Melissa d'Arabian's Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup
This Mexican-inspired chicken, tomato, and bean soup practically cooks itself. I pile the ingredients into a slow cooker while I'm off doing far more glamorous things (like working, picking up dry cleaning, or dropping off a forgotten lunch at school!). My weekday cheat is to use tortilla chips instead of fresh tortillas. My favorite kind are the better-for-you baked white tortilla chips with a hint of lime, but any kind will do. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll add cubed avocado and sour cream before serving. If you have leftover cooked rice in the fridge, a spoonful in the soup is a nice touch, and for a less spicy flavor remove the jalapeno seeds and ribs.
This Mexican-inspired chicken, tomato, and bean soup practically cooks itself. I pile the ingredients into a slow cooker while I'm off doing far more glamorous things (like working, picking up dry cleaning, or dropping off a forgotten lunch at school!). My weekday cheat is to use tortilla chips instead of fresh tortillas. My favorite kind are the better-for-you baked white tortilla chips with a hint of lime, but any kind will do. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll add cubed avocado and sour cream before serving. If you have leftover cooked rice in the fridge, a spoonful in the soup is a nice touch, and for a less spicy flavor remove the jalapeno seeds and ribs.
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 cup monterey jack cheese shredded
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 3 chicken thighs skin removed
- 10 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1 jalapeno finely chopped
- 20 tortilla chips
- 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro finely chopped
- Carbohydrate 24.26629625 g
- Cholesterol 395.595 mg
- Fat 81.39229375 g
- Fiber 8.03263735058159 g
- Protein 105.0103675 g
- Saturated Fat 24.98824175 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (732g)
- Sodium 451.069750003005 mg
- Sugar 16.2336588994184 g
- Trans Fat 6.69705200000002 g
- Calories 1270 calories
Step-by-step
- Place the chicken, tomatoes (and juices), beans, broth, water, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and chili powder in a slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours.
- Uncover the slow cooker and use tongs to remove the chicken from the pot.
- Once cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and shred, then return the meat to the pot.
- Stir in the lemon juice.
- Crumble a few tortilla chips into each bowl and cover with some soup.
- Serve sprinkled with cilantro and grated cheese.
When long cooking times clash with strict budgets, bone-in chicken thighs offer a practical solution by delivering more connective tissue and deeper flavor than skinless breasts at a lower cost. Standard slow cookers operate at roughly 200 degrees Fahrenheit on low and 300 degrees on high, which gently breaks down collagen without boiling away volatile aromatics. Placing the yellow onion, minced garlic, and chopped jalapeno at the bottom of the ceramic insert ensures they stay submerged in the chicken broth and canned tomatoes from the start, softening evenly over the six to eight hour cooking window.
Removing the jalapeno ribs and seeds before chopping reduces capsaicin concentration significantly if a milder broth is desired. When handling the cooked chicken thighs after three to four hours on high heat, allow them to cool for ten minutes on a cutting board so the muscle fibers relax before shredding with two forks. Returning the shredded dark meat to the liquid allows the protein to absorb surrounding moisture, preventing the fibrous texture that often plagues extended slow-cooking methods.
Adding fresh lemon juice at the very end of cooking brightens the heavier tones of the black beans and Monterey Jack cheese without dulling via heat exposure. Substituting crushed tortilla chips for fresh corn tortillas provides immediate thickening starch while bypassing the need to fry raw dough. Stirring these chips into individual bowls just before ladling preserves their structural crunch before the corn starch begins to dissolve into the surrounding broth.
Batch cooking this preparation requires careful attention to dairy stability, as shredded Monterey Jack cheese will separate and oil out if frozen inside the soup base. Freeze the strained chicken and broth mixture without dairy or garnishes for up to three months in airtight containers, then reheat gently on the stovetop before melting fresh cheese into individual portions.
