Use What Your Fridge Gave You

Two Sundays ago I made slow cooker tacos.  Yes tacos, don't be shocked.  Well, I made way too much chicken and not nearly enough guacamole, so I wanted to use the left over chicken and other ingredients in my fridge in my next Sunday meal.  I dug through the stack of recipes I'd printed from Pinterest and found one for a chicken tortilla soup.  I took that recipe and modified it to my taste and refrigerator contents.

These are all the ingredients from the fridge.  I used almost all of them and felt pretty damn proud of myself.  My frugal grandmothers would be so impressed!

So here't the original recipe from Pinterest…

Ingredients:

15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

10 oz package frozen whole kernel corn

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 chopped bell pepper (whichever color you prefer)

10 oz can enchilada sauce

10.75 ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese

2 Chicken Breasts

Instructions:

In a crock pot, combine beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, pepper and place chicken breasts on top.  In a bowl, whisk together soup, enchilada sauce and milk*.  Pour mixture over ingredients in crock pot and cook, covered, for 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.  When finished in crock pot, cut chicken into pieces and add back into soup.  Top with cheese, sour cream, avocado or whatever you like and serve with tortilla chips.   *Add more milk if soup is too thick. 

Here's my modifications:

I used the whole red bell pepper instead of just 1/2 cup.

I did not use condensed cream of chicken soup.  (This is because I am terrible at following directions and didn't notice that instruction.  Also, I refuse to use condensed cream of anything soup that isn't organic.  It freaks me out how many chemicals are in there.  So the organic version wasn't a condensed version.  If I did it again, I would cut it down to 1/2 - 3/4 a cup of milk instead of 1 1/2 cups.  The more you know…ding, ding, ding.)

I used almond milk, because I didn't have cow milk.  I don't eat raw dairy due to immune system sensitivity, so I limit the amount of cow dairy I have as much as possible.  I realize that this probably doesn't make a bit a difference since the cream of chicken soup has dairy in it.  Whatever, I can only control so much.  And it's not like I'm ever going to give up cheese.  Moving on…

The leftover chicken I had was made in a slow cooker for tacos, so I didn't use a crock pot for this recipe and opted to throw it all together in a big pot.  I let all of the ingredients simmer together for about an hour to soften before adding the previously cooked chicken.

I also threw in a few shakes of red pepper flakes and cumin, squeezed the juice of half of a leftover lime, and a bunch of fresh cilantro towards the end of the simmer.  I have a cilantro obsession.

I used cheddar cheese instead of Pepper Jack.  This is simply a preference thing.  I'm not a big Pepper Jack fan.  And cheddar is what I had in the house.

{Whisked liquid ingredients}

{Before the chicken}

It turned out pretty darn tasty, but here's what I would do next time (as well as use my real camera).  Keep in mind that I'm about the most particular eater on Earth, so some of these modifications might not be needed.  

I would squeeze the lime juice directly on each bowl.  As well as top with more fresh cilantro.  

I would definitely eliminate at least 3/4 - 1 cup of the milk since I didn't use the condensed soup.

Sour cream would be a lovely addition, if I could eat it.

Less red pepper.  Maybe a little salt.

So, in summary, follow the directions.  But I like the shredded chicken better than the diced.  And the addition of spices, herbs, and lime juice is a game changer.  I highly recommend it.

Hope your week is continuing to be as great as mine, but hopefully a little warmer!  I am over this winter crap!!!  Till next time, y'all!