Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup

Last week I mentioned that I made (or at that point was making) some Chicken Enchilada Soup in the slow cooker.  Joan and I were hoping it would be good, like that from the Grumpy Troll.  Well it was darn close.  If the Grumpy Troll’s is a 10, than this would’ve been a 9.  I found the recipe on a website called “365 Days of Slow Cooking.”  As always I tinkered with their recipe a bit and this is what I’ve posted below.  (Ok, I’m now realizing I didn’t tinker that much at all really.  I just changed one ingredient and added another.  So this is basically just a reposting from “365 Days of Slow Cooking,” but whatever…)

The one thing that Joan and I thought this recipe needed was some smoky spiciness.  That would’ve made it a 10 for our personal tastes.  Next time we’ll be adding some chipotle pepper to the soup, or using it in place of the regular chili powder.  

Recipe:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs --- (we used chicken breasts)

2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes

2 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies --- (easiest to find in the Hispanic section of the grocery store)

2 (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce

2 (14 oz) cans of black beans (drained)

1/3 cup diced white onion

1 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 cup enchilada sauce (mild, medium, or hot) --- (we used medium but will use hot next time)

1 cup frozen corn (cook according to package and drain)

8 oz reduced fat cream cheese

Grated / shredded cheddar cheese

Tortilla chips / tortilla chip strips

1) Add everything from the chicken through the enchilada sauce to the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  

2) After that time, remove the chicken and shred into pieces.  Place shredded chicken back into slow cooker. 

3) Prepare the frozen corn, drain, and add to the soup.

4) Next cut the cream cheese into pieces, add to soup, and stir.  The cream cheese will completely melt into soup after a few minutes and then is ready to serve. 

5) Serve in bowls, top with cheese and tortilla chips, and enjoy.  

Mostly Quiet on the Cooking Front

I’m really wanting to be post more often on this blog this year (and both of my blogs in general), but nothing that exciting has really been super blog worthy.  I guess I always have in mind that there will be this one great meal or food project for the week, deserving the award of being posted on Farm Boy to Foodie.  That isn’t always going to happen in reality, so I need to start enjoying the little things, the little triumphs in the kitchen. 

With that in mind, here are some quick hits of some things food related that have happened since my last post:

--- I briefly mentioned in my last post that I was going to try a different recipe for shepherd’s pie.  Well it was so-so.  Normally when we’ve done shepherd’s pie, it’s the lazy route versus the traditional way.  It’s just a quick version that I devised, kind of based off of tator tot casserole.  The “underneath” layer is the same – browned ground meat, mixed with cooked mixed frozen vegetables, and a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Then instead of topping with tator tots you top it with mashed potatoes (boiled and mashed up potatoes that you’ve added milk, butter, and seasoning). 

 

Well this new recipe was odd in that it was half traditional and half quick.  It used ground turkey instead of beef or lamb, which is completely fine and which we often do anyway.  Of course, the mashed potato topping was also the same.  The weird part was the vegetables.  It used frozen pearl onions and frozen peas, but then used raw carrots.  Especially after re-remembering how much of a pain it is to chop carrots into small chunks, this recipe will be changed to use frozen next time.  The raw carrots didn’t add that much more carrot flavor anyway.  The thing I did like though is that instead of using a can of cream soup to thicken the meat and veggie mixture, it basically had you make a gravy with chicken broth and flour in the pan with the ground meat as you finished browning it. 

 

I think my new go-to recipe for shepherd’s pie will be something between this recipe and what I’ve normally done.  The frozen mixed vegetables will remain, but I think I’ll lose the cream of mushroom soup.  Instead I’ll make the simple gravy because, well, who doesn’t like gravy?

--- When planning dinners for the week, I always like to have at least one salad.  This past week’s salad was just sort of made between Joan and I and it was a huge hit.  We had some leftover bacon from BLTs the night before, so we topped our romaine lettuce with that as well as walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, Granny Smith apple, and a simple vinaigrette dressing.  It was sooo good.  It had a good amount of “stuff” in it, so it was filling and hearty salad, good for a cold winter night. 

