SLOW COOKER CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

The crock pot is a life saver for busy moms like myself. My first crock pot, or slow cooker, was given to me as a gift. I didn’t realize just how much I would grow to love and appreciate it. A crock pot is a convenient appliance used for slow cooking meals without the worry of burning or over cooking your food. I like to toss food in, set it and forget it. As a child, we never owned a slow cooker. My mother worked full-time but she taught my sister and I how to prepare dinner so that it would be ready when she arrived home from work. Our meals consisted of a piece of roast or chicken quarters and a frozen vegetable. We would use the same seasonings: Lawry’s seasoned salt and pepper. We knew to put the meat in the roaster, cover and bake at 350 degrees. The vegetables would be seasoned the exact same way, covered and simmered low with a bit of water. I guess that you could say that we were my mother’s slow cookers. We were expected to put the meal on every day at around four o’clock. I saw just how much my mother appreciated having dinner ready when she arrived home from work.

I received my first slow cooker from my mother’s only brother—my uncle Milton. My uncle is the only boy out of five kids and I have never seen him cook a meal. I know that he believes that a woman’s place is in the kitchen because he is so old school. I won’t hold it against him, however, because he has good intentions. He bought each his nieces a slow cooker one year and a rice cooker the next. I was so impressed with my slow cooker because it was equipped with a timer. I am sure that he believes the old adage that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. For years, my uncle’s stay-at-home wife prepared his meals and served him as he sat at the dinner table. I never saw myself as a stay-at-home type of woman, but I wanted to be able to take care of my family the way that my aunt did. I watched my uncle sit at the table and quietly eat whatever my aunt placed in front of him. He would shower after a day’s work and sit down to the table and wait to be served. He would not say a word, but I knew that he enjoyed his food because he would wiggle his sockless feet under the table. I never told anyone that I noticed—but I did. It was the funniest and most beautiful thing to me.

Over the years, I had a collection of cook books that I gathered for when I had a family of my own to cook for. I stockpiled recipes that looked great in magazines and cookbooks that I found next to the chewing gum in the super market. The first time that I prepared a meal for the man that I would eventually marry, I decided to make an Asian-inspired lettuce wrap. I was in my early twenties and my spice cabinet was not nearly as stocked as it is now. I remember buying soy sauce, garlic powder and ground ginger among other things. I spent hours on preparation only to watch him slather the food with catsup and swallow with very little chewing. I believed that I was preparing a meal that he would savor and enjoy. I learned a valuable lesson that day, my man does not care for fancy cooking. It only needs to be good and if it goes well with catsup or barbeque sauce—even better. I turned my attention to casseroles after that experience. I found a simple recipe for a roast that is always a hit and I mastered a northern white beans and smoked turkey dish. No kidding!

Using the crock pot, initially, I feared that the food would end up burned or the house would burn down while I was asleep or away. I would put the food on and I could hardly sleep for constantly checking the pot. A slow cooker can usually be left unattended all day for many recipes. (Rattray) I tend to choose meals that I can cook for at least eight hours on a low setting. Slow cookers are designed to do their own thing. (Hire) I learned that you should not lift the lid to your crock pot very often because it adds to the cooking time. Every time that you take the lid off it will release some of the heat, so if you keep doing this you will have to increase the cooking time. Eventually, I learned to trust my appliance. I have swapped recipes, Googled recipes and pinned recipes on my Pinterest page. There are amazing pages on Pinterest solely for crock pot recipes. Some mornings, I would lie in bed wishing that I had breakfast but stuck on Tasty’s page gawking a food for hours. I have been known to share foods to my Facebook page until I exhaust myself and settle for a bowl of cereal.

One glorious day, I smelled something really delicious coming from the break room. I asked around to see who had used the microwave recently and what were they having. My co-worker shared that she’d just run home and grabbed a bowl of chicken tortilla soup that she had cooking at home in preparation for the evening’s dinner. I was instantly impressed with my less-than-impressive co-worker. I thought that she spent way too much money going out to lunch and supporting her Starbuck’s habit. I had recently bought into the K-cup craze and it was expensive enough for my taste. But on this particular day, my friend shared her soup with me and informed me that it was a crock pot recipe that she had found online. The very next weekend, I made sure to have all of the ingredients on hand so that I could try it out on my family. Cumin and coriander were two spices that I did not have in my arsenal of culinary weaponry. Unlike many recipes that you find, this one is absolutely perfect and does not need any modifications.

