It only takes about five minutes to make your own gluten-free condensed cream of chicken soup! This easy homemade substitute for canned condensed soup is a great recipe to have in your back pocket! Use it in all of your favorite casserole recipes! This recipe is easy to customize with flavor swaps for cream of celery or cream of mushroom. Also, find substitutions for dairy-free and grain-free versions!

Gluten-free condensed soup in a quilted mason jar. Some dripping from a spoon above.

This recipe was created as an equivalent substitute for a can of cream of 'anything' soup in your favorite casserole recipes, like this gluten-free hashbrown casserole. It's not really meant to be diluted and eaten as soup, but rather used as a thick gluten-free white sauce. If you're looking for gluten-free soup recipes, I've got a few for you to check out!

Why Make Your Own?

The allure of a casserole is the whole dump and stir nature, it's just so quick and easy! The problem is that casseroles seem to always call for a can of cream of 'something' soup! And as we know, those canned condensed soups are not gluten-free.

Sure, there are gluten-free versions you can buy, but there are a few good reasons to just make your own:

Cost: Gluten-free versions of anything are usually much more expensive than regular. This gluten-free condensed soup is much more economical. Why spend several dollars on something that you can make yourself for less than a dollar? For that reason alone it's worth making it yourself!
Taste: I've made the mistake of buying a gluten-free condensed soup and the taste was so awful it completely overpowered the dish and ruined it. You can make this as simple in flavor or as jazzed up as you like! And this one tastes so good, you'll want to eat it with a spoon.
Ease: Making your own condensed soup substitute will only take about 5 minutes, which is quicker than a trip to the store! The extra few minutes won't really take anything away from the ease of making your casserole.
Customizable! If you're buying a can of gluten-free cream soup from the store, you'll probably only have a couple of options. Or, you can take this basic recipe and switch it up in many ways! You can go from basic cream of chicken to cream of mushroom or cream of celery. You can make this dairy-free or grain-free.

Ingredients

Only 6 ingredients are needed to make your own gluten-free condensed cream of chicken soup! You probably already have them in your pantry!

The ingredients are a simple mixture of butter, rice flour (or potato starch), milk, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. In a bit, you'll see how to jazz this mixture up with even more flavor variations and substitutions beyond gluten-free, but first, let's see how to take these basic ingredients and turn it into a simple cream soup substitute!

Butter, broth, milk, and rice flour measured in bowls.

Easy Step by Step Instructions

Making your own condensed soup substitute is as easy as making gluten-free gravy. In fact, that's really all it is... a very thick gravy!

Melted butter in a pan sprinkled with rice flour and whisked.

Melt the butter and whisk in the rice flour or potato starch. (This is called a roux.)
Let the roux cook for a couple of minutes.
Whisk in the milk and chicken broth.
Continue to cook and whisk until the mixture gets nice and thick! This should only take a few minutes.

Pouring in broth and milk, whisking as mixture bubbles and thickens.

That's it! Once the mixture is thick, you can remove it from the heat and use it in your recipe.

Storage

If you're prepping for the holidays, you can make this gluten-free condensed soup substitute ahead of time! Store it in an airtight container, like a mason jar, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

GF Condensed soup in a mason jar next to empty pan.

Variations and Substitutions

This recipe was intentionally created to be very basic for simplicity and ease but you could easily take the flavors to the next level or make other variations of cream soup. It is also easily modified for dairy-free and grain-free alternatives. Here are some simple swaps:

Extra Flavor Cream of Chicken: Sauté 1 shallot and 2 cloves of garlic in the melted butter before adding the rice flour.
Cream of Mushroom: Sauté ¼ cup finely diced mushrooms, 1 shallot, and 2 cloves of garlic in the butter before adding rice flour.
Cream of Celery: Sauté ¼ cup finely diced celery and 2 cloves of garlic in the butter before adding rice flour.
Vegetarian: Use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
Dairy-free and Vegan: Use dairy-free milk and vegan butter or olive oil.
Other Thickeners: You can also use a gluten-free flour blend or sorghum flour instead of rice flour or potato starch.
Grain-free: Use Cassava flour.

Recipe