Ingredients

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 shallot
• 1 small leek (What’s a Scottish soup without a leek?)
• 2 stalks of celery
• 6 oz of sliced mushrooms
• 1 medium sweet onion, sliced
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 lb. of chicken breats
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried thyme

Directions

The key to this soup is flavor. There might be more steps involved than a normal crockpot recipe. However, a good Scottish woman would have had this simmering all day at The Gathering. At least you can leave and come back!

1. Cook your bacon! Your choice if you want to do it on the stove in a pan, in the microwave, or on a pan in the oven at 400 degrees. The last option is my favorite as I use parchment paper for easy cleanup. It also allows me to save the bacon grease. If you do it on the stove, complete steps 2-5 first and then cook bacon in a pan on the stove.
2. Add minced garlic, finely chopped shallot, sliced leek, and diced celery to the crockpot.
3. Add sliced mushrooms and onions, as well as 2 TBSP of butter and 1 cup of chicken broth.
4. Add salt & pepper.
5. Cover and cook on low for 1 hour.
6. Meanwhile, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter (or use leftover bacon grease) to pan sear the chicken breasts until they are browned on both sides (about 5 minutes). Chicken won’t be fully cooked.
7. Remove chicken from the pan and deglaze with the remaining cup of chicken broth. Scrape and stuck chicken pieces and add them and the broth to the crockpot.
8. Add heavy cream, cream cheese, thyme, and garlic powder to the crockpot and stir well or until you can’t see chunks of cream cheese anymore.
9. Add chicken to the crockpot. You can do this two ways: place chicken breasts in the crockpot with the crumbled bacon and shred the chicken at the end or cut the chicken into cubes and add to the crockpot with the bacon.
10. Place lid on top and cook for 6-8 hours.

Feel free to beef this recipe up with fresh cauliflower, diced potatoes, or diced sweet potatoes.