Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup

Well, it is officially fall, and you know what that means....soup time!  Chicken Tortilla is one of my favorite soups so I decided that should be the first one I make this season.  This is a different recipe than I normally use, but I decided to try it because it uses those canned chipotle chilis that I love so much.  I always seem to have some extra I need to use up.  This soup is so so good and was really fast to prepare.  I cooked my chicken the night before so that made it even faster.  It is really spicy though, spicier than I thought it would be; but I don't mind spicy food, so something to think about if you don't like things really hot.  Maybe only use one chipotle.

Based off of Rachael Ray

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4-8 cups chicken broth, depending on how soupy you like (I use closer to 8 cups because I like a thinner soup)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, plus 2 teaspoons sauce
28 ounces canned fire-roasted tomatoes (I used diced)

For Serving:

Crushed Tortilla Chips
1 Lime, cut into wedges
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Chopped Onion
Chopped Cilantro

Directions:

1.  In a soup pot, heat olive oil and cook onion and garlic for 5 minutes then stir in chipotles and tomatoes.
2.  Add in chicken and broth.
3.  Serve with crushed tortilla chips, shredded cheese, a squeeze of lime, and any other toppings you like.

DElish!

Salsa Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas and Mexican Rice

{adapted from The Novice Chef}

Printable Recipe

Chicken Enchiladas are one of my favorites to order at our local Mexican restaurant and to make at home.  But sometimes you want something different than your "usual" at the Mexican place.  These hit the spot!  They are so much better than the enchiladas with red sauce at the Mexican restaurant.  The sauce didn't take very long to make and I cooked my chicken the day before, so they came together pretty quickly . 

Cal really liked them; he had seconds and thought about thirds.  Definitely a keeper.  I'm always trying to get him to eat more chicken.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 Serrano peppers diced (I used 1 green bell pepper)
2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups sour cream
16 ounce jar Medium Salsa Verde
1½ teaspoons cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Flour Tortillas, fajita size
½ medium onion, diced
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium size sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Saute green pepper and jalapeno peppers until soft, add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in flour and cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the chicken broth and let cook until bubbly.  Stir in sour cream, salsa, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper and garlic powder, until sauce is smooth.  Remove from heat.

Spray/grease a 9x13 baking dish.  Spread 1 cup of sauce to the bottom of the dish.  Combine the diced onion with the shredded chicken.  Add some chicken-onion mixture and cheese to the center of each tortilla, placing seam-side down in the dish.  Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, and top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 25 minutes until brown and bubbly.

I served with Mexican rice and chips and salsa.




Mexican Rice
{from All Recipes}

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup long-grain rice
1½ teaspoon taco seasoning
½ teaspoon cumin
½ cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

In a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium and add rice and onion.  Cook, stirring frequently until rice is golden and onion is soft.  Sprinkle in taco seasoning and cumin.  Stir in tomato sauce and broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.

Ahhh…the first batch of salsa this summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I used: all from the garden, except for the lime and vinegar of course!

3 tomatoes (I like the skin peeled off)

2 baby red onions

2 jalapenos

3 cloves of garlic

juice from 1 lime

splash of red wine vinegar

season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Just mix it all up in the food processor!

Mexican Lasagna

Source:  The Newlywed Cookbook, Robin Miller

I received another large care package of vegetables from the garden – green peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim peppers, red onions, green onions, garlic – and I was trying to come up with a meal that would include several of these ingredients.  Something Mexican was naturally my first thought.  Enchiladas sounded good, but I didn’t feel like rolling all of those things up.  Ah ha!  That mexican lasagna!  It’s kind of similar to enchiladas, but it’s a lot easier to just layer everything together.  Yum! 

This dish used at least one of each of the vegetables!  Ah ha! Killing multiple birds with one stone.

Sprinkled some green onions on top and served with some homemade chips made from the leftover tortillas.  And some chili-cheese dip, I snuck a couple extra jalapenos in there too!  So. Good.  Yum!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sour cream (I used low-fat)

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese

½ cup salsa (I used 1 can of Ro-tel)

4 oz. can chopped green chilis (I used a small chopped green pepper and a small chopped anaheim pepper)

1½ tsp. cumin

flour tortillas (or you can use corn tortillas, I like flour better), cut into quarters or smaller

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Directions:

1. Boil chicken for 10 minutes or so until cooked through.  I season it with salt, pepper and garlic.  Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes.
2. Mix together the chicken, sour cream, 1½ cups of the cheese, salsa, chilis, cumin, and season with s&p if needed.
3. Spay 11x7 baking dish with cooking spray.  Layer some tortillas on the bottom, top with the chicken mixture, and alternate with tortillas ending up on the top layer.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. 
4. Bake for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.  You may need to cover it with foil to keep it from getting to brown.