--- On one weekday night last week (don’t remember which), we finally made our way to the TeaSource in Saint Paul so I could pick up my January tea as part of my “Tea of the Month” club membership.  We also had some gift cards to use up from Christmas, so it was the normal tea buying extravaganza.  This month however I didn’t try any new teas or any different green teas, so the tea purchased was pretty ordinary.  Well ordinary for us anyway in that it was all black tea.  We go through black tea quite quickly since we make a big strong pot every morning.  The teas we purchased were Breakfast Assam (for making chai and drinking straight), Grand Keemun, Welsh Morning, China Black Special, and Moon over Madagascar.

--- Lastly, I just wanted to share a picture of the copious amount of canned goods that I purchased on the last grocery run. 

The Progresso canned soups are meals in themselves of course and the two cans of Rotel were on sale (we’ll use them for chili eventually).  Everything else though will be going in the slow cooker is currently in the slow cooker with other ingredients for this evening’s dinner – Chicken Enchilada Soup.  It’s been great soup weather today, with this morning’s 8 am temperature of -15 and the balmy daytime high of 5F.  Besides warming us, Joan and I are hoping the soup will be similar to the great chicken enchilada soup at the Grumpy Troll (the Madison area restaurant we probably miss most).  If it’s anything remotely close, this recipe will be a keeper, and I’ll be sure to share the recipe on here.

--- Ok, one last pic.  Do you think we might be making cheesecake soon?

New Year, New Problems

So far this year, I haven’t done anything super grand in the realm of food.  I’ve been cooking yes, but really have just done mostly small things or things I’ve made before.  I haven’t cooked anything new or exciting.  That isn’t to say however that everything has gone exactly to plan.

To start, Joan and I just had a quiet New Years (quite on purpose), staying in just enjoying the evening together.  We made one of our fallback recipes, a mushroom risotto, having it simply with a crusty baguette and sparkling apple cider.  We both thought the risotto was good but agreed that something was off and not as good as usual.  I suspect it was either the cheese or the mushrooms were not the same as we normally use, but we’ll see what happens the next time we make it.

 I’m also trying to make a point (or resolution I guess) to cook something new at least once a week.  It’s really easy to get rutted in a continual cycle of meal favorites.  Last week’s new meal was Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken.  It was easy enough, like most slow cooker recipes are – just dump, mix, and heat – but, like the off risotto, Joan and I thought it was just not quite as good as it could be.  It’s rare that we don’t tinker with new found recipes so maybe it was to be expected.  Again, the chicken and the sauce were really good over rice but we’re thinking it may be better over noodles.  The spicing needs to be tweaked too.  If we can perfect it, then I’ll share the recipe.

 Joan's sensible normal sized portion.

My giant portion.  Really, there is a chicken breast under there somewhere.

Even the easiest of things seem too need tweaking lately.  One night last week we did breakfast for dinner and I set forth making omelets.  Usually I’m very good at this, but each of our omelets just ended up being scrambled eggs with vegetables mixed in.  Whereas I’ve never had a problem before, the egg kept sticking to our nonstick pan.  I’m still perplexed about the issue.  Is the pan wearing out?  Is my technique off and do I need to consult Julia?  Whatever it is, at least the eggs tasted just as good, omelet form or not.

My fighting with sticky nonstick pan continued though later in the week when I wanted to a nice breakfast fry up for myself for dinner (Joan was off at a dinner for work).  The plan was to do fried potatoes in the pan, wipe it clean, and then fry some eggs.  Well the potatoes stuck to the pan – I mean really stuck to the pan – and while I managed to rescue most of the potatoes, there was no way I could use the pan for frying eggs too.  As we only have the one nonstick pan, I then had to get out a normal stainless steel pan and really test my skills to fry an egg in that.  There indeed was some sticking, but the eggs came out fine considering.  Lastly, I made some toast, poured myself a beer, and finally sat down to my hard-fought dinner.

This week is fairing much better so far fortunately.  Quesadillas were made without any fuss and last night’s fish dinner consisting of baked tilapia, couscous, and green beans was whipped up easily.  The rest of the planned dinners this week shouldn’t give any problems either.  Even our new recipe will be easily as it’s just a different take on shepherd’s pie, a dish Joan and I very familiar with. 

 

Looking further forward, I’ve been scouring the cookbooks more interesting food is on the way.  A few of these are things that I’ve wanted to try for awhile.  But I’ll leave it there (leaving things hanging), I don’t want to post until it happens.