Chicken Tortilla Soup

The weather is rainy and cold today, and I myself and feeling a bit blue. I think that the best remedy for both is a hot bowl of soothing soup. Perhaps Chicken Noodle Soup would do the trick, but I much prefer tortilla soup, and I love this recipe inspired by a recipe in Cooking Light (I have made so many changes it is hard to say this is the same recipe).

Yes, there are a lot of ingredients, but once you have everything ready to go, it is simple to make and delightful to eat.

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Ingredients:
1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 fully cooked chicken breasts chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup of corn
1/4 cup of dry white wine
1/3 cup of salsa, pureed in your blender (I used On the Border, medium)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
2 (14 1/4 ounces) cans of chicken broth
1 (14.5 ounces) can of diced tomatoes, pureed in your blender
1 (10 3/4 ounces) can of condensed tomato soup (I used Campbell's Healthy Request)
1 to 2 cups of cooked brown rice

Steps:
1. Prepare and gather all of your ingredients. You do not have to puree the salsa and the diced tomatoes, but we like soups with a smoother consistency, and so that is why I pureed both.

Salsa and tomatoes in my Magic Bullet.

I keep my Magic Bullet and all of the pieces together and just underneath the counter top where I use it so that I actually use it and when I do it as painless as processing food can be!

Salsa and Tomatoes pureed together. 

2. Heat the oil in a heavy pan, such as a dutch oven.
3. Add the garlic (you could also add a chopped yellow onion at this point, Bunker just is not a fan of onions, and so I usually omit them for recipes in our kitchen), and saute for about 2 minutes.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the cooked chicken and rice. I usually cook my chicken and rice (I do not use instant rice so it takes a while) while I make the soup.

5. Stir the ingredients together and bring to a boil.

6. Reduce the heat and simmer for one hour.

7. Add the fully cooked chicken and rice to the soup.

8. Enjoy on a chilly night with chips or crackers!

Homemade Salsa

One of my favorite snacks is chips and salsa. While there are certainly jarred salsas that I enjoy, nothing beats the flavor of fresh, homemade salsa. Over the past three years I have used several recipes and I think I have finally found the right one for me.

My dad is in town for the week, so I decided it was time to see if he also approved of this new salsa recipe. You see, a few years ago I gave him some jars of the recipe I was using at the time and he complained that it wasn't spicy enough. So I made sure that this batch had a good kick. (Don't worry, you can adjust the spice level by the amount of seeds you remove from the jalapeno)

He loved it! Dad said it was so spicy it made his head sweat, which apparently means it was the perfect level of spicy. Who knew! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

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Homemade Salsa


Ingredients
1 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes
2 jalapenos, chopped (seeds removed for a mild spice)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Instructions
In a large food processor add the whole tomatoes and Ro-Tel.

Add the chopped jalapenos, (I removed the seeds from only one and it was pretty spicy. For medium heat remove seeds from 1.5 peppers and for mild remove all the seeds)

lime juice,

cumin,

onion,

garlic,

salt and pepper

and cilantro.

Pulse the food processor until it reaches the desired consistency. I like mine smooth, not chunky so I pulse mine about 10 or so times.

Pour into a small bowl and eat with tortilla chips.

Source: Adapted from the Pioneer Woman