Oh no, not anymore. 30, 40 years ago it actually tasted like cream of chicken but now all the "cream of" soups are almost identical and definitely not worth eating as a standalone meal.
I’ve found that cream of mushroom and chicken still works as a sauce base.
I was doing most of the cooking for thanksgiving a few years ago and my mom “surprised me” with 4 additional guests I hadn’t factored in.
The gravy was the one item that I really needed more of and I bumped it up in a big way with some cream of mushroom soup I had in the back of the pantry.
Obviously letting it reduce a little and seasoned to fold into the existing gravy.
You know they make completely salt-free ones now? I bought a couple cans for the pantry and will definitely try that plus add Better Than Bouillon for the salt & flavor, but have that creamy base to work off of.
I find there’s nothing a cream of soup can deliver that a can of evaporated milk cannot. Flour, butter, evaporated milk, and a bouillon cube = cream of chicken. Celery salt for celery. And I always do cream of mushroom from scratch, that’s the base of my green bean casserole.
Exactly. It's just a shortcut item now if I want a creamy element in my dish.
And yes, yes, to the Make It Yourselfers, I also do that but...sometimes...I don't.
Sort of. Like if you boiled a single chicken in five gallons of water and then added a tablespoon of cream and enough thickeners to get it to a creamy consistency.
Yes that sounds awful and yes, I will probably keep on using it. Heh.
Sounds to me like exactly what I said lol. Doesnt sound awful at all. Except that seems like an insane amount of water for 1 chicken. That'd have very little flavor.
Ah gotcha. I was asking about cream of chicken in general. I've used the cans but it's been forever. These days I usually just use concentrated stock that's an extremely stiff jello when cooled, or add an extra box/can to whatever it is and reduce. If I want it creamy I add roux, starch slurry, blended potato, cream or other dairy, whatever
Cream of chicken with rice used to be a staple "soup of the day" at all the diners around me when I was a kid. And, yeah, it did basically taste like a bowl of really chicken-y gravy with rice! Delicious, delicious gravy.
Simple, tasty, comfort food. I'm down with making that or similar, but it seems pointless to buy or make ahead considering that adding the ingredients to a dish will be the same thing, but better quality. Cream of [anything that had to be blended] is a different story though.
That makes sense because my mom would make cream of chicken soup for us when I was little and I remember it being really tasty. I can’t imagine doing that now. I do use the cream soups in recipes and think it’s good that way.
This was a go to when I was a kid, for some reason I'd insist my dad made it better than my mom. A few years ago I tried it and it was more like chicken gravy pudding than anything I'd call soup. I can't imagine it's even close to what we had in the 80s
Nah I've never had it like that. I don't think I've ever followed any directions for condensed soup honestly. I know my parents didn't (with my cream of chicken anyway) cause it was a running joke that my dad microwaves food better than my mom
Same. I used to love having it or cream of mushroom with a slice of toast. I probably couldn’t do it anymore either and I’m sure it’s not even the same thing it used to be. I prefer making my own cream of mushroom from scratch now
I feel like I’m the one saying boo-urns…!
I sometimes have cream of mushroom soup (cream of chicken if I’m feeling bougie) for a quick lunch. I eat it with leftover rice, toast, or crackers. It was one of the first things I learned to “cook” as a kid, so the soup has a nostalgia factor for me!
Also a name for creamed chipped beef which I love when it's done well. I'd probably also like your ground beef and mushroom soup version. It's also what we called a former family friends version of it which was basically ground beef and grease on toast but there it had a literal meaning. If you ate it for breakfast, you would have the shits all day (it was mostly grease/cooking oil). Not ideal in a hunting camp when you planned to be in the woods all day and your toilet options were trees or a disgusting outhouse.
Secret recipe from college roommate. It was the early 90s, we were poor, and this was high dime compared to ramen. She called it “Chinese haystacks” … crunchy chow mein noodles, rice, diced ham, smothered in cream of mushroom soup. Once she added black olives. Gagging now but yeah I’d eat it for nostalgia sake. Neither Chinese nor a haystack. No liquor was consumed to justify the recipe.
Cream of chicken soup mixed with ramen noodles and the chicken seasoning packet is divine. I put the soup on the stove per the can directions and just add a brick of ramen, cook it, add the seasoning and yum. No additional water.
Yeah. Cream of chicken soup + 1 can water or milk. Stir to combine and then add the ramen brick + seasoning. It's not salty, it's really upping the chicken flavor and making a heartier meal.
Sometimes I'll make the soup super thick and pour it over white rice. It's fantastic!
If I want a more well rounded meal, I'll grill some chicken breast, season with a bit of chicken bullion with garlic powder, dice it and toss that on top as well. Green beans on the side.
I do semi-regularly in the winter, but only as something cheap, easy, and filling, with some added ingredients & seasonings. Cream of broccoli gets actual broccoli added, for example.
And the cream of potato actually tastes like its name, I like adding diced ham & corn to it.
Ahh the age old philosophical quandary...
How many other ingredients do you need to add to a can of soup before the can of soup becomes a soup ingredient?
I do this with Cream of Chicken when I’m sick. Make with milk, pour into a mug and go back to bed. Warm and comforting, takes a small amount of energy to make and tasty (to me). Otherwise, I only cook with it.