I am the type of person who likes to eat good food but does not necessarily enjoy the preparation.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
4 ½ cups chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
¾ cup finely chopped yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic crusher
2 ½ tsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp paprika
½ tsp ground coriander
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 ½ cups frozen corn
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

For serving:
Tortilla strips or tortilla chips
Shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
Diced avocado, diced Roma tomatoes, sour cream (optional)

Directions
Pour chicken broth and diced tomatoes into a slow cooker. Add onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika, coriander and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken. Cover with lid and cook on LOW heat for 6 hours, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and shred, then return to slow cooker along with black beans, corn, cilantro and lime juice. Allow to cook until heated through. Serve warm with tortilla strips and cheese and other optional ingredients. You will surely enjoy this dish.
Recipe source: Cooking Classy (Cooking Classy)

It is important to arrange the foods carefully. Do not put frozen meat in your slow cooker. The frozen food will take longer to heat up, leaving your meal susceptible to bacteria growth. Put your vegetables in the slow cooker first because they cook slower than meat or poultry. Add the meat then add your water, broth or stock. Moist foods like soups, chili and stew are ideal for slow cookers because the steam that builds up makes for a very inhospitable environment for bacteria.

I like to prepare my ingredients the night before, if I am cooking the meal during the day while I am at work. Another benefit to preparing the meal in advance is that it gives the meal even more time to absorb the seasonings. Slow cooking allows your food to absorb the seasonings simply because of the length of time that you allow your meal to cook but pre-seasoning, I have found, just about guarantees that your dish will be flavorful. I prepare all of my ingredients by washing, measuring and chopping them. Then I add them to the slow cooker with the exception of the water or broth that the recipe calls for. Again, keeping the ingredients in the fridge helps deny bacteria a chance to multiply wildly in those critical first hours of cooking. (Alfaro)

This soup is absolutely amazing. Whenever I come across a recipe that is this good, I wonder who created it and what prompted them to share. I have grown up with women who have a specialty item and they literally take the recipe with them to their grave. For this reason, I absolutely appreciate when I am able to find a recipe that is great without any modifications.

This weekend, I checked the weather and learned that we were expecting chilly weather with a chance of showers. Perfect soup weather. I made a pot and my family ate about half. I could hear them going in and out of the crock pot after I left the room. That makes a mom’s heart proud when you know that your family enjoyed a meal that you prepared. What’s best is I know that that there was no barbeque sauce or catsup added to their bowls. My daughter added a few dashes of Tobasco sauce to hers but that is to be expected. That is simply good eating! What’s even better is that there are leftovers for me to take to work tomorrow and the soup will be even better after the seasons have had an extra day to work their magic.

Among others, a great benefit of slow cooking is the clean-up is so easy. I have seen many recipes that call for cheese to be added to the crock pot that is one thing that I have never done—prepared a cheesy dish in the crock pot. If you are so inclined to slow cook with cheese, you may want to use a crock pot liner. I used them once. That plastic line reignited my fears about the slow cookers starting a fire. So I will continue to wash my pot after every use. The crock pot is the greatest invention ever. When purchasing a crock pot consider the size of your family and what features you want and need. (Larsen) You can buy a slow cooker that serves 1-2 or you can go all the way up to 7-quart capacity. I have a fairly large one and I can feed my family of five and even have leftovers. If you think that the first night was yummy, you will flip over the leftovers. They are even more flavorful. Mine has a timer so I can set it for 8 or 10 hours and then it goes into keep warm mode. I really think that I have the best post around. I did not have any input in the selection of my appliance, but I see no reason to upgrade my slow cooker.

References
Alfaro, Danilo. The Spruce. 29 November 2017. 10 March 2018.
Cooking Classy. 02 December 2017. 10 March 2018.
Hire, Caroline. Good Food. n.d. 10 March 2018.
Larsen, Linda. The Spruce. 19 December 2017. 2018 10 March.
Rattray, Diana. The Spruce. 21 September 2017. 10 March 2017.