Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe 445

Steps:

• Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.

Steps:

• Spray 5- to 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Add broth, tomatoes, corn, enchilada sauce, onions, green chiles, cumin and chili powder to slow cooker; stir to combine. In 10-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken to skillet; sprinkle with pepper. Cook 4 to 6 minutes, turning once, until browned on both sides. Place chicken in slow cooker.
• Cover; cook on Low heat setting 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours or until chicken is cooked through (at least 165°F in center). Remove chicken from slow cooker to plate; shred using 2 forks. Return chicken to slow cooker. Stir in cilantro. Top each serving with crushed tortilla chips and sour cream.

Steps:

• Heat vegetable oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until brown and tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cans of chicken broth and canned tomatoes. Add fresh tomatoes.
• Mix Anaheim chile peppers, jalapeno pepper, cumin, chili powder, and pepper into the pot. Stir in chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer soup until flavors combine, about 20 minutes.
• Ladle soup into serving bowls; twist 1 lime wedge into each bowl. Top with corn chips, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, avocado slices, and cilantro.

Steps:

• 1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
• 2. Preheat oven to 400*F.
• 3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
• 4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.
• My Note: This is AS CLOSE TO AUTHENTIC as possible. I love "cheater" recipes like this. Open a few cans, dump it in, and wa-la! In Mexico we buy the right variety of peppers, cook them down, throw them in the blender, etc to make meals like this. This saves all that hassle for a genuine taste. My entire family says it's as good as the tortilla soups served here in local restaurants. That's the highest compliment a recipe can be given! Don't bother cooking the chicken ahead of time. Throw it in with the rest in the beginning and shred it 2-3 hours later. Hint: serve with lime juice, a tsp of sour cream, chopped avocados, or pork rind along with the cheese to really eat it like a Mexican. BTW, I bought bagged tortilla chips and worked fine.
• I threw in a couple of frozen chicken breasts rather than cooking them first and saved myself a step. (I shredded them towards the end.) I also used bagged tortilla chips instead of making my own.
• This recipe would be a little more authentic if you skip the canned enchilada sauce and instead made your own. VERY EASY. Take 3-4 large dried ancho chiles (cut off the stems and remove the seeds) and boil them with a cup or so of water, garlic and onion. After a half hour, whir it all together in your blender with a small can of tomato puree. Add some cumin if you like. Salt to taste. I live in Mexico, and believe me, there is NO such thing as canned enchilada sauce here. Also - the shredded or sliced chicken is usually added as a garnish here, not cooked in the soup.

Steps:

• Heat a broiler with a rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source. Line a sheet pan with foil, add the plum tomatoes and arrange them in an even layer, cut sides up. Add the onions, cherry tomatoes, garlic and jalapeños, distributing them evenly, and broil for 15 minutes, checking and rotating the pan every 5 minutes to make sure the vegetables are charring and blistering evenly. (The vegetables should be blackened in spots, slumped and sizzling. Many of the cherry tomatoes will have burst.)
• Discard the garlic skins, then roughly chop the onion, garlic, jalapeños and plum tomatoes, transferring them to a 5- to 8-quart slow cooker. Transfer the cherry tomatoes and any juices to a separate bowl and refrigerate.
• Stir the oil, tomato paste, cumin, oregano, salt, onion powder and garlic powder into the slow cooker, followed by the chicken broth, carrots and chicken thighs. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.
• Before serving, fold the avocado into the cherry tomatoes; season with a pinch of salt and the juice of half the lime.
• In the slow cooker, coarsely shred the chicken with two forks. Add the juice of the remaining lime half, and season to taste with salt.
• Serve the soup in bowls topped with crushed tortilla chips and spoonfuls of the tomato-avocado salsa. Pass hot sauce, queso fresco and/or cilantro at the table, if desired.