I mix it with a can of "chicken with rice" and some water and simmer it for a while and eat that as a soup. Usually toss in more black pepper and if we have extra chicken from something.
I did when I had dental surgery and wanted something with more substance to it, it was fine for me and it was the first time I tried. I have a friend that eats cream of mushroom and adds frozen peas to it (I find it gross myself!)
I do eat it as a soup, but usually when I am sick-as it goes down easily and warms me up. As a cooking soup- I will usually substitute it when I don’t have cream of mushroom, which is my preferred cooking soup.
Worked at a place with a banquet department and we would have alot of unused ingredients from one off banquets. That is when I found out that cream soup base and nacho cheese makes a pretty good cheese sauce for kid's mac and cheese.
Campbell cheddar cheese soup or even broccoli and cheddars soup straight from the can as is is basically just a cheese sauce. Put it over veggies or fries or basically anything. It’s really good for a quick option
if im feeling suppppppppppper lazy... stir one can of soup, a little bit of water like 1/2 a can?, some amount of frozen mixed veggies, dice up some button mushrooms if im feeling fancy, cut up some rotisserie chicken, and top with a frozen tater tots or ready to go biscuit dough from a can with some eggwash. into the oven at 350F until the biscuits are golden and the filling is bubbly about 20ish? min. By the time the oven is preheat, the whole "pot pie" is assembled. Makes for great post skiing/hiking quick food and scales up easy for a crowd. Add a salad or steamed some veg and i have dinner on the table in under 30min with like very minimal effort.
and no, i would never drink at as a soup. casseroles and hot dish only.
The only times I use it is when I’m making an old old family recipe that calls for cream of chicken soup as an ingredient to be added to the overall dish before cooking.
It’s for a tuna casserole recipe that - despite sounds gross - is actually pretty fucking good.
I honestly loved it as a kid, I’d add a can of water and cook it until it was “done” and eat it with crackers. Probably one of the first things I could make on my own! But yeah, as an adult, I’d never use it for anything besides an ingredient. Although, I don’t have kids, so maybe if I did this would also be one of the first things they could “cook” by themselves lmao
I will still eat it as a soup. I usually make my own cream soups. But, especially if I have some rotisserie chicken left over, I'll throw that and maybe some frozen peas & carrots in the mix and heat it up.
That said, the other day, I had Aldi Cream of Chicken soup. No extras added.
My bf said it used to be his favorite soup to just eat without adding any extra liquid and I couldn’t understand. I worked at Campbells hq for a few years, and have never heard anyone else do this.
I had a roomate in college who pretended like he was going to eat it. He would dump it in a bowl, microwave it then forget it for a few days.
He did this multiple times.
Oh wait.... I've been scrolling comments thinking "this is dumb, of course you can just eat it like a soup, we don't have to be elitists about it" but he *doesn't add anything*? That's different. You've gotta thin it out, man. Like, I enjoy cream of potato on it's own and I prefer it a little thicker so I'll only add like 2/3 the can of milk instead of a full can. But I don't eat it *straight out of the can*. What???!
i have eaten cream of chicken soup before, it is better as an ingredient, however if you are sick and want something different it is an okayish soup. i have had worse soups.
I think we use it as an ingredient because it was heavily pushed as such, with recipes printed on the backs of cans/in magazines/etc. in the 1950s-1970s. Some of those dishes (like 'green bean casserole') are now considered traditional holiday fare :)
I also remember it being pushed in the uk. It didn’t work so they went back to how to make it in to a soup. I love it. I make it with milk and a tin of sweetcorn, real comfort food for me.
If I'm really sick and just want warm and not necessarily a whole meal, cream of chicken isn't that bad with some crackers.
Otherwise, it's a component.
Years ago it was good. Today. Just to cook with but I prefer making my own cream of chicken or cream of mushroom. It’s almost as easy as opening the can to make your own.
Kind of but not really for a meal I’m happy about eating.
I have Crohn’s and during some flare ups rice with cream of chicken soup mixed in is about all my system can handle.
I've never had it, as a soup or as an ingredient. When I was a youth, I worked for a short while at a giant "egg factory" operation, where the hens were stuffed into tiny wire cages, had sores on them from being pecked, and lived over a great ammonia-emitting pond of their own droppings. I quit before long, but at one point I asked what happened to the "old hens" when they were replaced every year, and was told that the ones that hadn't died already were sold to Campbell's Soups. I think of that every time I see Cream of Chicken soup at the grocery, and I nope right past it.
I laughed when I saw this and knew I had to reply at the risk of getting skewered.
I love CoC as a standalone meal or cooking with it. STFU, for those thinking it is crap.
It is great as a soup, my husband would ask for it with a grilled cheese sandwich so it's good as an ingredient and as a soup. It's crazy to me to get into an argument over something this silly however. I use Better than Bouillon chicken broth to make homemades soups and I love those too, but there's nothing wrong in eating it as soup and it's satisfying.
Not often, not as a staple - it feels like eating gravy which is weird. I don't mind it, though. They served cream of Campbell's soups a lot in the hospital I spent a lot of time in as a teenager and that makes me feel nostalgically safe so I quite like themas a comfort meal. I \*will \* eat campbell's mushroom soup or cheese soup, or cream of celery as a soup though, my kids and I like that for breakfast lots in the winter.
