Chicken Enchilada Soup

Hmm...I just noticed that my last post was for Chicken Enchiladas as well. It must be a Fall Seasonal dish for me! :)

Anyway, I was trying to come up with a simple meal to eat before Thanksgiving, since I knew we would be stuffed full of fantastic meals for the holiday weekend. This soup is really easy and not very time consuming, so it was perfect for us. As teachers, we are particularly busy right before Thanksgiving, so this was a nice, simple, and light meal to eat before gorging on Thursday.

I think the thing that makes this soup fantastic is the many options of toppings. The soup itself is so simple that you can add any amount of toppings, and as you can see from my picture, I did not hesitate to go "topping-crazy".

What I loved: the creamy, simple soup combined with crunchy tortilla slices, avocados, a spicy jalapeno crunch, and sharp cheddar cheese. YUM!

Ingredients:
*2-4 cups chicken broth (depending on if you like a more broth-type soup...I used 4 cups)
*6 (6 inch) CORN tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips
*1 can (10 oz.) green enchilada sauce
*1 can (4 oz.) diced green chilies
*10-15 oz. red enchilada sauce (if you add 4 cups of chicken broth, add 15 oz. sauce)
*1-3 tsp. cumin (depending on your taste desires)
*1-3 tsp. cayenne pepper (depending on your taste desires)
*shredded chicken from rotisserie chicken OR 3 cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
*1-1.5 cups half-in-half

Optional Topping Ideas:
*2-4 CORN tortillas, cut into strips, and fried in olive oil with a dash of salt until crispy (dry on paper towel)
*1 tomato, seeded and chopped
*1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
*1 avocado, seeded, peeled and chopped
*1 bunch of green onion, diced
*sharp cheddar shredded cheese
*spoonfuls of sour cream

Directions:
1) Combine the 2 cups of chicken broth and the 6 tortillas (cut up) to a large soup pot. Cook over medium heat until the strips soften (and almost dissolve) and the broth thickens. At this point, decide if the broth is too thick for your liking. If you like a thick soup, leave the way it is. If you like a more broth-based soup, add the other 2 cups of chicken broth.
2) Stir in the enchilada sauces, green chilies, and spices. Heat until combined on medium heat. Then add the chicken and half-in-half and heat through (be careful not to cook on high heat so you do not scald the half-in-half!) Taste and add more enchilada sauce or half-in-half to your preference.
3) When thoroughly heated, pour the soup into the bowls. Add your preferred toppings and enjoy! Serve with tortilla chips. Makes 4-6 servings.

Comments:
**The first day we ate this soup, I forgot to chop up the jalapeno. The soup tasted great without it, just a bit on the mild side. The next day, I remembered the jalapeno and it made the soup much spicier and also gave it a bit of a crunch that I really liked. Both ways were delicious, so it's up to you if you like spicy food or not.

**I used ALL of the toppings mentioned and I really think it's what makes this soup really delicious. So I highly recommend using all of the toppings. If you add different toppings and find it makes the soup taste good, please let me know what you use! I love trying new things.

*I used most of a rotisserie chicken for this soup. This really helped me save time. Seriously, I think by the time I chopped the toppings and warmed the soup, only 20 minutes went by, and I chop things VERY slowly. So this is really a quick meal that lasts a few days.

Chicken "Enchiladas"

I am surprised that I have not posted this recipe earlier. This is one of me and Paul's favorite meals, and yet, I have not made it for over a year.

That should not be much of a surprise since I LOVE trying out new recipes rather than getting 'stuck in a rut' with the same ole recipes all the time. We used to make this recipe all the time when we were first married and dirt poor. It was our "fancy meal" in order to get away from onion soup, potato soup, and whatever else was super cheap. We always knew this would be delicious, so it was hard to spend money on a new recipe when this one was SO GOOD.

Anyway, it was time to make this old favorite of ours, and once again it was a winner. I found this recipe in a cookbook called: Taste of Home's Favorite Brand Name Recipes, 2003. Technically, the recipe calls them "Chicken Enchiladas", but I don't see how the term 'Enchiladas' can be used for this particular recipe because it has little in common with ordinary 'enchiladas' meals. However, I can't think of another title for this recipe, so I am using the name of the original. For now. If you can think of a good name for this meal, I will use it and give you credit! :)

What I love about this recipe: creamy chicken and green pepper insides, with a creamier velveeta topping, with a salsa on top to make it even better. Yum...

