Tex-Mex Chicken Soup Bar
Tex-Mex Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
grated cheeses, sliced black olives, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, chopped green onions, dice avocado, cilantro
Directions:
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, fresh or frozen
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 2 medium onions (for 1-1/2 cups chopped)
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 3 cans (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
- 2 cans (14-1/2 oz.) Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
- 1-1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
- 1-1/2 cups black beans (1 can)
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- juice of 1/2 of a lime
grated cheeses, sliced black olives, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, chopped green onions, dice avocado, cilantro
Directions:
- Heat oil over medium heat in a 4-1/2 to 5 quart Dutch oven or soup pot. Peel onions and coarsely chop them, adding them to pot as you chop. Cut chicken into bite-size chunks, adding them to the pot as you cut. After first breast is in the pot, raise heat to medium-high. Continue until all chicken is added. Add garlic. Cook chicken, stirring from time to time, until it is no longer pink outside, about 4 minutes.
- Add broth, tomatoes, corn, and beans. Raise heat to high, cover and bring pot to a boil. Uncover, reduce heat to low and add cumin and juice from lime. Continue to simmer 5 minutes to let flavors develop.
- While soup simmers, prepare toppings of choice. Serve at once or remove from heat and cover until ready to serve. Reheat as necessary. Arrange toppings salad-bar style, or pass them around the table, and let everyone add their own.
The original recipe didn't call for black beans, but I think there's something special about the flavors of chicken, corn, black beans, lime, and cumin (and cilantro, the toppings didn't list cilantro, either) together, and this soup didn't seem complete without them. Also, I don't usually have Mexican-style tomatoes, so I just use a couple cans of diced tomatoes. As with all soups, the measurements here are really just guidelines - adjust as needed or to suit your preferences.
many recipes in the world that there is just no excuse for using one twice if it's not something you really enjoy. Now, whether the rest of the family enjoys them or not is another story, but I try to add special notes about who likes what. 
