Friday, December 9, 2016

Chicken Tortilla Soup

From: Bumbazine

Disclaimer: This uses a lot of canned goods. If you have fresh stuffs, by all means use them.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts or equivalent. (If you have left-over chicken, you'll also want a couple of cans worth of broth.)
~1/2 - 1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can creamed corn, not drained
1 7oz can fire roasted diced green chilies (or a large anaheim or poblano or other mild green chili, diced)
1 bell pepper, any color, diced (I didn't have any last night and didn't miss it, so I'm gonna say this is optional)
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
1 can kidney beans, or black beans, or whatever you like, drained
~ 2 tsp taco seasoning
~1 - 2 tsp cumin
~1 - 2 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper
cilantro chopped, if you have it. Again, I didn't have any and didn't miss it.
Crushed tortilla chips. The stuff in the bottom of the bag will work fine.

Directions:
Do ahead: If you're not using leftovers, put your chicken in a sauce pan with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, and a bay leaf.
Cover with water and cook on stove top until cooked, then turn off the heat and leave it.

When you're ready to assemble your soup, put ~1 Tbsp cooking oil in the bottom of your soup pot. Put in the diced onion, bell pepper, diced green chilies, and the whole kernel corn. Cook until the onion is translucent. Put in the garlic and cook it til it smells good, not very long. Put in your creamed corn, tomatoes, and beans.
Pour the chicken and broth through a colander into the soup pot. You should have enough liquid, but you can add water or broth as you like. If you are using leftover chicken put in a couple cans of canned broth instead.
Add the taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, (to taste) and salt & pepper at this point.
Transfer your cooked chicken to the cutting board that you left out after dicing the onion, et.al. and shred it with a couple of forks, and put it in the pot.
When it's all heated up, taste and adjust your seasonings. If you like your soup hot, as in spicy, put in your hot stuff of choice. I like chipolte powder. You probably like something else.

Serve with crushed tortilla chips (that's the 'tortilla' part) and whatever garnishes float your boat.