Tomatillo Chicken Soup

Delicious for a cold day! This is a great easy home-made soup! It can even be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Ingredients:
6 medium tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
1 1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 32oz box chicken broth

1 medium green sweet pepper, chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 4oz can diced green chiles

1 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro (I used the dried version and only used 1/2 tbsp)

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (I used canned jalapeno slices)

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp lime juice

2 tsp chili powder (I used 1 tsp and it was still spicy!)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Garnish: Sour cream, chopped green onion, sliced jalapeno peppers, tortilla chips

Directions:
1. Chop three tomatillos. Place remaining tomatillos in blender. Cover; blend until smooth. In a 3 1/2 or 4 quart slow cooker combine pureed and chopped tomatillos, chicken, broth, sweet pepper, onion, celery, chiles, cilantro, jalapeno, cumin, lime juice, chili powder, garlic and 1 tsp each salt and pepper.
2. Cover, cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high 3-3 1/2 hours. Remove chicken; let stand until cool enough to handle. Shred chicken; return to soup. If desired, top with garnishes above. Serves 4-6.

Now of course you can follow the recipe above OR you can do it my way - which really only uses the same ingredients... When I decided to make this recipe, I did not remember that it required using a slow cooker. I normally love using it but I was hungry and wanted dinner in 1 hour, not 6-7. So, I tweaked it! Here are my instructions using the ingredients above:

Directions:

1. Chop chicken into bite-size pieces and cook through on a grill pan. Set aside.

2. Chop sweet pepper, onion, celery, tomatillos and garlic and put into large stock pot. Cook until onions turn translucent. Add chiles, cilantro, jalapeno, cumin, lime juice, chili powder and 1 tsp each salt and pepper. Cook for 1 minute to let the spices come together.

3. Add in chicken broth and cooked chicken. You may want to add extra water at this point if you think the soup is too salty. Let heat through and allow the vegetables to become soft; cooking on medium heat for about 20 minutes or so. If desired, top with garnishes above. I crushed up Lime Tostitos on top - it was just the extra flavor and crunch I wanted!

Tutti Mangia!