Chicken Fiesta Soup

Darrell and I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with our crockpot. We love the convenience of it, but dislike how it tends to produce "bland" recipes. We've especially found the latter to be true because most days when we used our crockpot we'd both be out of the house for 10+ hours which meant our dish was cooking away for quite a long period of time. And then, one day, we had an "aha!" moment. Instead of cooking our dishes on low for eight to ten hours, we could increase the heat and cook them on high for three to four. Since I'm usually home for a brief period in the afternoon before heading to my second job, I could get the food started as long as we had completed the majority of the prep work the night before.

Which is why Thursday afternoon I pulled this out of my fridge:

And sat down to this a handful of hours later at dinner!

All excitement about revitalizing our crockpot aside, this soup recipe is pretty fantastic (because, really, that's what you're here for. Not random asides on our crockpot use). The flavor and ingredients are a little bit lighter than a typical winter stew/soup (like chili), which makes it perfect for the spring/fall, and it's still hearty enough to fill you up.

Chicken Fiesta Soup


2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
8 oz stewed tomatoes, drained (we always use diced because I don't like the big chunks)
4 oz chopped green chilies
14 oz can enchilada sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 cup frozen corn
1 yellow squash, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 can black beans (optional--we added this in the most recent time we made this and really liked it!)

Combine all the ingredients in a crockpot. Cover and cook and low for eight hour. Serve with crumbled tortilla chips and cheese if desired.