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Keto chicken soup

woollygal

Well-Known Member
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1,485
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Coffee diabetes
So I really fancy chicken soup but obviously can’t eat a can. So thought I’d make some. I’ve found a keto recipe but it uses Xanthan gum. I have never heard of Xanthan gum, and have googled it but not sure I like the sound of it, apparently I causes liquids in your gut to become like gel (that is a very simplified version and may not be accurate) so, is there anything else I could use instead or is Xanthan gum ok to use?
I have use arrowroot before but it seems to go a bit gloopy sometimes.
 
It's a thickener. Do you really need your soup to be thick? If not, just leave it out. Many chicken soup recipes don't use a thickener at all, and are keto by nature.
 
Antje77 said:
It's a thickener. Do you really need your soup to be thick? If not, just leave it out. Many chicken soup recipes don't use a thickener at all, and are keto by nature.
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I do prefer thick soup. By thin would it be more like Chinese soup where it’s more watery?
 
woollygal said:
I do prefer thick soup. By thin would it be more like Chinese soup where it’s more watery?
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My grandmother's soup wasn't thickened, and definitely not Chinese-like! But if you prefer a thicker soup, yes, you'd need something to thicken it.
I hope someone else can help you out here, as I have no experience with anything except flour or cornstarch to slightly thicken soups.

Myself, I like some of my soups thickened with a little plain flour. I need very little of it, so the total carbs for a big pot of soup would still fit in a keto diet, depending on the other ingredients.
 
Thanks.
it hasn’t helped I’ve just read it’s bacteria pee! I’m so squeamish lol.
I’m thinking arrowroot would work the same?


https://www.myketokitchen.com/keto-recipes/keto-chicken-soup/
it’s this soup. So no idea if it would be thick or not without it. I’ve never made chicken soup. I kind of want it like Heinz thickness,
 
woollygal said:
I’ve just read it’s bacteria pee!
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woollygal said:
I kind of want it like Heinz thickness,
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I've never had Heinz chicken soup, so I wouldn't even know what I'm looking for!

You could of course change your title from 'Xanthan gum' to 'Best keto chicken soup' or such, to attract answers by people who've never used xanthan gum but know everything about chicken soup!
 
How do I change the subject title?
 
There's a great Katie Caldesi recipe called Chicken and something soup. Its delicious. No thickener, just veg, stock, blended and chicken ended at the end. It starts with leek and celery, stock, then the magic ingredient, chopped brussel sprouts, cooked for a while, blended then reheated with chicken added. It is unbelievably delicious and moderately thick.
 
Alternatively, you can thicken chicken soup by boiling chicken FEET with the stock for a minimum of 30 minutes. Chicken feet are filled with gelatin and thus act as a thickener. Gelatin is also good for a skin and nails. This is a trick that my grandmother showed me years ago.
 
I have also used Asian thickeners: i.) Agar, and ii.) Guar guar. I prefer these two thickeners for desserts.

My go to thickener for soups and chowders is xanthan gum. With chicken feet used as a thickener occasionally when readily available.
 
Did I mention I was Squamish. Chicken feet put me off about as much as Xanthan gum

I may use cornflour, it only needs 1/2 teaspoon so carbs over 5 servings shouldn’t be a lot as it’s not really got anything else in it
 
I have never used a thickener with soup.
I add all kinds of low carb vegetables, leek, broccoli, celery and a bit of onion. Cook till soft in broth then blend, add chicken.
 
Antje77 said:
You're clearly better with computers than I am!
And already getting many useful answers as well, so I trust your soup will turn out delicious
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It’s more bout pressing buttons and hoping something works lol

so i think I’m going for cornflour.
It needs 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan and apparently you do like for like.
Cornflour at a tablespoon is 6g of carbs so the whole think would be less than 3G of carbs if I use cornflour so think that’s fine.
I’d rather have something I like.
 
We have a chicken most sundays and I make a stock with bones and leftovers. You can reduce the volume of the stock to concentrate it, add chicken and other things, spinach, leeks, for example and blend to make a "thicker" soup.
Used to use potatoes..... but that's a no no now.

Slightly different but the principle is the same.
Gum Arabic, what they put into Fruit gums.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_arabic
 
I fish out a cup full of the liquid and some of the biggest bits of veges, then blend them and pour it back, stir and the soup is thickened.
The gum is something used in quite a few products. I used to have a jar of it from leftovers when working for Lyons Tetley but that was long ago now. You need to make sure it is properly mixed and not use too much of it even if it seems not to have done much at first.
 
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