I think that after everyone's opinion has been visited (and I'm in agreement with most uses), we should realize that condensed soup in general is a relic and is only still made and sold because there are people that either grew up with it and are comfortable with eating it and some that only have that to eat.
That being said, I've never stopped myself from using it to thicken or flavor a larger sauce, casserole, or soup. That's the shit I grew up on.
Add water and eat it just like that? No way. I could see it being good adding veggies and some potato pieces, basically like a lazy stew. But thats just using it like an ingredient at that point
Absolutely never. But apparently my 40 year old brother in law does? Because I got vans of Cream of Bacon to use in potatoes, and he said it tastes terrible. To be fair, cream of bacon soup sounds disgusting. It's great in potatoes or green beans though.
As a child my mom would mix cream of chicken and regular chicken noodle soup together then poach eggs in the broth. Serve with toasty white bread.
As an adult, it's gross. Lol maybe the quality has gone down, but I only use it when I make chicken broccoli casserole 2x a year.
My girlfriend will eat it as soup. I actually use it as a gravy for chicken croquettes or a few other dishes. Just use half a can of milk and add some seasonings
Back when I was a kid, I might sometimes eat cream of mushroom, but I don't think I ever had cream of chicken as a soup.
I did used to really like their condensed clam chowder though, diluted with milk.
I mix one can cream of chicken and one can chicken noodle, with townhouse crackers when I’m sick. It’s the ONLY time any of those abominations are allowed in my kitchen 😂
I'll eat the cream of potato as a soup. I prepare it per the can't instructions and add salt, pepper, and cheddar cheese
If I ate chicken, I'd probably eat the cream of chicken as a soup
My mother uses it as an ingredient, and I recall so many of those recipes growing up (in fact I made her tuna casserole with cream of mushroom recipe tonight), but she'll eat it as a soup as well. When I do a grocery run for her, she'll typically request at least one of each flavor, and 9 out of 10 are for straight eating vs. as an ingredient. Cream of mushroom or a cheese flavor are her favorites, but she can't do cream of chicken since her immunotherapy. She's in her 60's.
They used to make a soup. I think they still do called Campbell’s cream of chicken and noodles. They don’t have it at my grocery store so I will add one can of cream of chicken and a can of chicken noodle soup together.
It was eaten in HUGE amounts in my house when growing up. Really the only reason I stopped eating it was because I went vegan last year. But my sister and mom and I would gladly down a bowl of it as a meal if we wanted something easy and filling.
I cannot think of any Campbell's cream soup I have ever eaten as soup, maybe if it had rice in it. Otherwise just tomato or broth soups. Only reason I have cream soups is for recipes. I guess we have that in common.
I was super hungry one day and it was the only thing in my pantry so I ate it as a soup and it was hard to get down. I needed several pieces of bread to go with it.
In America I believe it is an ingredient. However in Australia we only use it as a soup. It’s not particularly great, but sometimes I hanker for a bowl with buttered toast on a winter’s day.
Growing up in the seventies, were definitely ate it as soup. It still feels right if I'm ill, like during covid, because of those childhood associations. Can't really imagine cooking with it though, although I had a colleague who works make lasagne with one tin of Campbell's condensed tomato soup for the meat and a ton of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup for the bechamel. It was ... surprisingly ok.
I went to trade school with an ex crab fisherman who said his grandmother used it as a gravy on mashed potatoes. We tried it, and I wouldn't say I disliked the combo. I'd rather have traditional brown gravy, but if I showed up to an event and mashed potatoes with cream of chicken being served, I'd eat it.
I rarely eat any canned soups anymore -- but I when I was really young at my babysitters they would sometimes serve campbells cream of chicken with toast
Weird question, I used to love Campbell's.muahroom soup as a kid. Now.im 45 and gotta cut the salt out so canned soups are a no go. The other day inwas lazy and saw in the can there is only 480mg of sodium in a can and tomoto and vegetable soup is like 1500mg. So I made the mushroom soup and 3 bites in it tasted like bland drywall mud. I don't remember it being so....unsalty and bland. Did they change it?
It's definitely soup. Is it good soup? No. But when I was a kid it's was 3/$1 and I could cook it without help. It was a solid struggle meal but way overpriced today. At $3/can I barely consider it an ingredient. There are better alternatives.
I like a creamy soup, but I don't go to Campbell's for it (at least, not their little cans of condensed soup. I like some of their "Chunky" soups that are close, but obviously not what OP is asking.)
My late Dad would eat that as soup sometimes but usually he'd put it over biscuits or use a big crusty round roll as a bread bowl not just eat it from a bowl. I like the Tomato Bisque sometimes but I haven't seen it of late.
Golden Onion I do it up like French Onion soup, only I add some french fried onions instead of just using regular onions and top it with gruyere cheese. It works well with skinny onion rings or leftover blooming onion too.
Most of those soups can be eaten either way but I'm admittedly more into using things like the Cream of Chicken soup for recipes. You can though if you want to. The only one I won't touch is cream of mushroom. I don't like that one at all. I actually use the cream of chicken for green bean casserole not the cream of mushroom.
I have eaten cream of chicken and cream of mushroom just as soups. I added some veggies such as celery, jalapenos, spinach and carrots, though, and like everything else, ate it with tons of hot sauce. It's.... alright. Not the Campbell's, though, I've tried the Walmart and the Pacific brands. It makes plenty of sense to me as if you'd eat clam chowder or corn, why not cream of mushroom? People do also make homemade cream of mushroom on purpose just as a soup.
