D-Feast Friday - Leftover-Chicken Tortilla Soup

Welcome to D-Feast Friday.  I am sharing a recipe I made up after trying Chicken Tortilla Soup for the first time at a restaurant.  It was so good (except for the corn kernels floating around in there, which I left out of my version), so when I got home I thought about what was in it and came up with this recipe.  It's a great way to use up leftover roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

Leftover-Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 yellow onion, diced
2 cubanelle peppers or 1 bell pepper, diced
Chicken breast, cooked and cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend (I like McCormick Grill Mates Montreal)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup rice (I use organic brown rice)
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (such as Del Monte Zesty Mild Green Chili)
2 quarts chicken broth (I use Pacific Organic broth)
Toppings: tortilla chips, shredded cheese and sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

Heat a large soup pot over medium heat.  If I'm roasting a whole chicken at home, I roast the onion and pepper right along with it so it's ready to go for the soup.  If using leftover rotisserie chicken or leftover grilled chicken, add some olive oil to the pot, dice the onion and pepper and sauté until they begin to soften.

Now dump in the chicken pieces and spices.

Next, add the rice and the can of tomatoes.  I always add the stock last.  Why?  Because if I put the stock in first and then try to dump in the rice or tomatoes, there is major splashage and I make a big mess of the stove-top!

Now, turn the heat all the way up to high until the soup comes to a gentle boil.  Then turn the heat way down low and put a lid over the pot loosely, leaving a crack for the steam to escape.  Let the soup simmer until the rice is cooked and tender.  The longer the soup is left to simmer, the better the flavors will be.  (This soup is also even better the next day.)

When it's time to eat, gather your toppings.  I used baked tortilla chips and non-fat Greek yogurt in order to eliminate some of the fat and calories.  I use full fat cheese though, because I just don't like low-fat cheeses.

Ladle your soup into your bowl.  Sprinkle the cheese on top, and then add as many crumbled tortilla chips as you'd like.  (I tend to use a lot, making my soup not-so-low-carb.)  Spoon a dollop of yogurt or sour cream in the center.  And enjoy!!

This recipe makes about 8 servings of soup.  (Although when we have it for dinner, we usually eat two servings each.)  Before adding the toppings, each serving of soup has about 12 grams of carbohydrates if you use the Pacific Organic chicken stock.  (Each quart of stock has 4 grams of carbs - if you use a different brand you'll need to check the carb content and adjust accordingly.)  I weigh out my tortilla chips on a food scale before adding them to my soup so I can get an accurate count of the carbs I'm eating.

Click here to download this recipe in .pdf form.

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