Ingredients:
*2-3 cups of chopped cooked chicken
*1 green pepper, chopped and deseeded
*1 - 1.5 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, cubed
*1-2 cups of salsa, divided
*8 flour tortillas
*8 ounces velveeta, cut up
*1/4 cup milk
*4 oz. can of green chilies (optional)

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Mix the chicken, green pepper, cream cheese, and 1 cup-ish of the salsa in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Cook over low heat until the cream cheese is melted.
3) Spoon the chicken mixture into the tortillas and roll up. Place the tortillas seam-side down in a lightly greased 9x13 or 11x7 baking dish.
4) Mi the velveeta and milk and green chilies (optional) in a small saucepan, cook over low heat until the velveeta is completely melted. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Pour over the enchiladas and cover the dish with foil.
5) Bake for 20  minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with remaining salsa. Enjoy!

Comments:
*I usually use one 8oz. package of cream cheese and then a few huge spoonfuls of veggie cream cheese that I always buy that week for bagels. This works great and I like the extra taste the veggie cream cheese adds to the dish. However, plain cream cheese works great too.

*I added green chilies to the velveeta topping last time and I really liked how it tasted. It gives the meal an extra spicy kick. I will be doing this from now on, though I also know from experience that it tastes fine plain as well.

*If I am concerned that there is not enough chicken mixture to fill all 8 tortillas, I simply add extra chicken and salsa to the mixture as I fill the tortillas up, and it tastes great. This is an easy mixture to add on to in order to make it last.

*This makes 8 tortillas, which feeds us for 2 days. If you add a sidedish, though, this meal could easily feed up to 8 people, because the chicken mixture is rather filling.

How to cook Chicken to Perfection

How to cook chicken? This might seem like basic knowledge, but I found a great recipe for how to cook chicken to perfection (i.e. not overcooked) and I figured that I should add the recipe information here to my blog. Even if you, the reader, think this is a "duh" type of recipe, I found it helpful, and this is really a blog for helping me collect my favorite recipes, so I am adding this anyway.

I found this recipe in a cookbook that I loaned from the library called: Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners. I do not recommend getting this cookbook. This was the only recipe from it that I found useful/delicious. This is only a cookbook of everyday recipes if you have tons and tons of money to spend on groceries. For example, there is a recipe for lamb burgers. I can't afford lamb for an everyday occasion, and if I buy it, I am certainly not going to make it in to ground meat for a burger! Yikes.

Anyway, this recipe is pretty much guaranteed not to overcook your chicken. I typically either buy a rotisserie chicken for my recipes or quickly cook the chicken on our George Foreman grill. However, since I am super careful, I always, ALWAYS overcook the chicken on the grill because I would rather it was overcooked than something that makes us sick. This recipe keeps the chicken nice and juicy and I will certainly be using this recipe over the grill for my chicken in the future. I plan on always buying a pack of chicken breasts, cooking them with this recipe, and using that chicken for all my necessary recipes for the week. Yum...

Ingredients:
*3-4 cups of chicken broth
*1-1.5 pounds of thawed boneless, skinless chicken breasts


Directions:
1) Bring the chicken broth to a boil over high heat in a large pan that is large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Once the broth is boiling, add the chicken breasts and make sure they are completely covered by the broth (if they are not, simply turn the chicken every once and a while during this cooking process, that works fine). Simmer them, uncovered, for about 7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover it, and let it stand for 10 minutes.
2) Remove 1 chicken breast to a plate and cut it in half to make sure it is cooked through. If it is, remove the remaining chicken breasts. If not, return to the pan, cover, and simmer it for 2 minutes more, than check again. Reserve the chicken broth for other recipes. Use the chicken as necessary for your recipe. Enjoy!

Comments:
*Make sure you plan ahead and have a recipe that uses chicken broth. This recipe makes plain chicken broth into Super Chicken Broth, and it would be a shame to waste it. (I did not think about it, and sadly, that beautiful broth was thrown away...how tragic).