Five Ingredient White Chicken Chili

I was super happy to find this recipe on pinterest awhile ago.

You can't go wrong with a 5 ingredient recipe.

You also can't go wrong when 1 of those 5 ingredients is salsa verde.

I feel incredibly awesome using salsa verde, plus I got it at Aldi.

Win!

This seriously came together really quickly, which was nice for a day like today when I folded a literal mountain of laundry during nap time.

Anyway, here's what you need:

6 cups chicken broth

4 cups, cooked and shredded chicken

2 (15 oz) cans of great northern beans

16 ounces salsa verde

2 teaspoons cumin

Yep.  That's it!

Put it all in a pot and stir to combine.  Heat it over medium high heat until boiling, then lower to medium lowish and simmer for 5 minutes.  

Serve it with shredded cheese, sour cream, a squeeze of lime, avocados, cilantro, crushed tortillas...whatever your little heart desires.

Please excuse this shockingly bad picture of the soup :)

Here's a little secret about the chicken I used.  I freeze leftover chicken to use in soup later, so I just dug around in the freezer until I found enough.  There may have even been some turkey from Thanksgiving in this soup :)  

My daughters' feelings about soup have been well documented, and I've decided to abandon mandatory soup tastes for this season.  It's just not worth the battle to me.

So, I made them Darcy's pasta :)

We had dinner with our friends, Tim and Darcy and their family, this weekend, and Darcy made some really good chili!  She made macaroni for the kids, and Maggie love love double loved it.  

I made some elbow macaroni, drained the water, added some butter, and stirred in some cheese.  That made a yummy little cheese sauce and then I sprinkled a little cheese on top when I served it.

Maggie was sooooooo happy!  (oh, Maggie put away all of her folded clothes and Leah's and Gracie's.  She said she loves to help me...what a sweetie :))

And I was happy, too, when nobody cried at supper.

Give this soup a try when you need a quick and delicious supper!

I'm linking up with Jessica!

Crockpot Black Bean, Salsa, and Chicken Soup

Edited on October 6th:  Welcome to friends from Mel's Crock-tober Link Up!  Here's a soup that's so easy you could probably make it on accident :)

Plus there's a really easy, taste free way to kick it up a healthiness notch...

Is it weird that I want to call this soup "Crockpot Black Bean, Salsa, and Chicken Soup...for the Soul" ?  

Because I do.

Even though those books are ridiculous.

Or maybe because those books are ridiculous!

Anyway, Aaron and I both really liked this soup!

The girls?  Well, that's another story!  Let's just say that this soup brought forth a meltdown of epic proportions.  The presence of the humble black bean pushed Leah over the edge.

But, don't pay attention to the childish meltdown...this soup is fast to prepare, easy, healthy, and delicious!

You need:

4 cups of chicken broth
1 pound chicken breasts
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
16 ounces salsa
1 cup frozen corn
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cumin
Not pictured:  1/2 cup sour cream (stir in at the end)

I also got all sneaky creative and added this!

Yes, that's 1 cup of finely chopped kale, and we couldn't taste it one bit!

Anyway, dump all of the ingredients (except for the sour cream) in a crockpot...4 quarts or larger.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.  When the chicken is cooked through, pull it out of the crockpot and use 2 forks to shred it into bite-sized pieces.  Return the chicken to the crockpot and add the 1/2 cup of sour cream.  Stir to evenly blend the sour cream into the soup.

You can use an immersion blender to blend some of the beans and chicken to thicken the soup.  Or even blend a couple of (cooled) cups of soup in the regular blender and add back to the pot.  You want to make sure the soup is cooled for a regular blender.  I've heard that hot soup can get all crazy and make the cover of your blender pop off.

I only wish I was making that up!

Anyway, serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, a squeeze of lime...anything you want, really!

Enjoy...even if my girls didn't ;)

I adapted this recipe from my favorite crockpot recipe blog!

I'm linking up with Mel at The Larson Lingo for Crock-tober!  

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Before the girls and I left for my parents' house for March Madness, I made a pot of soup for Aaron to eat while he was painting a third of our house.

It's his favorite soup, and I figured it could be a bright spot (and an easy meal) in the midst of all his hard work.

I know, you're dying for the recipe now, aren't you.

I've heavily adapted the recipe from allrecipes.com.

For starters, make a box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice.

Set it aside.

Here are the rest of your ingredients:

You can see that I put the veggies in the food processor and zip them up so they're like confetti!

"Confetti" is significantly cooler than simply vegetables.  Plus, they are cuter and people who are, shall we say, "hesitant" about vegetables don't mind them as much!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice, prepared
2 cups of cooked and cubed chicken (or turkey)
1/2 cup or so of celery, carrots, and onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 tablespoons of butter, divided
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a pot, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat.  Add the vegetables and garlic; cook until softened.  Remove from pan.  Set aside.

Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl.

In the same pot (still on medium), melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter.  Stir in the flour mixture about a tablespoon at a time until a paste forms.  Whisk in the half and half a little at time until fully incorporated and smooth.  Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the chicken broth and stir until incorporated.  Add in the veggies, chicken and about 2/3 of the rice.  Stir and be sure the rice is evenly distributed (i.e. no clumps).  Continue cooking on medium until heated through, 10-15 minutes.

You might want to serve it with this delicious bread!

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have this board on Pinterest called "It's Cool to Eat Soup."  

I think it's cool to eat soup, but not everyone in my family shares that sentiment.  I make it once a week anyway (usually on Monday so I can have leftovers for lunch the rest of the week), and require the girls to each have the tiniest bit of soup before they can have a treat.  

This brought on quite the emotional experience for Leah the night I made this soup, but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup.  I barely adapted it from here.

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breasts, trimmed
• 1 and 1/2 cups frozen corn
• 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained (I used petite diced because I like the smaller bits.  Target's store brand petite diced tomatoes are way better than Walmart's.  Seriously, everything is better at Target!)
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 cup green pepper, chopped
• 3/4 cup onion, chopped
• 2 (or 3) cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 or so teaspoon cumin
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Shredded co-jack or cheddar cheese, crushed tortilla chips, lime, or whatever else you want to use to garnish your soup

*The recipe originally called for minced serrano pepper.  I forgot to buy it, but would have probably gotten a jalapeno instead, because that's what I'm more familiar with.  I didn't miss the spice, because I added more chili powder and cumin.

Look at this super fun garlic chopper thing that my brother and sister-in-law got me for Christmas!

I just put peeled garlic in, roll it around, and it works like a charm!

Moving on...

• Put the first 9 ingredients and 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in your slow cooker.
• I used my big, 6 quart slow cooker.
• Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  

I went for 8 hours on low.  Plus, my chicken was still about half way frozen and it worked great!

This is what was going on while I was cooking:

and 

Of course they always are so happy to sit by each other and nicely have a drink and a graham cracker.  They never ever fuss or fight with each other.  Ever. 

Ha!

:)

Back to the recipe!

• Prior to serving, remove the chicken breasts from the soup.  
• Put the chicken on a plate.
• Use two forks or your teeth to shred the chicken (I'm kidding about using your teeth to shred the chicken!  Please!  Use the forks!  Use the forks!)
• Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste.
• Put the shredded chicken back into the slow cooker and stir to combine.
• Serve up some soup in your bowl and top it with whatever you like!

I liked this a lot!  I thought it tasted pretty fresh for something from a slow cooker.  I feel like a lot of chicken tortilla soup recipes call for black beans, and while I am totally a fan of black beans, I really enjoyed this without them.  I think leftovers would freeze well, too!

Enjoy!