Chicken Tortilla Soup For The Soul!

Finally, a chicken tortilla soup that will fill you up with plenty more to go around! Chances are you have a lot of these things in your pantry so it shouldn't break the bank either. Now, I usually keep chopped up onions in my fridge but be warned, if you don't use them often they will get...weird. So use 'em up I'd say within 7-10 days or ship 'em out. Also, our squash seemed a bit squished when I went to cut it up so this pot of soup is squashless. You can also add adobo peppers for a kick but the hubby and I are spice wimps so we skipped that. Ready? Here we go!

On the menu tonight is chicken tortilla soup a delicious, thick and quick soup that will fill up even the hungriest of husbands or wives. You'll need:

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 lb. chicken (I use boneless skinless chicken breasts)

1 tsp. chicken or poultry seasoning

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup yellow onion

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 red bell pepper

3 cups chicken stock

1 28 oz can stewed tomates with juices (diced or sliced is your choice) 

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 14 oz can black beans, drained

1 14 oz can sweet yellow corn, drained

1 cup Mexican blend cheese 

Your favorite tortilla chips to crumble in the soup

*Extras* You can add these if you want to but I won't force you.

Raw red onion

Sour cream

Avacado slices

Cilantro or parsley

The fate of this bell pepper is in the hands of a J.A. Henckels knife, part of a set we got as a wedding present. They are great knives so far and are very durable. The green cutting mat is from Crate and Barrel and comes in 3 different colors. One for meat, poultry and veggies. There are no residual cut marks and it folds and bends to easily add ingredients.

I always add the spices to the same prep bowl if they're going in at the same time. This saves both time and energy on your part so you don't have to wash 9 different prep bowls. The prep bowls were from Williams-Sonoma and were a great find at a low price! 

Dice the bell peppers into one inch pieces and chop onions into desired size. Slice zucchini and squash cutting the slices in half towards the bigger end and combine in a bowl with the bell pepper and onion. In a small prep bowl add the salt, pepper, cumin and chicken or poultry seasoning together. Finally, dice the chicken into 1 1/2 inch pieces. 

Add olive oil to a soup pot and when the oil is hot add the chicken, you will need to stand back for this as the chicken does pop and sizzle. 

Next, add the salt, pepper, cumin and chicken or poultry seasoning and stir chicken around allowing it to cook on all sides about 4-6 minutes depending on the size of the chicken. 

Add the onions, garlic, bell peppers, squash and zucchini next and allow this to cook with the chicken about 7-8 minutes. The chicken should have made it's own juices and should not be dry at this point.  

Finally, add the chicken stock, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, corn and black beans to the pot allowing the bell peppers, squash and zucchini to get soft. This can take anywhere from 20-30 minutes.
The spatula in the pot is a Michael Graves spatula and I love it because it's all one piece which means the head will never separate from the handle and get moldy or mildewy.

After the soup is done serve it up with all or a few of your extra's. We actually ran out of the Mexican cheese blend and opted for the cheddar. I definitely recommend the Mexican blend but the cheddar is just a tasty. 

Happy Eating!