Restorative Chicken Soup

Most of the recipes that show up here are ones I've developed and tweaked, and this one is not different. But if you've got the current issue of Real Simple on your sofa, this'll look familiar. I was flipping through and found it the day Danny's parents arrived from Oregon, and thought, "we should eat that."




But I tweaked it (as I do) and will probably tweak it some more, but it's definitely going into regular rotation. First, I would hesitate to call it a taco soup because - I don't know. It's not exactly taco innards. Mexican-ish chicken soup? At any rate, I used a mix of chicken breasts and chicken legs, for body. I also used a bit more corn, and would use even more next time. I wouldn't be opposed to more black beans, either.

And I topped it with avocado, because WHY WOULDN'T YOU. AVOCADO. (Ahem). I also like crumbling tortilla chips into my Mexican-flavored soups, and some cilantro won't go amiss.

A couple tips - use gloves when handling the jalapeno peppers, and if you don't have gloves, use plastic sandwich bags. It's cheap, but it does the job - which is keeping the capsaicin off your hands.

This is definitely a "this is super easy once the prep work is done" kind of recipe, but a food processor makes much faster work of it. I recommend mincing the seeded jalapeno together with the onion. You can add the bell pepper after and process it, if you want it small, or chop it by hand separately.

I also pulsed the tomatoes in the processor - Danny doesn't do chunky tomatoes (and I don't care much for them, either). Resist the temptation to skip straight to the crushed tomatoes and stick with the canned fire-roasted tomatoes - you'll want the hint of smokiness, and they puree up in a pinch.

All of that to say - if you like the ingredients, you'll like the soup.  And if you happen to have leftovers in the fridge when you come down with a cold (speaking from experience), you'll be thankful to have them!

Adapted from Real Simple

For the Soup:

6 cups chicken stock
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, fat trimmed off
1 large yellow onion, chopped fine.
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine.
1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped
1 15-oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes (optional: puree)
2 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
12 oz frozen corn
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
Cracked black pepper to taste

For Serving:

Sliced avocado, cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, and/or sliced jalapeno

Place all soup ingredients into a slow cooker, stir, and cook on low for 10 hours. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon before serving, and rough chop/shred it before replacing it to serve. Top with desired toppings, and enjoy. Serves 8.

What's your favorite end-of-summer soup? Share in the comments!