Chicken Tortilla Soup

I like soup. All kinds, especially those that are easy to make and hearty enough for an entire meal. I’ve actually been making a lot of soup lately, mostly because I live in Wisconsin and its winter. Wisconsin winter+soup=HAPPINESS. For real.

I found this recipe at the request of my husband. He loves mexican chicken soup. The original recipe calls for making it in a crockpot, but my crockpot isn’t really big enough (I have a 4 quart, I think you’d need at least a 6 quart), so I made it in my big dutch oven.

Chicken Tortilla Soup (Find the original recipe here)

• 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts & 2-3 boneless skinless thighs
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (I left this out. Hubby HATES cilantro)
• Corn tortilla chips for topping

Place all the ingredients (except the chips) into the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours (I cooked it for 2 hours on the stovetop on low). Before serving, remove cooked chicken, shred and add back into soup. Top with tortilla chips (I also topped with cheese)

So easy and so yummy.

Soooooo….

I got a little sidetracked. I’m sorry about that, but I’m back with a list of recipes I need to blog about! I’m going to try to mix in some Thanksgiving favorites this month too, plus we’ll have a little discussion about brining a turkey.

So, for my first recipe back from my break, I’d like to give you…..drumroll please….Chicken Enchiladas.

Ok, so that probably isn’t the grand gourmet dish you were expecting, right? I mean, what have I been DOING all this time if I haven’t been slaving away on fablously complicated dishes? Well, I have a husband and a kid that simply don’t DO gourmet. We’re pretty simple, and I like to keep things easy and tasty, and this recipe fits that bills. You’ll need a slowcooker for this one.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

• 1 package of boneless skinless chicken thighs, plus 1-2 boneless skinless breasts
• 1 large can of enchilada sauce (I use mild, do whatever you like)
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 6-7 medium sized flour tortillas
• 3 cups mexican blend cheese

Place chicken in crockpot. Cover with enchilada sauce, plus 3/4 of a can’s worth of water. Mix in taco seasoning. Cook 8 hours on low. Remove meat and shred with a fork.

Mix chicken with a couple scoops of sauce remaining in the crockpot, plus 1.5 cups of the cheese.

In a medium baking dish, spoon enough sauce into dish to cover the bottom. Fill each tortilla with meat/cheese mixture, roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Top with more sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Voila. There you have it. Easy chicken enchiladas. These are really, really good. You can also use the meat for tacos, tostadas, taco salad, quesadillas, you get the idea. I recommend doing a mix of thighs and breasts only because the thighs stay very moist and I like the texture of the mix better, but you can do all breasts if you’d like.

Stuffed pork chops

LOVE stuffed pork chops, but the ones I find in the store always seem so blah and tough. I decided to try making them myself, and they were wonderful! I did brine the pork chops first, which really makes them moist and delicious. One note if you’ve never brined before: DO NOT SALT THE MEAT AFTER BRINING. You can add other seasonings if you want, but do NOT add salt. They will be WAY too salty. Trust me on this. Step away from the salt.

Brine:

• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c kosher salt
• 1 TBSP whole peppercorns
• 1 c cider vinegar, microwaved until hot
• 1/2 pound ice

Mix sugar, salt and peppercorns together with hot vinegar until disolved. Add ice and shake/stir until melted. Pour over 2 thick cut boneless pork chops and refrigerate for 1.5 hours.

Stuffing

• 2 cups sage and onion stuffing mix
• 1/2 med onion, chopped
• 2/3 c macintosh apple, peeled and chopped
• 1/2-2/3 c low sodium chicken broth
• 6 TBSP butter

In a frying pan, saute the onion in 2 TBPS of butter until soft. While the onion is cooking, soak 1 cup of the stuffing with the chicken broth. Make sure its pretty soggy. Add cooked onion and apple. Then toast the remaining 1 cup of stuffing mix in 2 TBSP of butter until browned. Add to the stuffing mixture and mix well.

Remove your pork chops from the brine and rinse them well. DO NOT SALT THEM. I repeat, DO NOT SALT. With a sharp knife, make a 2 inch slit in the top of the pork chop. Moving your knife back and forth in a pendulum motion, make a large pocket on the inside of the pork chop, without cutting through or making the top slit bigger.

Take the remaining 2 TBSP of butter and put one tbsp into the bottom of each pork chop cavity. Then take your stuffing and stuff it into the pork chop. I found that clean hands work best for this. Get as much in as you can (the sides should bulge)

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until stuffing reaches a temp of 150. degrees

Italian Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers were a dinner staple in my house growing up. They are an easy meal that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients and gets everything (veggie, starch and protein) all in one delicious package. When I started making them, hubby complained that they needed something else…like CHEESE (hey, we live in Wisconsin!). I modified my mom’s recipe a little to come up with this and they are delicious and easy!

Italian Stuffed Peppers

5-6 bell peppers (I use yellow, you can use whatever you like)

1 lb ground beef

1 c cooked rice

2 cans (14.5 oz) tomato sauce

½ med onion, chopped small

4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1.5 c Italian blend shredded cheese (whatever your grocery store has)

Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the top of the peppers and remove seeds. Set aside.

Brown ground beef, drain and set aside. Saute onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic at the end and let soften briefly. Add browned beef and rice to mixture and stir to combine. Add 2/3-3/4 of a can of tomato sauce (until its well combined and wet, but not soupy). Add Italian blend cheese and mix well.

Scoop filling into peppers and place in a baking dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce (1 full can and ¼ of the used can) over the top of the peppers and into the baking dish.

Bake peppers until soft, about 1 ¼  hours. Remove from oven and top with mozzarella cheese and bake until cheese is melted. Serve over rice.

Slow cooker pulled pork

Both Hubby and I LOVE pulled pork sandwiches. I like mine memphis style with coleslaw on top and he likes his plain. Although this is not a traditional “barbequed” pulled pork, its yummy and ridiculously easy. I served it with waffle fries (frozen. I have a toddler. I like convenience).

Slow Cooker pulled pork

2 cans root beer

1 can cherry soda

2 lb pork tenderloin

Place pork tenderloin in slow cooker and cover with soda. Cook on low, 8 hours. Chop pork and mix with your favorite BBQ sauce.

Its really THAT easy and its SO good. It probably makes enough for 4-5 sandwiches, so if you have more than 3 or 4 people I would recommend doing 2 tenderloins.