Before I begin, I'd like to make a couple promises. 1. This recipe is not complicated, nor time-consuming. The most lengthy part is all the chopping, and I guarantee that you cut vegetables faster than I do. You know that one crazy person who gets pulled over for driving too slow on the interstate? That's me in the realm of vegetable-chopping. Despite this, I still managed to do everything in under an hour (this is with all the times I had to stop and cater to Ella taken out of the equation). 2. I promise to give you no exact measurements. I think I followed a recipe for this long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away... but now I just wing it, especially when it comes to the seasoning. 3. It's pretty good. I'm not gonna go all infomercial on you and say it's "life-changing," but it's fairly healthy and very tasty. A win-win, in my book.
The first step is chopping up the veggies -- one onion, followed by red, green, orange, and yellow bell peppers. Next, a couple stalks of celery, some carrots, and jalapeno. After I finished these, I started prepping some of the toppings: cilantro and green onion.
I then melted some butter in my soup pot, along with a ton of minced garlic (not trying to impress anyone -- one of the benefits of being already married). After this was melted, I added in all the vegetables I had chopped, giving it a stir every now and then to ensure that it all cooked evenly. Then I began to prepare the chicken. Water, salt, bay leaves, and two chicken breasts into a pot. Boiled it for about twenty-five minutes. Drained. Pulled chicken apart.
After the veggies were cooked through and the chicken was done, I added two containers of chicken broth to the pot (I usually prefer the low-sodium kind, but this was what I had on hand last night), along with the can of diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, and the finished chicken.
Then, I began to season (the most fun part). Below are the seasonings I used, heavy on the taco seasoning, cumin, and crushed red pepper. Not a lot of salt needed.
The final product is below, topped with tortilla chip strips, cilantro, green onion, cheese, and lime juice.
