Name: Chicken Florentine Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts; 1 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbsp butter; 1 medium onion (diced); 2 stalks celery (diced); 2-3 large carrots (peeled and diced); 3 tsp minced garlic; 3 tbsp flour; 1/2 tsp dried thyme; 1/4 tsp cayenne; 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste); 1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste); 4 cups chicken broth or stock; 1 cup half and half; 3 cups fresh baby spinach

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Chicken & spinach are a match made in Heaven. Add to them a little bit of broth, and you’ve got this savory chicken Florentine soup on your hands. This chicken florentine soup is a creamy chicken soup with carrots and a bit of spinach thrown into each bowl.

The hubs and I happened to be out to lunch a while back. Kid-less. Don’t sound so shocked!

We were both over-due for an hour where we could feel and eat like adults, without wiping other peoples’ faces, and listening to lip-smacking in between chews.

I happened to be idly perusing the menu, listening to some story the hubs was telling, when my eyes caught on something.

Chicken Florentine…in a soup? Say whaaaat?? I mean I love Chicken Florentine.

What Is Chicken Florentine Exactly?

As I’m typing this, I realize there’s probably a lot of people who aren’t as familiar with the classic combination as I am. I’ll keep the explanation brief.

Chicken florentine is actually a culinary term, and applies to a style of chicken dish that is prepared in (or is at least attributed to) Florence, Italy.

History has is that in medievil times, mid 16th century or so- Catherine De Medici (of Italy) was ruling the French court alongside her husband King Henri II. She brought many things from her native country to the French court, including Spinach.

She began serving lots of spinach in various dishes, which she proclaimed to her court was a culinary delicacy/invention of her native Florence. She dubbed it ‘Florentine’.

So basically, just remember that anything with Florentine in the title means it heavily features spinach. Often there’s some kind of cream sauce involved, but not always.

We make a version of the classic combo all the time, but with pasta which we call chicken florentine & farfalle. Well, not all the time, that would be like the calorie equivalent of an atomic bomb, but you get my drift.

And, soup. That in itself, in any form, is a staple for my soul. So it was only natural that at some point in my kitchen- the two recipe ideas would meet & marry.

Once the idea had taken root I had to have it. Had to. It was a beautiful thing. It was glorious. And I just knew I had to find a way to make it asap because there were bound to be some intense cravings, and possible withdraws.

And those don’t make for a fun Mom, and you know, when Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Naturally, I got right on that.

That my friends is how this devilishly delicious chicken florentine soup was born! Boy, is it good too. Like soup for my husband’s Italian soul kinda good.

This here is my precious, but I don’t wanna do the whole Smeagol devolving into Gollum thing so, in the interest of self preservation. I decided I had to share it with you ASAP.

Feel free to round out this romantically, rustic one-dish meal with warm crusty bread.

You’ll definitely use it (especially that last piece) to soak up the every last drop of it’s richly flavored broth. Another Italian tradition, fondly known as scarpetti.

Feeding a crowd? Trying to stretch this meal into more than one meal? You can always add some cooked pasta to the pot. Whatever shape or size you prefer. Just make sure it’s been cooked first and drained so it won’t absorb all your savory broth.

If you haven’t added pasta to this soup, it will store and freeze beautifully.

Other Simple Soup Ideas You Might Also Enjoy:

If you’ve tried CHICKEN FLORENTINE SOUP, or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!