Chicken Tortilla Soup

A good crock-pot recipe is worth its weight in gold, so whenever I find one that I particularly like, I’ll share it with you.  See how nice sharing is?  That way you don’t have to pick through the icky ones.

The other day I made this Chicken Tortilla Soup and honestly, I didn’t think it was going to taste very good.  It seemed an awful lot like SALSA to me.  I mean, I like salsa as much as the next guy but I wouldn’t want to just eat a bowl of it.  But it was DELICIOUS.

Chicken Tortilla Soup:

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (recipe says thighs, but we all know breasts are better than thighs.  At least, mine are.)
2  cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (4 oz) chopped mild green chilies, drained
1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth
1 yellow onion, diced (I used more like 2 thick slices of onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin (I didn’t have any, and it still tasted good, but whatever.)
Salt and black pepper, to taste (salt tasted salty. pepper tasted peppery)
4 corn tortillas, sliced into 1/4 inch strips (I used a pizza cutter and it cut them evenly, lickety split.  However, the dregs of your tortilla chip bag work just as well, or you can crunch some up.  Decide for yourself, based on if you want your pieces of tortilla crunchy or soft.)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I told you this sounds like salsa!)
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used WAY more. Mmmm, cheese!)
1 avocado, peeled, diced and tossed with lime juice
Lime wedges

Directions:
1.  Place chicken in crock-pot.  Combine tomatoes with juice, chilies, 1/2 cup broth, onion, garlic and cumin in a small bowl.  Pour mixture over chicken.
(OK, see how it says “small bowl”?  Well I didn’t think a small bowl would work, so I put it in a small MIXING bowl.  Good thing, hey?)


2.Cover; cook on LOW 6 hours or on HIGH 3 hours, or until chicken is tender.  Remove chicken from crock-pot.  Shred with 2 forks.  Return to cooking liquid.  Adjust seasonings, adding salt and pepper, and more broth if necessary.
(The chicken will really just fall apart if you poke it enough with a wooden spoon – no need to remove from crock-pot and dirty up some dishes).
3. Just before serving, add tortillas and cilantro to crock-pot.  Stir to blend.  Serve in soup bowls, topping each serving with cheese, avocado and a sqeeze of lime juice from wedges.

Yum, yum!

**This recipe is courtesy of the Rival Crock Pot “Three Books in 1” cook book **