It has been so insane in our house over the past few months, birthdays, holidays, sicknesses, more birthdays, more holidays more sicknesses. I love the elementary school that my kids attend, but I really feel like it needs to be hit with a giant Lysol bomb. I am so excited to be back to our schedule! Also, it feels great to be back to home cooked meals. Between prepping for parties, and wrapping presents and baking cookies, I had no time to actually feed my family. I want to say that all of the kids are super happy that they aren’t having more nights of mini wheats for dinner, but lets be honest, they would be content eating cereal dinners forever. After all of the heavy foods over the past few months it is so nice to be able to have a nice light bowl of soup, also I don’t know what it is about spicy food but I always feel like the heat is kicking my metabolism into overdrive.
This soup starts with with some nice fresh veggies.
We get our onions and peppers chopped and in the pot over a medium high heat and then start chopping up the zucchini. I know that zucchini doesn’t really seem to fit with a spicy soup, but I love zucchini in soups, so there you have it. I sauté my onions and peppers for about five minutes then add in a little minced garlic and let that go a couple more minutes. Then my chopped zucchini goes into the pot to join the party.
I let that go while I rummage through the cabinets for my spices, probably about five minutes. I am using spices you probably have in stock if you are a spicy food lover, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, plus one you might not have, smoked paprika. You can definitely use normal paprika, but I love the smokiness that this brings, and since discovering it, normally use it instead of paprika.
I like to stir these into the veggies and let them cook for a minute or two before adding my stock. I add chicken stock and water and then drop in a bay leaf and give it a quick stir. I then add my chicken breasts into the pot and turn my heat down to medium, cover the pot and let that go for about a half hour or until the chicken is cooked through. I pull my chicken breasts out of the soup so that I can shred them. I let them sit and cool down for a few minutes and add some frozen corn and a can of black beans that I rinsed to the pot. I like to use the two fork method fro shredding the chicken here. I know you there are all sorts of quick methods to shred it using a processor or mixer, but I really like bigger chunks. You could just cube the chicken using a knife, but I find it only takes about five minutes to shred up the chicken and I like that texture for this soup.
I just dig into the breast pulling two forks in separate directions to break up the meat. The next step to the soup is cilantro and lime. I like to add a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of cilantro to each bowl I make, but, if you are planning on bringing this to work that could be hassle, so you can add the juice of one lime and a quarter cup of chopped cilantro right to the pot. This recipe makes for a huge pot of soup, I get nine or ten lunches out of this pot. I like to keep half in the fridge for the week and freeze half for later. I love having a nice spicy soup ready to go in case one of the kids passes on some of those germs they picked up in school.
Spicy Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Small Onion, diced
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 2 Poblano Peppers, diced
- 1 Clove Garlic, minced
- 2 Small or 1 Large Zucchini, chopped
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 6 Cups Chicken Stock
- 4 Cups Water
- 2 Lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
- 1 15 oz Can Black Beans Rinsed
- 1 Cup Frozen Corn
- 1 Lime Juiced
- 1/4 Cup Fresh Cilantro
Directions
- Add olive oil to a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add onions and peppers to pot and saute for five minute, stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic and cook for one more minute. Add zucchini and cook for five more minutes stirring occasionally.
- Add chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin and smoked paprika and stir around cooking for another minuite.
- Add chicken Stock and water, drop in bayleaf and give a good stir.
- Add chicken breast and reduce heat to medium. Cook for thirty minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- Remove chicken to a plate and add corn and beans to the soup.
- Shred chicken and add back to soup.
- Optional, add lime juice and cilantro to soup now, or add a squezze of lime and a Tbsp of cilantro to each serving as you eat.
Feeding Insanity 