Chicken Tortilla Soup

Hi my friends,

I hope you are enjoying your holiday.  My friend, Cindy, gave this recipe to me today and I made it for lunch.  It is so good and inexpensive to make.  As the recipe is stated below - it cost about $12.  It serves 8 as a full meal and can stretch to 10-12 if you serve a salad and bread on the side.  I used low fat or fat free soups (where available) and 50% reduced sodium chicken stock.  I don't normally cook with canned soups but this sounded so delish, I had to try it.

Your ingredient list:

• 10.5 oz cans of each of the following; cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery, and cheddar cheese soups.
• 15 oz reduced sodium or homemade chicken broth (I actually used about one cup more than that).
• 7 1/2 oz canned diced tomatoes (low sodium if you can).
• 1/2 cup chunky salsa
• 4 1/2 oz can diced green chilies
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• salt and pepper to taste (since you are using canned soup - you really won't need any additional salt)
• 2 chicken breast halves cooked and chopped (I bought a ready made rotisserie chicken and used 1/2 of it).

Place all of your ingredients (except for the chicken) in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.  Add the chopped chicken and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.  I cut flour tortillas into strips and briefly fried them for garnish.  I served the soup this way; spoon soup into bowls, top with a tsp of sour cream, lay some fried tortilla strips on top of the sour cream, and then sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar.

It looks good and tastes great.

Happy eating.
K