Tortilla Soup

So it’s summer which means it’s definitely not soup season-but soups are just soooo easy to make, and can be saved for great leftovers. I made some tortilla soup and wanted to share as a simple, delicious weekday dinner that our family loved!

Tortilla soup is pretty standard, but, like most any soup, you can easily alter it to fit what you have in your own kitchen. I used this recipe as a baseline, but there are plenty of other that are easily google-able.

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I was originally planing to make chicken tacos for dinner, so I had some chicken going in the crock pot. I covered two chicken breasts with taco seasoning. You can use any kind but this brand is my absolute favorite. You can get it from most grocery stores, Target, and (obviously) Amazon. (Their fajita mix is amazing too.) We had had Chipotle the night before and had leftover salsa (medium spicy) so I just dumped that over the chicken as well. I cooked it on low for about 6 hours.

Once I decided I wanted to do tortilla soup, I checked the pantry to make sure we had everything. Since most of the ingredients are pretty standard, we did!

Ingredients:

• jalapenos (we only had canned so I just used that)
• one onion
• three cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes with peppers
• tomato paste
• olive oil
• chicken broth
• shredded chicken

Steps:

First, while the chicken was still in the crock pot, I chopped the onion, garlic, and jalapenos, and sauteed them in olive oil in a large soup pot. Then I just dumped in the rest of the ingredients. I drained the canned corn, tomatoes, and black beans. The original recipe calls for crushed tomatoes but I didn’t have any, instead, I used a small can of tomato paste and then filled the can with water to dilute it. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of chicken broth, which I first poured in.

Next, I shredded the salsa chicken in the crock pot and added about 2/3 of it to the soup. I also had to add about two more cups of chicken broth-but you can add more or less to make your soup thicker or thinner. I simmered the soup for about 40 minutes until it was all cooked through and warmed.

To top it off, I added shredded cheese and some tortilla chips. If you’re feeling really fancy, you can make your own tortillas by cutting flour (or corn) tortillas thin and frying them in oil. You can also add more or less of any ingredients, and top it off with cilantro, other spices, lime, avocado, sour cream-pretty much anything you want. You can also change up the chicken for a different protein, or even avoid it altogether and add extra beans, etc.

I love tortilla soup because it’s so easy and versatile. The taco sauce/salsa marinated chicken made it extra spicy which I just love. I made so much that we were able to enjoy this for about 5 days for lunch. I honestly think it’s almost even better as leftovers. The veggies, spicy chicken, cheese, and crunch of the chips just make it the perfect meal, even our 10 month old loved it!

So turn up the AC, and go ahead and make some hot soup this summer!

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