A New Recipe: Allen's Texmex Spicy Chicken Soup



I haven't rolled out a non-dairy recipe in a quite a while! A couple of nights ago, I was really wanting to make a soup. I make meat dishes and grill stuff all the time but I've never really concocted my own soup from scratch before...and I love a challenge!

So I looked at various chicken and shredded chicken soup recipes online, first to see if there was something I could just follow existing directions on. Some were interesting but not all of the ingredients worked for me. So I narrowed my interests to two recipes and decided to combine them, plus some other ingredients I'd end up improvising. The result was a spicy "TexMex" (a blend of Texan and Mexican influences) soup with lots of white meat chicken chunks, served over yummy white rice that adds a nice texture and makes it more filling.

Best Wishes,
Allen


Allen's Texmex Spicy Chicken Soup

Note: If you like your soup really spicy, feel free to use medium to hot salsa. If you need to make it milder for yourself or your kids, feel free to use 1/4 jar of the mild salsa and diced tomatoes without the green chilies. Or just use regular tomato paste instead of diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Ingredients:

- 4 large chicken breasts, cut in halves or 8 smaller chicken breasts
- 1 10.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
- 1/2 jar of mild salsa
- One 10 ounce can of beef broth
- organic chicken broth (about 1 cup or to taste)
- Vanilla-flavored Silk soymilk (3 tablespoons or to taste)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 5 cups water
- 2 cups long-grain white rice


Instructions:

1. Wash and prepare chicken breasts (cut in half if they are large).
2. Lightly salt on each side of chicken breasts and add pepper on one side only
3. Brown the chicken breasts in a skillet with no oil. Do NOT cook all the way through (it will make the meat too tough)
4. Once the chicken is browned on both sides, remove from the skillet to a cutting board. Slice into thin strips with a knife.
   
   Note: I grilled the strips with my large George Foreman grill but you could also cook them in the oven in a glass casserole dish with a little bit of water on the bottom and covered with aluminum foil at about 350 for 10 minutes (check them at about 5 minutes to see if the meat has gone from pink in the center to white; if ready at 5 minutes, remove from oven, DO NOT OVERCOOK!)


5. Once meat is cooked through and tender, cut into 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes and set aside, cover chicken in aluminum foil)
6. In a large saucepot, add beef broth at high heat
7. Add the diced tomatoes with green chilies and stir into beef broth
8. Add the mild salsa and stir into soup mixture
9. Add Vanilla-flavored Silk soymilk and stir into soup mixture
10. Add organic chicken broth and stir into soup mixture
11. Add 1 cup water and stir into soup mixture
12. Add chicken chunks and stir into soup mixture
13. Bring to a boil then turn off heat
14. In a large cooking pot, put in 4 cups of water and bring to a boil on high heat
15. Add 2 cups of long-grain white rice and reduce heat to low
16. Simmer for 15 minutes. DO NOT STIR RICE.
17. Turn off heat, stir rice.
18. Serve soup over rice. Easily serves 4 - 6.