Day 6: Chicken Tortilla Soup in Crockpot

This recipe was introduced to me by my cousin Heather about 6 months ago. She, unlike me, is an avid cook and baker, so much so, that I actually get angry at her for making me look bad. She will get home from work at 6pm and make meatloaf and homemade scalloped potatoes. I used to get home from work at 4pm and pop a frozen pizza in the oven. She is kind of the reason I started this challenge. First off, she began blogging about random, hilarious things about 2 months ago and second off, I don't want my husband to think he married the wrong Jeske cousin :)

Anyways, she had been raving about this soup forever, so finally I bit the bullet and asked for the recipe. I was surprised at how easy and tasty it was. Note: This was also only the 2nd time in 6 years I had used my crock pot. I was always afraid of leaving it on while I was at work. I know that the point of the crock pot is to set it and forget it, but I couldn't forget the fact that my house could start on fire with my dog inside...no pot roast was worth that risk. I have used the crock pot numerous times since then, but was only able to leave it home alone for the first time 2 weeks ago. I was gone for 1hour and had crock pot anxiety the entire time.

Heather and I both made some changes to the recipe which is from allrecipes.com. I provided the link below as well as our revisions.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Chicken-Tortilla-Soup/Detail.aspx


Changes we made:
No water, instead 32oz chicken broth(more flavor)
Put chicken in frozen. Still cooks perfectly and so much less prep.
280z can whole tomatoes
7oz green chiles
You could also use a spicier enchilada sauce, but I've found that the garlic, onion and green chiles give it plenty of a kick.
We don't make our own tortilla strips. I buy the pre-packaged ones that live by the lettuce at the grocery store, and Heather crushes Tostitos on top of her soup.


Step 1: Place frozen chicken on bottom of pot with frozen corn. Putting these in first prevents splashing.


Step 2: Chop garlic and onion and add to pot


Step 3: Add tomatoes with juice, squeeze tomatoes so they mash a little


Step 4: Add all other ingredients


Step 5: Set crock pot for 8 hours


Step 6: At about hour 6, take chicken out and shred with two forks. Put back in for remaining two hours


Step 7: Top soup(in bowls) with tortilla strips/chips, sour cream and cheese


Kitchen play by play: Not much to tell. Austin helped dump the spices and the cans. I chopped the onion and garlic which is the most time consuming. We were done in 10 minutes. I have chopped the night before and measured the spices in a small bowl the night before so that in the morning I really am just dumping ingredients into the pot.


The Finished Product


With cheese and sour cream


Full batch in the crock pot

The Verdict:

Nicole- I love soup, but I hate making homemade soup due to the necessary prep time. So besides the fact that it tastes great, it is a winner in my book because it takes little to no time to create. I give it a strong 4.

Paul- gives it a 4. He even suggested that I make it for his department pig out next year. He also said that it was very tasty. He tops his with sour cream and cheese.

Austin- Ate some but enjoyed his Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets more.

Bella(our dog)- LOVED IT! I went upstairs to get my laptop to start typing this and when I came back Bella was at the table slurping up my soup. Everyone was a winner tonight!