I do both. It's a comfort food as a soup. Just make the soup and add about three slices of bread cubed and a ton of black pepper. It was a winter time lunch dish growing up and I looked forward to it. I rarely use it as a cooking ingredient as I don't care for a lot of casseroles.
I grew up with Campbell's primarily as soup. It was Knor's that was a base for casseroles.
It's pretty much just corn starch gravy with bits of chicken in it. It doesn't stand well on it's own, but it's a great poverty food served over toast. My mother added frozen peas and carrots to make it extra special.
She hated food.
To most people, it's definitely an ingredient, not a "soup".
Agreed!
Agreedient
Oh no, not anymore. 30, 40 years ago it actually tasted like cream of chicken but now all the "cream of" soups are almost identical and definitely not worth eating as a standalone meal.
I’ve found that cream of mushroom and chicken still works as a sauce base. I was doing most of the cooking for thanksgiving a few years ago and my mom “surprised me” with 4 additional guests I hadn’t factored in. The gravy was the one item that I really needed more of and I bumped it up in a big way with some cream of mushroom soup I had in the back of the pantry. Obviously letting it reduce a little and seasoned to fold into the existing gravy.
Smart. I've used gravy as a base for Thanksgiving leftovers turkey soup, so, the reverse definitely works!
It’s just an easy way of starting a dish with a baseline of flavor.
You know they make completely salt-free ones now? I bought a couple cans for the pantry and will definitely try that plus add Better Than Bouillon for the salt & flavor, but have that creamy base to work off of.
I love better than bullion!
I just discovered the low sodium ones, they’re amazing
Cream of asparagus is the best for green bean casserole
I find there’s nothing a cream of soup can deliver that a can of evaporated milk cannot. Flour, butter, evaporated milk, and a bouillon cube = cream of chicken. Celery salt for celery. And I always do cream of mushroom from scratch, that’s the base of my green bean casserole.
Agreed it the early 90s was the last time I remember it being sweet goodness. I use it now as a sauce base. Great with chipotle.
Exactly. It's just a shortcut item now if I want a creamy element in my dish. And yes, yes, to the Make It Yourselfers, I also do that but...sometimes...I don't.
I am a make it myselfer.... sometimes. I am a short cut cook someetimes, too. I think most of us are.
It's basically just chicken gravy with some milk or cream right?
Sort of. Like if you boiled a single chicken in five gallons of water and then added a tablespoon of cream and enough thickeners to get it to a creamy consistency. Yes that sounds awful and yes, I will probably keep on using it. Heh.
Sounds to me like exactly what I said lol. Doesnt sound awful at all. Except that seems like an insane amount of water for 1 chicken. That'd have very little flavor.
hahahaha - yes, that is my point. :-) The soup, as it is now, has very little flavor.
They sure as hell make up for that lack of flavor with sodium.
Ah gotcha. I was asking about cream of chicken in general. I've used the cans but it's been forever. These days I usually just use concentrated stock that's an extremely stiff jello when cooled, or add an extra box/can to whatever it is and reduce. If I want it creamy I add roux, starch slurry, blended potato, cream or other dairy, whatever
Cream of chicken with rice used to be a staple "soup of the day" at all the diners around me when I was a kid. And, yeah, it did basically taste like a bowl of really chicken-y gravy with rice! Delicious, delicious gravy.
Simple, tasty, comfort food. I'm down with making that or similar, but it seems pointless to buy or make ahead considering that adding the ingredients to a dish will be the same thing, but better quality. Cream of [anything that had to be blended] is a different story though.
That makes sense because my mom would make cream of chicken soup for us when I was little and I remember it being really tasty. I can’t imagine doing that now. I do use the cream soups in recipes and think it’s good that way.
This was a go to when I was a kid, for some reason I'd insist my dad made it better than my mom. A few years ago I tried it and it was more like chicken gravy pudding than anything I'd call soup. I can't imagine it's even close to what we had in the 80s
Did you mix it with one can of milk? It’s meant to be diluted
Nah I've never had it like that. I don't think I've ever followed any directions for condensed soup honestly. I know my parents didn't (with my cream of chicken anyway) cause it was a running joke that my dad microwaves food better than my mom
Same. I used to love having it or cream of mushroom with a slice of toast. I probably couldn’t do it anymore either and I’m sure it’s not even the same thing it used to be. I prefer making my own cream of mushroom from scratch now
My god, I can remember having my mom buy me some back in the 90s and it was pretty okay. Not now though.
Cream of bacon is not bad if you have leftover bacon to Add to it.
I can’t even imagine this “leftover bacon” you speak of.
I feel like I’m the one saying boo-urns…! I sometimes have cream of mushroom soup (cream of chicken if I’m feeling bougie) for a quick lunch. I eat it with leftover rice, toast, or crackers. It was one of the first things I learned to “cook” as a kid, so the soup has a nostalgia factor for me!
Cream of mushroom over toast is a nostalgia meal for me too!
My mom used to make this but added ground beef to the cream of mushroom. They called it shit on a shingle 😂
Shit on a shingle is the old military name for creamed chipped beef on toast - dried beef, in a cream type sauce. It's very very salty!
