Chicken Tortilla Soup

Alright, I've kept you in suspense long enough, I guess; and I have a few spare minutes.  So, here is one of the recipes I cooked up last weekend to stock my freezer with.

Chicken tortilla soup.  It's super easy and fun, and always tastes better the next day (hence the perfect freezer recipe).

Here is what I did.  But, first I'll show you all the ingredients.  They were hidden the Kroger bags on the last post.

First you must cook your chicken.  And when you boil your chicken, you will most likely end up with a bunch of chicken broth.  This is a good thing, especially for this recipe.

I ended up with a lot more than I needed, but that's ok.  It'll go into the fridge or freezer for another recipe.

Skim the fat off of the broth and pour 6 cups into your pot.  After I took this picture, it dawned on me that I should use a bigger spoon to skim off the fat.  It was a brilliant moment, and the process went so much faster.

Next, slice up your onion, green bell pepper and garlic and put them in the pot with the broth. 

Cook the veggies until they are soft.

The pot looks very big.  But it's just an optical illusion.

Meanwhile, shred up your chicken.  I used two chicken breasts and two chicken thighs.

Then, in went the chicken with the veggies.  The onions were beginning to get translucent.

Now, this is where it got really complicated (and colorful).  Add a can of diced tomatoes, tomatoes with green chilies, corn, black beans and pinto beans. 

Finally, stir it all up and add a package of taco seasoning, some cumin and about teaspoon or so of ranch dressing mix.  Let it cook for a while so the flavors and meld together.

Then, enjoy!  You should definitely serve this with chips, sour cream, cheese, and maybe a slice of avocado.  But, if you have none of the above (or you're just really hungry), it's yummy all by itself.

So, here is what when into my freezer.  I divided the soup into amounts that were about two to three servings, because let's be honest, if I froze it all together, I'd be eating it until the end of busy season (and that's if it didn't go bad before then!) :)  Ok, maybe not that long....

Here's the recipe!

Taco Soup with Chicken or Beef 

1 lb. of boned chicken breast 

5-6 cups of chicken broth, defatted 
1 onion, chopped 
1 green pepper, chopped 
1 t. garlic salt, if needed
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes 
1 (10 oz.) can tomatoes with green chilies 
1 clove garlic, minced 
1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, drained 
1 (15 oz.) can black beans drained 
1 (15 oz.) can creamed corn (I used regular above) 
1 to 1 ½ (1.2 oz.) package of taco seasoning 
½ teaspoon cumin 
1 (1/6 oz.) package dry ranch dressing mix 

In soup pot, cook chicken breast.  Remove chicken and cool; cut in small pieces.  Measure out broth and add onion, green pepper and garlic to pot; cook, covered, until veggies are tender.  Return chicken to broth and add tomatoes, garlic, beans, corn, taco seasoning, cumin and ranch dressing mix.  Stir together and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.  To serve, place tortilla chips in bowl and ladle soup over chips