Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup with Poblano Peppers

This autumn is looking GREAT in the Pacific Northwest. Why? Because it’s supposed to be cooler and wetter than normal, and I am a HUGE fan of that. The rain doesn’t get me down, it just make me snuggly. I snuggle with boo thang, snuggle with the cats and snuggle up to some tasty soup!

My poblano peppers were starting to get a little scary, so my solution was some chicken tortilla soup. The chicken in my freezer has poor texture when thawed, a nice sign that it’s filled with water, so I paid way more for it than I should have. Thanks, water weight chicken. Shredded chicken hides that pesky little problem. Also, while making this, I thought the package had two chicken breasts in it. Nope, it was one MONSTER chicken breast. Basically I bought this chicken while I was frantically speed shopping before a camping trip, it didn’t get used so it ended up in the freezer. I’ll never buy this brand of chicken again!

So many pretty colors!

For the most part, this is a nice, straight-forward recipe, but it does take a little time, even thought it’s a slow-cooker “set it and forget it” recipe. You can always buy tortilla chips, but I like seasoning mine, which add another half hour or so to the prep time.

As it happened, my brother ended up coming over for lunch after I made it so I had a guinea pig other than boo thang to test my food on. He gave it two thumbs up, but he’s a college student and it was free, so ya know, take that review with a grain of salt!

RECIPE: Serves 4 – 6 

4 – 5 small poblano chili peppers

2 chicken breasts, whole

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can petit diced tomatoes, with juice

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

6 cups of vegetable -or- chicken broth

2 T chili powder

Salt & pepper

For Tortilla Ribbons

4 – 5 corn torillas, cut into 1/4 in thick ribbons

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper

1. Blister the poblanos. Cut poblanos in half and remove seeds. Place peppers on a baking sheet, insides down and coat with olive oil. Broil on high until the skin is blistering and browning. Keep a close eye on it!
2. Once the peppers have blistered, let cool. Remove waxy skins and cut into squares/cubes
3. Add chicken, poblanos, bell pepper, tomatoes (including tomato juice from the can), corn, black beans, onion, garlic chili powder and salt and pepper to crock pot. Cover with broth, about 6 cups. Cook on high for about 4 hours.
4. While the soup cooks, make your tortilla ribbons. Preheat oven to 425. Toss olive oil, seasonings and tortillas together. Spread on a baking sheet so it is mostly just one layer, with a little overlapping of tortillas as possible. Bake for 5 minutes, flip the tortillas over with a spatula, and cook for about another 5 minutes, until crisp but not burned. Keep a close eye on the tortillas after you flip them.
5. After the soup has cooked for a 4 hours, remove and shred. You can use forks if you’d like, but a pro tip is dropping it into your KitchenAid with the mixing (not whisk) attachment, it’ll shred the chicken in about a minute. No fuss! Return shredded chicken to crock pot and cook an additional 15-30 minutes.
6. I had a whole mess of garnishes. Sour cream, limes, avocado, sliced jalapeños, and obviously the tortilla ribbons. Add what you’d like and enjoy!