Recipe box: Crock-pot Chicken Taco Soup

With cooler weather coming soon, the community is full of pumpkin spice EVERYTHING, bonfires, leggings, those ugly UGG boots, and of course, soups!

My grandmother made a version of this taco soup when I was a kid. Unfortuantely for me, grandma also didn't write down a lot of her recipes so I treasure the ones she did. This recipe has never been written down, so here goes. I made this soup last weekend and actuually measured out things and it turned out pretty well. (My grandmother also didn't measure things out when she cooked. I learned to cook using the words "some" and "dash" and "pinch" instead of teaspoon, cup, etc.)

Ingredients:

2 cups Chicken Broth
3 frozen chicken breasts
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. Ranch seasoning
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Salt (more or less depending how salty you like things)
Sprinkling of pepper

Optional:
1/4 tsp. Taco seasoning
Sour cream & shredded cheese for toppings
Tortilla chips

Directions:

Pour 2 cups of chicken broth into bottom of the crock pot and add the frozen chicken breasts. The chicken broth will not cover the chicken at this point.

Next, open and drain the tops off of the black beans, kidney beans, and corn. (Don't drain them completely) and dump them into the crock pot. Then, open but DO NOT drain the tomatoes and dump them in as well.

By not draining anything completely, now there is enough broth/liquid to cover the chicken.
Next, add in your spices. The Italian seasoning, Ranch, and salt and pepper. (If you want taco seasoning, add that in at this point as well)



Stir lightly, and put the lid on the crock and let it cook on low for 5 hours. Or 3 hours on high, stirring occasionally.

After letting it cook for the alotted time, use a fork and pull out your chicken breasts and shred the meat. If it has cooked long enough, the meat will be soft and easy to shred into pieces. When you've got it shredded, dump back into the pot and let it simmer for another 30 min on low heat.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla chips-- and you have chicken taco soup! 

This is one of the few ways I can get my husband to eat tomatoes and beans. We love it, hope you do too.