Sunday, December 4, 2016

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup


Last month a friend offered to treat me to lunch. She had invited me to join her at a restaurant that, for whatever reason, I had no interest in visiting. I don't know why. I hadn't read anything bad about it, it just gave me bad vibes. As it turned out, my vibes were right; the food was horrible. I'd ordered the strata figuring that this was, surely, one item that they absolutely could not mess up. Boy was I wrong. It came out of the kitchen in a brick-like slab, that was not only brick-like in appearance, but in texture and taste as well, although, honestly, I have never tasted a brick.

You're probably wondering why I'm telling you this. It's because the day did have a happy ending. I had decided, wisely, before I left for lunch, to try a recipe for a slow cooker version of chicken tortilla soup. I'm not sure why I did this, because generally when I go out to lunch I'm not particularly in the mood to come home and fix or eat dinner. But intuition told me that day that I needed to have something to fall back on, and I was right. This was a new recipe that I'd found on the Wine and Glue blog. It required nothing more than putting a couple of chicken breasts in the crockpot and dumping beans, corn, and spices on top. I hadn't anticipated that it would be all that good to be quite honest with you, but I had these ingredients and figured, why not?
I really should call this Life-Saving Chicken Tortilla Soup, because it really did save the day for me. When I came home from the disastrous lunch, the house smelled amazing. The aroma was very spicy and delicious, and drew me right into the house. The whole place felt cozy and warm and comfortable, inviting me to sit down and have a nice bowl of soup. It was very easy to make, obviously is low maintenance, and the return is wonderful. This is a great soup to enjoy during the fall and winter. I cannot recommend it enough. It is also economical and, divided into six equal portions, comes in at just under 300 calories. Life saving indeed!
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Slightly adapted from Wine & Glue

1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock
1 16-oz. can kidney beans, drained
1 15.5-oz. can black beans, drained
1 10-oz. package frozen corn
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 T. chili powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in slow cooker and cook on low for 5 hours. At the end of the cooking time, remove the chicken from the crock pot, shred and return to the soup. Serve topped with a squeeze of lime juice, and garnish as you see fit. I used cheese, scallions, and avocado. Yum!

4 comments:

  1. I copied this recipe - it really sounds so good and so easy. I like recipes like this where you just put them into the crock pot and forget about it.

    So sorry that your luncheon was so terrible. Good thing you had a wonderful soup to fall back on.

    Hope all is well with you....

    Mary

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  2. It's been ages since I've made or had Chicken Tortillas Soup. It looks delicious and I look forward to trying it. Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story, have a great weekend.

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  3. Love my slow cooker, love soup. Will definitely try this.

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  4. It is a perfect day for your Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup, it looks fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and hope to see you again real soon!
    Miz Helen

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