Chicken Tortilla Soup (with leftovers)

So I originally found this recipe on Pinterest and was intrigued because it said it was a crock-pot meal. Well, after looking at the recipe, I realized it is not a crock-pot meal, but was so addicted to the idea of making it that that did not stop me!

I had already planned to make chicken tacos in the crock pot and knew that I would have tons of leftovers so I decided this soup was a great way to use those up! I think you could use any kind of chicken leftover with this recipe, but the chicken taco recipe added a bit of flavor.

Here is the link to the original recipe that I followed (kind of): http://homeiswheretheholmansare.blogspot.com/2010/11/chicken-enchilada-soup.html

Be sure to check out both recipes and maybe even make up your own recipe based on our two recipes!

(I apologize again for not taking pictures. Ever since losing my iPhone, it is has been much harder for me to remember to take pictures before I start a project and I usually don’t want to go track down the digital camera in the house. The original blog has some good pictures though.)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

2 cans of chicken broth
Leftover chicken from chicken taco recipe
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
½ can of green chiles
1 28 can diced tomatoes
Onion powder
Garlic powder
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
2 cans of corn
1 can tomato paste
Tortilla chips
Cheese for topping soup

Directions:

1. In a stock pot, add chicken broth and heat over medium heat. Add cumin and chili powder. Heat just until warm.
2. Add tomatoes, green chiles, onion powder, and garlic powder to the pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes until tomatoes have begun to break down.
3. Add black beans, corn, and tomato paste. Stir all ingredients to incorporate.
4. Add leftover chicken to the soup. Cook for about 30 more minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let cool for at least 15 minutes. This soup comes off the stove really hot!
6. Crunch up some tortilla chips and place in the bottom of a bowl. Ladle some soup over the top to cover the tortilla chips. Add some more crunched up tortilla chips on top of the soup and top with cheese.
7. Enjoy!

My thoughts on this recipe:

This is a great way to use up leftover chicken. If you are not starting from leftover chicken, I would follow the instructions on the original blog in order to cook the chicken.

This recipe will make quite a bit of soup so plan on eating leftovers for a while or plan on sharing with some friends. I actually plan to make this right after having the baby so that I can have lunch for a few days!

You may notice that the original recipe added cheese into the soup before taking it off the heat. I do not like the mess that this creates in the pan so that is why I add my cheese at the end. If you are ok with the melted cheese sticking to the pan, feel free to add it in when you add the black beans, corn, and tomato paste.

There are plenty of recipe variations from my recipe to the original recipe. Part of the reason for that is that it is hard to get some ingredients here and the other part of the reason is that I just didn’t have the ingredients on hand and substituted with what I did have. This soup is great for that because you can add what you like in it and it will still turn out great!

This recipe will definitely be added to my frequently cooked recipes.