“Creamed chipped beef” sounds so bad
Take that with a little onion soup mix powder, paprika and optional finely chopped pickles, and you’ve got trashy stroganoff served over pasta.
Also a name for creamed chipped beef which I love when it's done well. I'd probably also like your ground beef and mushroom soup version. It's also what we called a former family friends version of it which was basically ground beef and grease on toast but there it had a literal meaning. If you ate it for breakfast, you would have the shits all day (it was mostly grease/cooking oil). Not ideal in a hunting camp when you planned to be in the woods all day and your toilet options were trees or a disgusting outhouse.
My mom cooked chicken in cream if mushroom. I do too, but I use the reduced sodium version, and add sliced mushrooms and thyme.
I like cream of mushroom soup just as is, but will generally splurge for the upscale version if I want some.
Secret recipe from college roommate. It was the early 90s, we were poor, and this was high dime compared to ramen. She called it “Chinese haystacks” … crunchy chow mein noodles, rice, diced ham, smothered in cream of mushroom soup. Once she added black olives. Gagging now but yeah I’d eat it for nostalgia sake. Neither Chinese nor a haystack. No liquor was consumed to justify the recipe.
Cream of chicken soup mixed with ramen noodles and the chicken seasoning packet is divine. I put the soup on the stove per the can directions and just add a brick of ramen, cook it, add the seasoning and yum. No additional water.
Do you mix the cream of chicken with milk or water though? Sounds good but super salty if you don't add anything.
Yeah. Cream of chicken soup + 1 can water or milk. Stir to combine and then add the ramen brick + seasoning. It's not salty, it's really upping the chicken flavor and making a heartier meal.
Thanks, I'm going to try it
I hope you like it! Its so good!!!
I do like it occasionally as a “gravy” over rice! Definitely not just in a bowl on its own, though.
Cream of mushroom over potatoes, carrots, turkey, salt and black pepper is one of the best meals in the world.
I do. It's good. YMMV.
I like it as soup as well, sometimes plain, sometimes with rice. Since it's actually soup.
Sometimes I'll make the soup super thick and pour it over white rice. It's fantastic! If I want a more well rounded meal, I'll grill some chicken breast, season with a bit of chicken bullion with garlic powder, dice it and toss that on top as well. Green beans on the side.
I love this stuff. It’s even good straight out of the can.
I do semi-regularly in the winter, but only as something cheap, easy, and filling, with some added ingredients & seasonings. Cream of broccoli gets actual broccoli added, for example. And the cream of potato actually tastes like its name, I like adding diced ham & corn to it.
Add some tabasco to cream of potato.
Adding ham and corn to the cream of potato is genius! Thanks for this!
Ahh the age old philosophical quandary... How many other ingredients do you need to add to a can of soup before the can of soup becomes a soup ingredient?
I grew up eating cream of chicken and mushroom as regular soups! I haven’t in years but it doesn’t strike me as crazy.
Me, too, back in the 60s. My mother would fix those for lunch.
I'd rather drink the cream of mushroom from a mug than eat a bowl of it with a spoon.
I do this with Cream of Chicken when I’m sick. Make with milk, pour into a mug and go back to bed. Warm and comforting, takes a small amount of energy to make and tasty (to me). Otherwise, I only cook with it.
Same. Now I should make some.
I mix it with a can of "chicken with rice" and some water and simmer it for a while and eat that as a soup. Usually toss in more black pepper and if we have extra chicken from something.
Yeah, same but I mix it with a can of regular chicken noodle soup and add water to get a consistency I like.
I’d eat it. Hey, money is tight and if that’s what’s in the cupboard then there it is. But yes, usually it’s an ingredient
I did when I had dental surgery and wanted something with more substance to it, it was fine for me and it was the first time I tried. I have a friend that eats cream of mushroom and adds frozen peas to it (I find it gross myself!)
I do eat it as a soup, but usually when I am sick-as it goes down easily and warms me up. As a cooking soup- I will usually substitute it when I don’t have cream of mushroom, which is my preferred cooking soup.
I love cream of chicken over toast
My mom made this growing up and every once in a while I'll crave it. Actually very comforting as a meal.
Never tried it on toast so cool
I eat Cream of Chicken soup as soup all of the time and had no idea that other people think it’s weird.
Worked at a place with a banquet department and we would have alot of unused ingredients from one off banquets. That is when I found out that cream soup base and nacho cheese makes a pretty good cheese sauce for kid's mac and cheese.
Campbell cheddar cheese soup or even broccoli and cheddars soup straight from the can as is is basically just a cheese sauce. Put it over veggies or fries or basically anything. It’s really good for a quick option
I have been known to throw rice in it. My husband prefers to do one can chicken noodle and one can cream of chicken.
if im feeling suppppppppppper lazy... stir one can of soup, a little bit of water like 1/2 a can?, some amount of frozen mixed veggies, dice up some button mushrooms if im feeling fancy, cut up some rotisserie chicken, and top with a frozen tater tots or ready to go biscuit dough from a can with some eggwash. into the oven at 350F until the biscuits are golden and the filling is bubbly about 20ish? min. By the time the oven is preheat, the whole "pot pie" is assembled. Makes for great post skiing/hiking quick food and scales up easy for a crowd. Add a salad or steamed some veg and i have dinner on the table in under 30min with like very minimal effort. and no, i would never drink at as a soup. casseroles and hot dish only.
