Chicken Tortilla Soup without the tortillas

It is another cold day here in upper Texas.  Another perfect day for a warm comfort food like soup except I don’t want to go grocery shopping which means pantry ingredients must do.  Fortunately for me I have about half a deli roasted chicken left and tortilla soup is my favorite so that identifies the direction this soup is headed.

There’s only two of us for lunch so I made a small batch of chicken tortilla soup without the tortillas.  Not that I don’t love the tortillas in the soup but I don’t have any in the pantry and I’m not going out in this cold weather today.  I do have the main ingredients of chicken, onion, and bell pepper so the rest is improvised and it turned out darn tasty.  I completely satisfied my craving for something hot, a little spicy and comforting.

I removed as much chicken I could from the left over whole deli roasted chicken I bought a couple of days ago.  It was about 1 1/2 cups all chopped up.  If I hadn't had the deli chicken I would have resorted to some canned chicken I keep in the pantry for just such occasions. I also had about a cup of chicken broth which is not enough so I added two more cups of water and a couple of chicken bouillon cubes.

I had half an onion in the fridge that got diced up and added plus I pulled out a frozen zip lock bag of diced green bell pepper from last summer’s garden.  I dropped that into the broth along with the chicken plus some frozen corn and squeezed in some bottled minced garlic I keep handy. Some salt and pepper made it pretty good but when I added a couple of heaping spoons full of purchased cheese dip, a can of diced green chilies and several shakes of hot sauce the soup was perfect. 

I’d invite you over… but we already devoured most of it!  However, it was so good I might venture out in the cold to make another batch if you want to come over.  LOL.

Tortilla Soup without the Tortillas

by Jeannie

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Keywords: soup/stew chicken

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Ingredients (serves 4-6)

• 1-2 Cups rough chopped cooked chicken or canned chicken
• 4 Cups chicken broth (can use water + bouillon)
• 1/2 Diced onion
• 1/2 Diced bell pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 4 Tablespoons purchased cheese dip
• 1 Small can diced green chilies 
• 3-4 shakes hot sauce (to taste)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/2-1 Cup corn kernels (optional)
• 1/2-1 Cup black beans (optional)

Instructions

Heat broth in a medium sauce pan

Add rough chopped cooked chicken and all other ingredients.

Heat to boil, reduce to simmer and serve.

*I used frozen corn and canned black beans but you can use fresh or canned corn.

**If you have tortilla chips on hand, serve with some on top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of snipped chives.

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