This just might be the best thing I have ever made. If you don’t want to make ANY of the recipes I post — you should at least try this one! It turned out so so good! Although, I can’t really take credit for it. It actually is a Rachel Ray recipe but I changed a bunch of ingredients to make it clean. 🙂 I tripled the recipe in the cookbook and it made about ten to twelve 1.5-cup servings. It only took me about 20-30 minute from start to finish (but I already had the chicken ready). Here is the recipe I made:
Ingredients:
- (2) 32-oz boxes low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 3 lbs chicken (the recipe calls for chicken tenders, but I had extra shredded chicken I had made in the crockpot that I overcooked and had turned out too dry so I used it in this recipe)
- 3-6 bay leafs, fresh if available
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 12-15 garlic cloves, chopped
- 6 chipotles in adobo, chopped, plus 1-2 tablespoons adobo sauce (whatever is leftover in can) (I had no idea what this was before I found it in the store, so I took a pic so you know what to look like – I found it in the Hispanic food aisle)
- (3) 14.5-ounce cans crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
- (3) 14.5-ounce cans no-salt diced tomatoes
- 1/2 Food-For-Life Rice Tortilla per serving
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- (2) 14.5-ounce cans black beans, drained
- Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
- 1 red onion, chopped
Instructions:
1. In a large pot, add the chicken broth, chicken, and bay leaf.
**My shredded chicken was already cooked, so all I did was bring the broth to a slow boil. If your chicken is not cooked yet, then you will want to cut up the chicken breast or chicken tenders into 1inch cubes and poach the chicken for 6-7 minutes**
2. While the chicken poaches, heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the onions and garlic to the skillet and cook them for 5 minutes, then stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce and the tomatoes.
**NOTE** This dish turns out a little on the spicy side. If you don’t like spicy food I would just omit the extra adobo sauce. If you REALLY don’t like spicy food I would omit both the chipotles and adobo sauce. Although, I think the chipotles add great flavor to the dish. If you are unsure, I would start with just the chipotles and add a little of the sauce until at desired spiciness.
4. Remove bay leaves (if you want) from the chicken broth. Then add the tomato mixture to the chicken/chicken broth.
5. Drain black beans then add to soup.
6. Put oven on high-broil.
7. Place 1 to 2 rice tortillas on a cookie sheet (or just a piece of foil if you are lazy like me) and cook for 3 minutes on one side.
8. Flip and do 3 minutes on the other side.
9. Once baked, crush the tortilla into about 1-2 inch pieces. Use 1/2 tortilla per serving (or omit if watching carbs).
10. Place a pile of crushed tortilla chips in the bottom of each soup bowl. Ladle the hot soup down over the top.
11. Top off the soup with lime, red onions, and cilantro. You could even sub a dollop of Greek yogurt for sour cream on top if you wanted.
Each 1.5-cup serving has appx. 6 oz chicken, 10.9 oz tomatoes, 1/2 FFL rice tortilla (if desired), 2.4oz black beans, 8 oz chicken broth, 1/4 tsp extra virgin olive oil, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and chipotles.
Another suggestion is to make the recipe in two different pots, and in one pot just use 1 can of black beans and add no beans in the other pot. This way you can eat the soup beanless if you are trying to watch your carbs.
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Nutritional Information: 1.5 cup serving (this is without the tortilla or beans – if you add the beans I have just been adding 2.4oz Goya black beans in my calorie counter and 1/2 FFL rice tortilla) http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/smoky-chicken-tortilla-soup-beans-rice-tortilla-add-sep-item/
- Calories: 192
- Fat: 3.8g
- Carbs: 16.4g
- Protein: 22.25g
- Sugar: 5.5g
If you make it without the beans, the carbs are all veggie carbs. So, if I eat it with beans and with tortilla I just add those as separate items if I am counting calories. If you have the beans, just add about 2.4 oz black beans to each serving (54 calories, .3 fat, 11.4 carbs, 4.2 protein). If you add the tortilla just add 1/2 FFL tortilla (65 calories, 1.3 fat, 12 carbs, 1 protein). Hope that helps!