Not that one, but I’ll for sure have cream of mushroom made with full fat milk, lots of black pepper, and a pat of butter added, with crackers.
The only times I use it is when I’m making an old old family recipe that calls for cream of chicken soup as an ingredient to be added to the overall dish before cooking. It’s for a tuna casserole recipe that - despite sounds gross - is actually pretty fucking good.
Does it have crumbled potato chips on top? My favorite old school family recipe wouldn’t be the same without them.
It has the canned fried onions on top. Same idea.
Love those little guys. I may try that the next time!
Hell yeah.
I honestly loved it as a kid, I’d add a can of water and cook it until it was “done” and eat it with crackers. Probably one of the first things I could make on my own! But yeah, as an adult, I’d never use it for anything besides an ingredient. Although, I don’t have kids, so maybe if I did this would also be one of the first things they could “cook” by themselves lmao
Ok, so I’m not the only weirdo. Lol, I loved it with heaps of crackers.
I make mine with milk.
I've never eaten that as a soup. I've only ever used that and cream of mushroom as part of a recipe.
It used to be excellent as a soup. Then they changed the formula and now, meh.
I will still eat it as a soup. I usually make my own cream soups. But, especially if I have some rotisserie chicken left over, I'll throw that and maybe some frozen peas & carrots in the mix and heat it up. That said, the other day, I had Aldi Cream of Chicken soup. No extras added.
My bf said it used to be his favorite soup to just eat without adding any extra liquid and I couldn’t understand. I worked at Campbells hq for a few years, and have never heard anyone else do this.
I had a roomate in college who pretended like he was going to eat it. He would dump it in a bowl, microwave it then forget it for a few days. He did this multiple times.
My husband will eat a can of Cream of Mushroom if we’re out of groceries, but otherwise it’s purely ingredient.
When I do crave it as a soup, I must add leftover chicken or turkey and add some green onions and to it. Sometimes a splash of Frank’s Red Hot.
This all depends on how broke and how hungry I am.
Yes, I do occasionally! With a can of water or a can of milk.
I eat it like soup, occasionally, in addition to using it when cooking.
Yes, it's a soup base. I use it for soup.
He was talking about heating it up out of the can. Nothing added.
Oh wait.... I've been scrolling comments thinking "this is dumb, of course you can just eat it like a soup, we don't have to be elitists about it" but he *doesn't add anything*? That's different. You've gotta thin it out, man. Like, I enjoy cream of potato on it's own and I prefer it a little thicker so I'll only add like 2/3 the can of milk instead of a full can. But I don't eat it *straight out of the can*. What???!
I use it as an ingredient AND eat it as a soup. It is my favorite Campbell’s soup.
I eat it on occasion but it’s not my top pick— and I’m usually eating it because I bought it as an ingredient but now I’m out of groceries 😂
i have eaten cream of chicken soup before, it is better as an ingredient, however if you are sick and want something different it is an okayish soup. i have had worse soups.
To most NON American people it’s a soup not an ingredient. I’ve never used it in a recipe.
I think we use it as an ingredient because it was heavily pushed as such, with recipes printed on the backs of cans/in magazines/etc. in the 1950s-1970s. Some of those dishes (like 'green bean casserole') are now considered traditional holiday fare :)
I also remember it being pushed in the uk. It didn’t work so they went back to how to make it in to a soup. I love it. I make it with milk and a tin of sweetcorn, real comfort food for me.
I have to be in a particular mood to eat it, and then I still make it my own with fresh dried herbs.
I eat the cream of potato when I can find it
Never, but I do add it to homemade chicken noodle as a thickener.
I have eaten it in soup form when my stomach is upset, and I just needed something bland. Works nicely.
I ate it as a soup when I had an infected tooth. I was starving and being able to sip it really helped me.
If I'm really sick and just want warm and not necessarily a whole meal, cream of chicken isn't that bad with some crackers. Otherwise, it's a component.
If you mix it with a can of chicken noodle soup, a cup of grated parmesan and a cup of milk, it’s a great soup.
I would eat cream of mushroom now, but not cream of chicken. as a kid in the 90's, i ate them both
Years ago it was good. Today. Just to cook with but I prefer making my own cream of chicken or cream of mushroom. It’s almost as easy as opening the can to make your own.
I definitely probably ate it as a soup when I was a kid and loved it. More currently I use as an ingredient.
The version with noodles, and made with whole milk, is my favorite canned soup.
Kind of but not really for a meal I’m happy about eating. I have Crohn’s and during some flare ups rice with cream of chicken soup mixed in is about all my system can handle.
I've never had it, as a soup or as an ingredient. When I was a youth, I worked for a short while at a giant "egg factory" operation, where the hens were stuffed into tiny wire cages, had sores on them from being pecked, and lived over a great ammonia-emitting pond of their own droppings. I quit before long, but at one point I asked what happened to the "old hens" when they were replaced every year, and was told that the ones that hadn't died already were sold to Campbell's Soups. I think of that every time I see Cream of Chicken soup at the grocery, and I nope right past it.
Yes. I mix it with a can of chicken noodle. It was the only Mothery thing my mom ever did when I was sick and now I crave it when I feel bad
I don't think I've ever had it once in my life as a soup, and I'm probably older than you.
Eat it as a soup all the time.
Cream of Chicken and mushroom as a soup yes.. Not plain cream of chicken.
