Southwestern Chicken Soup

I must be crazy, I know.  Making soup in the summer time.  I don't know what it is about soup, but I just love cooking it.  It might be all the chopping (which I love), or maybe its the way it makes your house smell like garlic (at least in my case), or maybe it's the way that soup just soothes the soul.  I decided to take a twist on my chicken noodle soup recipe and make it southwestern.  I hope you enjoy!  And I won't think you're crazy if you wait until winter to make it. :)

You will need: 

 Frozen chicken tenderloins, 1 can of black beans, 1 carton of reduced sodium chicken broth, 1/2 can of corn, 1/2 red onion, 1 zucchini, 3 garlic cloves,  roma tomatoes (for garnish), and carrots.

1.  I oven roasted the chicken while I started chopping my veggies.  I have learned some knife skills through Pioneer Woman's site, and by watching Food Network.  I've taken some photos of my chopping, in case you're interested.

2.  First, peel the carrots, then cut off the top and bottom.  I used 5 carrots, because we like carrots over here. I would say they are Serge's favorite vegetable.

This is a step by step picture.  (Imagine a little number 1 next to the first carrot, 

a 2 next to the 2 halves, etc).First I cut the carrot in half, then cut each half in half.  Now the carrot is in quarters.  Then I line up the carrot quarters horizontally and slice them vertically.  Voila!  Diced carrots.  

3. Next, dice 1/2 of an onion. I owe all my knife skills on this one to Pioneer Woman.  Seriously, check out her site!  It's amazing. 

 First,  slice the onion vertically.  I usually follow the ridges already on the onion.  Start about 3/4 of the way towards the root of the onion.  You want to keep the onion together for now.

 Next, starting at the cut side, make horizontal cuts about 3/4 of the way towards the root of the onion.  Again, you want to keep it together for now.

 This is 4 horizontal cuts.  See how a little grid is starting to form?

Last, starting at the cut side, slice down from the top of the onion and 

you will have a nice pile of diced onions.  Now, wasn't that easy??  

Keep slicing until you reach 3/4 of the way back where you  stopped  your grid earlier.

4. Add olive oil to a large pot and let it heat up over medium heat.  Add  onions and carrots.

.

5. Add spices to make it southwestern:  coarse salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and cayenne pepper.  Make it as spicy as your family likes.

6. When the carrots and onions became tender (after about 5 minutes), add in pressed garlic.  I added 3 cloves.  This only needs a minute or two to soften.  Don't let it burn!!  Trust me on this.

I wish you guys could've smelled my house at this point.

7.  Add the carton of low-sodium chicken broth. I like to use low-sodium broth so I can control how much salt is going into the soup

8.  Once the broth comes to a boil, add the zucchini.  To prepare the zucchini, I lop off the top and bottom.

 This is another step by step picture.  The top is one half of the zucchini.  

The middle and bottom pictures are the other half: the middle shows (the half of a half) a quarter of the zucchini and the bottom picture shows the other quarter cut in half (or 2/8 of the zucchini).

You should end up with 8 zucchini sticks

 I have found that the seedy middle of a zucchini can get mushy when put in soup, so I tend to seed the zucchini.  I start on the side of the seed line closest to the green skin, and then cut down at an angle.  You should still have a nice fleshy stick of zucchini to work with.

Then, I line up the zucchini sticks horizontally and slice them vertically.

Here's a shot of the zucchini added to the boiling broth, carrots, onion, garlic and spices.

9 .Once the zucchini is tender, turn down the heat to low. 

10. Add  your can of rinsed black beans.

 11.  Add 1/2 can of corn.

 13.  Add shredded chicken.  I used 3 tenderloins which was about a cup of shredded chicken.

14.  Let all the ingredients simmer together for 5-10 minutes.

15.  Enjoy!

I added diced tomatoes, and salsa to my soup, and accompanied it with some "Flat-Out" chips I baked while the soup was simmering.  This soup is spicy, flavorful, healthy and filling.