Mexican Style Chicken Soup
YUM! This soup is seriously delicious.
I made a big pot of it last week and nearly cried when I finished eating the last serve.
It was one of those classic soups where I was using up what was in the vegetable drawer – a couple of sorry looking capsicums (one red, one green), a cob of corn that was starting to go dry on the end and half a large zucchini (sounds appetizing huh!) I also had a chicken fillet that needed using and in the pantry only a tin of red kidney beans, but plenty of cans of tomatoes. The creative gourmet in me decided on a Mexican theme and this actually turned out so much better than expected!
Thick, hearty and delicious, as well as being low GI, high in fibre and full of vegetables (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients….), this was my nourishing lunch for an entire week and I looked forward to it EVERY day with great delight!
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large brown onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 long red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small green capsicum, diced
- 1 small red capsicum, diced
- 1 skinless chicken breast (200g approx.)
- 1 cob corn, rinsed (or 1 cup frozen kernels)
- 1 zucchini, diced
- ½ can crushed tomatoes
- 1½ litres (6 cups) chicken stock
- 1 can (approx. 1½ cups cooked) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- fresh coriander, roughly chopped, to serve
- Heat large pot over medium heat
- When hot, add oil and onion and sautee for 3-4 minutes, until onion starts to brown
- Add garlic, chilli, cumin, pepper, green and red capsicums and sautee for 5-6 minutes
- Add chicken breast and sautee for 1-2 minutes, coating in flavours before adding corn, zucchini, tomatoes and chicken stock
- Bring to the boil, then turn heat down and gently simmer for 5 minutes before removing chicken breast and corn
- Roughly mash about half of the kidney beans and add to soup
- Allow corn to cool, then cut the kernels off the cob and add them back to the soup
- Continue to cook soup for a further 10 minutes
- Meanwhile, shred the chicken breast
- Taste and adjust seasoning if required
- Just before serving, add the chicken back to the soup and stir to evenly distribute
- Serve topped with fresh coriander
Per Serve: 942kJ or 224 calories; P 16g Fat 7g SFat 1g CHO 21g Fibre 8g
Variations note:
I’ve also made this soup using chicken drumsticks – I like to use the organic ones and remove the skin before cooking. 3 is enough, but if you like more meat use more. These will take more cooking than chicken breast. Allow at least 45 mins or until the meat starts to come off the bones.
I’ve also swapped out the kidney beans for black beans.
And replaced 2 tspn cumin with 2 tspn Spice & Co’s Mexican mix spice. YUM! (https://www.spiceandco.com.au/spice_info)