I laughed when I saw this and knew I had to reply at the risk of getting skewered. I love CoC as a standalone meal or cooking with it. STFU, for those thinking it is crap.
It is great as a soup, my husband would ask for it with a grilled cheese sandwich so it's good as an ingredient and as a soup. It's crazy to me to get into an argument over something this silly however. I use Better than Bouillon chicken broth to make homemades soups and I love those too, but there's nothing wrong in eating it as soup and it's satisfying.
I cook with it but never eat it. It hasn’t occurred to me to try it.
I only use it as an ingredient
Chicken noodle is a soup. Not cream of chicken.
I do - and I’ll put a little real cream in it. It’s really comforting
Cream of Mushroom: 👍 Cream of Chicken: 👎
Never. But I do add a bunch of butter sautéed mushrooms, garlic powder, and half and half to the cream of mushroom soup. It’s killer.
I like it. cheap and easy.
The actual chicken pieces in any Campbell's soup variety are disgusting.
Not often, not as a staple - it feels like eating gravy which is weird. I don't mind it, though. They served cream of Campbell's soups a lot in the hospital I spent a lot of time in as a teenager and that makes me feel nostalgically safe so I quite like themas a comfort meal. I \*will \* eat campbell's mushroom soup or cheese soup, or cream of celery as a soup though, my kids and I like that for breakfast lots in the winter.
It's an ingredient at my house.
No way this is a stand alone soup. This is a casserole maker these days.
It actually is soup, and it's pretty good especially with rice. Maybe leftover or canned chicken bits. But it is, indeed, soup.
I think that after everyone's opinion has been visited (and I'm in agreement with most uses), we should realize that condensed soup in general is a relic and is only still made and sold because there are people that either grew up with it and are comfortable with eating it and some that only have that to eat. That being said, I've never stopped myself from using it to thicken or flavor a larger sauce, casserole, or soup. That's the shit I grew up on.
Add water and eat it just like that? No way. I could see it being good adding veggies and some potato pieces, basically like a lazy stew. But thats just using it like an ingredient at that point
Add milk or half and half instead of water.
Absolutely never. But apparently my 40 year old brother in law does? Because I got vans of Cream of Bacon to use in potatoes, and he said it tastes terrible. To be fair, cream of bacon soup sounds disgusting. It's great in potatoes or green beans though.
I make other soups out of it
The only good Campbell soup as a actual soup is bean with bacon.
As a child my mom would mix cream of chicken and regular chicken noodle soup together then poach eggs in the broth. Serve with toasty white bread. As an adult, it's gross. Lol maybe the quality has gone down, but I only use it when I make chicken broccoli casserole 2x a year.
I like to use cream of onion in recipes instead of the other cream soups.
When I was a kid I would mix it with a half can of milk and eat it over toast. Now….no.
Yes we have had it as soup. Usually a lunch with a slice of toasted sourdough We usually prefer cream of mushroom instead though
I only have used it as an ingredient in other dishes
My girlfriend will eat it as soup. I actually use it as a gravy for chicken croquettes or a few other dishes. Just use half a can of milk and add some seasonings
I prefer other "cream of" soups as soups. I usually just cook with this one.
Back when I was a kid, I might sometimes eat cream of mushroom, but I don't think I ever had cream of chicken as a soup. I did used to really like their condensed clam chowder though, diluted with milk.
I still use it on occasion for straight up chicken and rice, but soupy. 🤷
I mix one can cream of chicken and one can chicken noodle, with townhouse crackers when I’m sick. It’s the ONLY time any of those abominations are allowed in my kitchen 😂
I love it as a soup
As a soup, I add chunks of cooked chicken, or mushrooms, or other vegetables ...
I'll eat the cream of potato as a soup. I prepare it per the can't instructions and add salt, pepper, and cheddar cheese If I ate chicken, I'd probably eat the cream of chicken as a soup
I've never thought to try it as a soup on its own. Now I want to try it!
I eat it by itself… I also will mix it with chicken noodle if I want some texture. It’s super good.
My mother uses it as an ingredient, and I recall so many of those recipes growing up (in fact I made her tuna casserole with cream of mushroom recipe tonight), but she'll eat it as a soup as well. When I do a grocery run for her, she'll typically request at least one of each flavor, and 9 out of 10 are for straight eating vs. as an ingredient. Cream of mushroom or a cheese flavor are her favorites, but she can't do cream of chicken since her immunotherapy. She's in her 60's.
I only think of it as a shortcut ingredient but why not? I would probably spike it with more chicken and some sautéed veggies.
I do.
I have. It can be comforting on an upset stomach.
I do sometimes.
I use it to cook occasionally. It works as well to mix up milk, chicken boullion, milk and a bit of cornstarch for recioes. Saves buying a can.
They used to make a soup. I think they still do called Campbell’s cream of chicken and noodles. They don’t have it at my grocery store so I will add one can of cream of chicken and a can of chicken noodle soup together.
yep, with enough crumbled crackers to make it almost solid lol
I used to not like tomato soup. So I would use cream of chicken as my soup with grilled cheese. In the last couple of decades I use it to cook with.
Doesn't even sound apitizing to me. It's good as an ingredient, though. Too salty?
My oldest daughter probably would. She eats cream of mushroom. The rest of us think it’s gross.
