I made this soup and served it with chicken salad sandwiches. My husband and I both loved it! I did not use the cream sherry and I used baby bella mushrooms but otherwise followed this recipe.

This is an easy, delicious soup! For a first time fennel user, I am glad I picked this recipe. I followed the recipe all the way to the cooking of the veggies where I cooked them longer, till they were done, before I added the cream & buttermilk. I used a heavy bottomed dutch oven to brown the chicken breasts & browned them well on the outside, they were a little pink inside yet when i tore them up, but cooked with the veggies later. then just continued in that pot to get all the flavor from the bottom. Fantastic! It is even better the next day as the lemon pepper seems to come forth more giving it just the slightest heat. Some reviewed it as too thin, I think the thinness is partly what makes it such an elegant soup. I will make this again & again and I will not change anything! Thank you for a wonderful recipe :D

My husband and I got fennel in our CSA box had no idea how to use it...Thank goodness for this recipe! This was my first time cooking with fennel and I was really scared of the licorice taste. Surprisingly once the fennel was cooked it was extremely similiar tasting to cooked onion or celery-- super easy to eat! I can't do bouillion because of the MSG, so I ommitted it along with the 1.5c water. This resulted in more of a stroganoff effect which I anticipated and served over some fancy brown rice. I also simplified the cooking process a bit. I used a saucepan and sauteed the chicken (used 5 drumsticks) with the butter&oil and when it was about half cooked through I added 3 cloves chopped garlic, lemon pepper, regular sherry (1/2c), sliced fennel, diced onion and cooked it until chicken and veggies were near done, then added mushrooms and red bell peppers. Cooked it until they were al dente. I then removed the pan from the heat and took the drumsticks out, removed bones and skin (saved for stock making later) and reintroduced the meat and other remaining ingredients (buttermilk, 1/2&1/2, parsley). I cooked it only long enough to heat it through, but not boil it. I would definetly make this again, but next time use more mushrooms because it definetly wouldn't hurt this dish. I would like to try it again with white meat because deboning drumsticks is a bit labor intensive. It is loaded with calories, but we're healthy eaters otherwise and didn't mind the splurge. :)

Great start. I added asparagus and kale. I also made a bit of a reaux w/ the chicken which I cooked in garlic and onion chunks to thicken it a bit. Added a lot of spices and it was very good.

Excellent! Fresh grated Parmesana Regianno was the perfect topping for perfection!

This soup seemed like a battle of the week flavors. All the flavors were very delicate. The soup is DEFINITELY better the second day.

Greatly disappointed. After reading the reviews here I thought I'd found the master vehicle for my fresh organic fennel. Instead I was underwhelmed by this thin, earthy-tasting soup. The flavors blend strangely. The tang of buttermilk is interesting but I'm not impressed with this dish in the least. It reminds me of a poor attempt at the famous Thai soup Thom Kha.

Wonderful rich soup. Only changes I make are to sear the chicken in oil and about 4 cloves minced garlic, and to double the water/chicken stock because we all love the broth. Healthy, hearty, and delicious. I've never served this to anyone who has not asked for the recipe. Thanks so much for posting it.

This is a good start, but I wasn't completely happy with it. I made it while trying to get rid of some extra fennel. The directions on what to do with the chicken are a little confusing. Your best bet is to sautee the chicken in a saucepan with butter, onion, garlic, and a bit of sherry, mix the other ingredients in a separate stock pot and build the soup from there. Also, instead of soup base and water, why not just use chicken stock, so you can skip the water and avoid additives like msg? The broth was a bit bland at first, so I added black pepper and red pepper flakes. Also, instead of buttermilk AND half & half (which seems unnecessarily complicated), it might just be quicker to use heavy cream. Or just half & half. I also saw this question: Cream Sherry is a type of sweet sherry blend that is available in the booze aisle.

To the person who wondered how this recipe came out - well, wonderful is the first word that comes to mind. It was my first time cooking with whole fennel as well as wine. I got Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry - might as well get the best to create the best. I highly recommend this recipe. It will make you feel like you graduated from Le Cordon Bleu!!!