Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a girl's best friend.  A one pot wonder.  A night off.  This is the thing you use to make everyone believe you have slaved all day over a hot stove.  The universal sign of an easy meal ahead.  The Crockpot.  Today, in MY crockpot, I made Chicken Tortilla Soup.  

Now let me tell you, briefly, about my love affair with Chicken Tortilla Soup at Garcia's Restaurant in Phoenix, AZ (and Pollo Fundido but that is for another post).  Me and my friends used to go to Garcia's all the time for Happy Hour.  My ex hubby and I used to eat there all the time and I blame Garcia's as a main contributor to our fatness.  Yes my friends, we were F.A.T. and it was all Garcia's fault.  Ok.  Probably not so true BUT I had to try.  

This soup was SO incredibly easy.  I got the recipe off of Allrecipes.com and tweaked it to get as close to the restaurant version as possible.  I was leery about some of the ingredients but it was BOMB DIGGITY!  Have I ever let you down?  It was easy..did I say that? Easy! Quick! I already had all the ingredients on hand except black beans and cilantro.  I used whatever chicken I had in my freezer.  I literally added two thawed, skinless thighs on the bone and a frozen skinless, boneless, chicken breast lol The result was a nice mixture of dark and white meat, a mild warmth that coats your mouth but does not burn.  You can tweak it to your spicy-meter any way you want.  I imagine this will freeze well too (I have some cooling for the freezer now).  It mad A LOT too.  

(Lord Jesus forgive me for using my broken cell phone camera AGAIN)

(and again AMEN!)

The home fried tortilla strips are an absolute MUST I tell you. Please if you love me DO NOT CHEAT!  Oh and a dollop of sour cream would be divine :)

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken (I used 2 skinless thighs and one chicken breast that was frozen lol)
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed (I used fire roasted but you could use Rotel also)
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped (I used dried minced onion)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water (I used 1.5 cans water using the tomato can)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (ok I didn't have any so I used cayenne pepper about 1/4 tsp)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf (don't forget to remove when done cooking)
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn (I used 1 small can niblets corn)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 7 corn tortillas
• 1 Avocado
• Colby Jack Cheese (or cheese of your choice) cut into small cubes
• vegetable oil

1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.  Half way through, add black beans and corn.  
2. Heat oil in a skillet.  
3. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread in single layer in hot oil.  
4. Fry until crisp.  Drain on paper towel, lightly salt.
5. Put avocado and cheese cubes into bowl, spoon soup over the top, add tortilla strips and a couple cilantro leaves and serve immediately.