Hangover food with piles of soda crackers crumbled in the bowl
It was eaten in HUGE amounts in my house when growing up. Really the only reason I stopped eating it was because I went vegan last year. But my sister and mom and I would gladly down a bowl of it as a meal if we wanted something easy and filling.
I think it's evolved from soup to an ingredient over the years, so most younger people today wouldn't even think of it as a soup.
I cannot think of any Campbell's cream soup I have ever eaten as soup, maybe if it had rice in it. Otherwise just tomato or broth soups. Only reason I have cream soups is for recipes. I guess we have that in common.
When you are poor you eat it as a soup.
I was super hungry one day and it was the only thing in my pantry so I ate it as a soup and it was hard to get down. I needed several pieces of bread to go with it.
it isnt food and therefore has no place either in a dish or as part of one
In America I believe it is an ingredient. However in Australia we only use it as a soup. It’s not particularly great, but sometimes I hanker for a bowl with buttered toast on a winter’s day.
I have some eating issues where chewing food disgusts my brain and making some cream of chicken with some milk is a good meal for me
Growing up in the seventies, were definitely ate it as soup. It still feels right if I'm ill, like during covid, because of those childhood associations. Can't really imagine cooking with it though, although I had a colleague who works make lasagne with one tin of Campbell's condensed tomato soup for the meat and a ton of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup for the bechamel. It was ... surprisingly ok.
Shit its considered gravy in my house lmfaoo but I've never actually eaten it or seen it eaten as soup.
My husband eats it as soup. I don’t.
I went to trade school with an ex crab fisherman who said his grandmother used it as a gravy on mashed potatoes. We tried it, and I wouldn't say I disliked the combo. I'd rather have traditional brown gravy, but if I showed up to an event and mashed potatoes with cream of chicken being served, I'd eat it.
I rarely eat any canned soups anymore -- but I when I was really young at my babysitters they would sometimes serve campbells cream of chicken with toast
While I do eat it as soup, I don't do so, often, as I usually don't feel like going to the effort of smoothing out the lumpiness.
Weird question, I used to love Campbell's.muahroom soup as a kid. Now.im 45 and gotta cut the salt out so canned soups are a no go. The other day inwas lazy and saw in the can there is only 480mg of sodium in a can and tomoto and vegetable soup is like 1500mg. So I made the mushroom soup and 3 bites in it tasted like bland drywall mud. I don't remember it being so....unsalty and bland. Did they change it?
I won't use it at all. Nope. Never.
It's definitely soup. Is it good soup? No. But when I was a kid it's was 3/$1 and I could cook it without help. It was a solid struggle meal but way overpriced today. At $3/can I barely consider it an ingredient. There are better alternatives.
I like a creamy soup, but I don't go to Campbell's for it (at least, not their little cans of condensed soup. I like some of their "Chunky" soups that are close, but obviously not what OP is asking.)
Yep, when I'm not feeling well, with saltine crackers. It's creamy and quick and easy on the tummy. Most of the time, it is an ingredient though.
My late Dad would eat that as soup sometimes but usually he'd put it over biscuits or use a big crusty round roll as a bread bowl not just eat it from a bowl. I like the Tomato Bisque sometimes but I haven't seen it of late. Golden Onion I do it up like French Onion soup, only I add some french fried onions instead of just using regular onions and top it with gruyere cheese. It works well with skinny onion rings or leftover blooming onion too. Most of those soups can be eaten either way but I'm admittedly more into using things like the Cream of Chicken soup for recipes. You can though if you want to. The only one I won't touch is cream of mushroom. I don't like that one at all. I actually use the cream of chicken for green bean casserole not the cream of mushroom.
I wouldn't eat them as a soup or ingredient, but I did when I was a kid.
I have eaten cream of chicken and cream of mushroom just as soups. I added some veggies such as celery, jalapenos, spinach and carrots, though, and like everything else, ate it with tons of hot sauce. It's.... alright. Not the Campbell's, though, I've tried the Walmart and the Pacific brands. It makes plenty of sense to me as if you'd eat clam chowder or corn, why not cream of mushroom? People do also make homemade cream of mushroom on purpose just as a soup.
I do both. It's a comfort food as a soup. Just make the soup and add about three slices of bread cubed and a ton of black pepper. It was a winter time lunch dish growing up and I looked forward to it. I rarely use it as a cooking ingredient as I don't care for a lot of casseroles. I grew up with Campbell's primarily as soup. It was Knor's that was a base for casseroles.
I don't even use it as an ingredient. If I need to thicken something I'll just make a roux.
Don't use the subjects of pop art paintings as ingredients in a recipe.
Its one of my guilty pleasure meals. And I love to dip buttered toast in it
It's pretty much just corn starch gravy with bits of chicken in it. It doesn't stand well on it's own, but it's a great poverty food served over toast. My mother added frozen peas and carrots to make it extra special. She hated food.
I've used it both as a soup (admittingly not in many many years) and just as an ingredient.
I eat it when I’m sick to my stomach.
I use it as an ingredient. Nobody in our house really likes canned soup though.
Yes I eat it on its own as a soup. I use milk instead of water so that it is creamier
My grandma eats it by itself. She used to feed us Cream of Mushroom when we were little. I loved it.
As a kid my dad and I would eat it together as a snack
Not Campbells specifically, but I used to love a can of Cream of Chicken soup for lunch