for the sheer ease of it)
1 onion, diced
1 red or orange pepper, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
6-8 oz processed cheese food like Velveeta or that squeezy stuff that you get in Hickory Farms gift boxes (That’s what we used. Yum!)

Cook the bacon and set it aside to cool. Brown the chicken and cook it through in 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.

In a larger soup pan, melt the remaining bacon grease and cook the onion and pepper until soft. Add flour and combine well. Turn up the heat and stir in the bouillon cubes, stock, and water. As soon as it starts to boil, reduce heat and let it simmer until a bit thick. Cut up cheese and stir until it all melts. Add bacon crumbles.

Enjoy! (It’s chothy!)

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Cheesey Chicken Pepper Soup

Robin from Rurification blogs at Rurification.

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Growing up in my house, my family created one of my favorite Sunday traditions. My parents would wake up at the crack of dawn (more like 8 a.m., but for a kid, that’s EARLY!) and go buy bagels for my sisters and me for breakfast. I’d usually wake up to the smell of my mom cooking bacon in her cast iron skillet for sandwiches, and my dad would sit at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. I remember thinking that there is no other way we should spend our weekend mornings.

Now that I am an adult with my own house, I would love to carry on the tradition. However the nearest bagel place is over an hour round-trip drive, and I’m really not that patient in the morning. I decided this weekend though, that we would wake up to bacon cooking on Sunday and bagels for breakfast. I decided to have an adventure, in bagelmaking!

I scoured the internet for recipes and finally decided to combine a few to make one that suited my tastes.

Here’s what I did:

1. In the bowl of my standing mixer, I stirred together 1 cup of warm water, 1 tablespoon of yeast, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

2. I let the mixture rise for about five minutes, until foamy, and added my flour. I used a blend of 2 1/4 cups of white flour to 3/4 cup of wheat flour. I turned the mixer on the lowest setting until all of the flour was incorporated.

3. On my well-floured counter, I kneaded about 1/2 cup more of white flour into the dough until it was no longer sticky. I stuck it into a greased bowl and let it rise on the counter, covered with a towel, until it doubled in size.

4. I re-kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes, cut it into six equal pieces and started to roll them into balls. I poked a hole in the center and stretched each out into bagel-like shapes.

5. Once all the bagels were shaped, I brought a large pot of water to a boil, took it down to a simmer, and added 1 tablespoon of baking soda. I poached each bagel for 2 minutes per side, set them onto a paper plate to drain, then put them on my baking sheet with some cornmeal on the bottom.

6. I baked the tray at 400 degrees for around 20-25 minutes. Since my oven temperatures love to vary on me, I never know how long to keep things in there. I knew these were done when they were nice and golden brown, and had a crunch to them.

I was so excited for breakfast the next day, I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep!

Get the handy printable and save it to your recipe box:
Homemade Bagels

Side Note: Since my husband loved them, I got even more adventurous and made him two cheddar-jalapeno bagels. When forming the dough into balls, I kneaded in about 1 tablespoon of minced jalapenos and 2 tablespoons of shredded cheddar into each ball. Then I shaped, boiled and baked them, just like the others.

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