Recipe: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Yesterday morning, I woke up craving chicken tortilla soup. I'd never made it before, but I'd been thinking about it for a while.

I looked around at a few recipes and settled on one that seemed easy and had pictures that looked good. Which, if you read my blog regularly, is how I always make my best decisions.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

1 lb shredded chicken

1 (15 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed and chopped

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

3/4 large onion, chopped

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chile peppers

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans chicken broth

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 bay leaves

1 (10 oz) package frozen corn

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

7 corn tortillas

vegetable oil

Directions

1. Place all ingredients, from chicken to cilantro, in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hrs. It doesn't get much easier than that.

2. To make tortilla crisps: slice tortillas into strips. Fry in oil. Sprinkle with salt. Warning: these little guys can go from floppy to charred in no time, so make sure to keep an eye on them.

3. Serve with lime wedges, chopped avocado, cilantro, sour cream, cotija cheese, or whatever else strikes your fancy. 

This recipe gets a thumbs up from me, Eric, and my mom. And Mom usually has no problem telling me when my recipes suck. The only thing I'd try next time is to either use low-sodium broth or omit the salt. The soup was already plenty savory and I think the salt could be removed without affecting the overall flavor.

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Crock Pot Loaded-Baked-Potato Soup

Just in case you haven't carbo-loaded enough during this blessed season, I thought I'd throw in a solid contender for potato recipe of the year.

While looking through search results for "potato+crock pot" the other day, I decided to give this recipe a shot since the user photos actually looked appetizing, and not like horse slop. I already had over half of the ingredients in my kitchen and the directions only involved 3 steps. I'll basically try any recipe if it meets these two requirements.

Crock Pot Loaded-Baked-Potato Soup
Adapted from this recipe on food.com


INGREDIENTS
5 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 large white onion, chopped
29 fl oz chicken broth (or two cans)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter
2.5 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup half and half (or cream)
1 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
Chives
Bacon
Cheddar cheese
Sour cream

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine potatoes, onion, chicken broth, garlic, butter, salt, and pepper in crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Before cooking

After cooking

2. Cook bacon. Chop into bite-sized pieces once cooled.

3. Mash crock pot mixture until potatoes are coarsely chopped, or until soup is thickened to your liking.

Your mouth will be watering for applesauce because that's what it will look like

4. Stir in cheese and half and half.

5. Serve and top with desired toppings.

We saved time by prepping the potatoes the night before and just stored them in cold water in the fridge overnight. The onions could probably also be chopped the night before, but just make sure to double bag those fools, otherwise your whole fridge is going to stink like Cool Ranch Doritos.

This recipe was super easy and yielded a crock pot full of hearty comfort food. Easy enough to prepare on a workday and fills your house with the scent of potato goodness.


NOTE: This soup doesn't reheat very well. It basically turns into a bowl of thick potato mush, and that was even after thinning it out with a little more half and half. Mark my words; this one is best when fresh.

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