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Soup is one of those great meals that is easy to make, feeds a lot of people, and you can freeze to have on a day you don’t have time to cook.
Monday I had the day off from work so I thought I would get a head start on the week’s meals. I decided this Southwest Chicken soup would be a great meal for midweek when I knew I would be getting home tired from work and not in the mood to cook. I adapted this recipe from one of (I have many) my favorite cooking blogs called Iowa Girl Eats . She has tons of yummy recipes on here, as well as workouts and stories about places she has traveled.
Some of the changes that I made to the recipe were, adding a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a can of diced green chiles, smoked paprika and a bit more cumin. I chose not to use tortilla chips and avocado as toppers. However, I did make some great homemade pico de gallo! One of these days I’ll get that recipe up on here.
Putting this soup together was a piece of cake. First chop the chicken and onion.
Next, add it to a large pot with a bit of oil and cook it until the chicken is no longer pink. This is also when I added all of the spices.
The next step was adding in the chiles, fire roasted tomatoes, cilantro, and beans. I let that all simmer together for a few minutes and then added the broth. That was pretty much all the work! After that, I let it do it’s thing and simmer away for about 20 minutes. The last little step was to add corn meal with the remaining broth to thicken the soup. Masa or cornflour like the original recipe calls for probably would have worked better, but this will work in a pinch.
The ending result was delicious! It had a slightly spicy, but not overpowering flavor, and the smoked paprika and fire roasted tomatoes gave it a nice, well, smokey flavor! The best part however was knowing that I had a meal ready for later in the week and would be able to come home from work and not worry about what to make.
Southwest Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts diced
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 T. grapeseed oil or oil of choice
- 2 T. taco seasoning
- 1/2 T. smoked paprika
- 1/2 T. paprika
- 1 t. cumin
- 1 t. chili powder
- 1/2 t. salt
- A few shakes of Chalula hot sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 14.5 oz can pinto beans drained and rinsed
- 1 4 oz can of diced green chiles
- Juice of half a lime
- 32 oz chicken broth divided
- 2 T. cornmeal or masa
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot.
- Add the diced onion and chicken to the pot.
- Cook until the chicken is no longer pink.
- Add all of the spices to the onion and chicken mixture and cook for several more minutes.
- Add the cilantro, tomatoes, beans, chiles, chalula, and lime to the pot and cook a few more minutes.
- Add 3 1/2 cups of the chicken broth to the pot and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth with the cornmeal whisked in to the soup and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Top your soup with any or all of these toppings: pico de gallo, cheese, cilantro, chips, and sour cream.
Hi Danae,
Two large chicken breasts equals how much in total weight?
Deb
You’ll need approximately 1 pound of chicken.
Mmmm this looks so good! Love the website!
Thanks, I really liked it! Let me know what you think if you make it.