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!
This
post is linked to: Inspire Me
Tuesday, Tuesdays At Our Home, Two Cup
Tuesday, Celebrate Your Story, Homemaking
Party Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Work It
Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Wake up
Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Thursday
Favorite Things, Share
Your Style, Coffee and Conversation, and Foodie
Friday & Everything Else
