Chicken Tortilla soup in the Crock Pot

Hey Nerds,

I love this soup... it's filling and tasty, and fits the bill for being healthy with wholesome ingredients.  Each person can customize their soup bowl it when it comes time to serve it up.  I make a big pot of this on the weekend and then eat it throughout the week for my lunch.  This soup is family friendly, except for my family, go figure.
Here's what you're going to need:

Ingredients

• Vegetables
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 2 small zucchini, diced
• 1 medium cooking onion, diced
• Pantry Items
• 1 jar of strained crushed tomato (see the image)
• 1 box reduced sodium chicken stock
• 1 can of corn kernels drained and rinsed
• 1 can of black beans, as is*
• 1-2 Tbs Chili powder, or taco seasoning, or your own 'taco' seasoning, to taste
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Protein
• 2 large (or 3 small) boneless skinless chicken breast
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Additional water if necessary

Method

• The most difficult part of this recipe will be the chopping.  Chop all your veggies.  If you're trying to figure out "how big" of a dice, imagine that you want the veggies to mingle together on your soup spoon, so not too big of a dice, K?

• Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper on both sides

• I have a '*' next to the can of beans.  When I would make a soup with beans I would always drain and rinse the beans, but someone in a Facebook group said to use the can of beans as is with it's liquid because it makes the soup thicker, and it's true.  For this reason, I'm using salt-free canned beans.

• Put everything in the crock pot.  You may like more or less seasoning depending how spicy or salty your seasoning mix is.  You can start small and add more after.

 

• Put the lid on the crock pot and set it to high and let it cook for 3.5 hours.  If your chicken breasts were thick, cook for 4 hours
• Remove the chicken breasts (they'll be cooked by now) to a cutting board and use two forks to "shred" the chicken.

• Return the shredded chicken to the crock pot, put on the lid, and cook on low for 20 minutes to incorporate the flavors from the soup into the chicken breast.

How to Serve

Here's where you can customize the toppings to your soup, here are some typical options

• Sour cream
• cilantro
• shredded cheddar
• avocado
• tomato
• green onions (or 'scallions')
• corn tortilla strips (or crushed tortilla chips)
• hot sauce (like Franks) or sriracha

ENJOY!


This is how I like to enjoy mine:  I mix 1-2 Tbs of sour cream with cilantro paste, add corn tortilla strips/chips, and a swirl of sriracha sauce (I like it spicy).  What is cilantro paste and why not used fresh cilantro?  You can find cilantro paste in the produce section, usually near herbs.  I don't use fresh cilantro because I just don't use it very much (at all actually) in cooking;  the paste allows me to keep it around in my fridge for a longer period of time.

If you follow Weight Watchers Freestyle, the soup inself, without toppings is 0 SmartPoints.  All the ingredients are on the 0 SmartPoints list (awesome right?).  Add in points for toppings you use that are not on the free foods list.