New food

I made a new recipe the other day. I think this one is a keeper. Below is the original recipe from All Recipes with my changes in italics.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken - I just put the chicken in raw and shredded it up before serving. I may brown it next time if I have time for that, but it was fine this way.
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomoatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce - We used medium heat enchilada sauce. I might use something hotter next time. The dish needs more heat.
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped - I used 5 chopped green onions.
  
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water - I used another can of chicken broth rather than more water.
  
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper - Didn't measure this...just added pepper until it felt right!
  
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 1 can of black beans - I added this to the mix.
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro - I'm not wild about cilantro so I skipped this one
  
• 7 corn tortillas - Rather than do steps 2-4 below, I just bought tortilla chips. I think I would have preferred those Fritos scoops.
  
• vegetable oil

Directions

1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours. I put this together in the morning before work and it was ready by the time we got home. I skipped the next 3 steps.
   
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.

As I said above, I skipped the tortilla part of this. All of us really liked this dish. It was super easy to make and very tasty. The consistency is almost like a salsa so scooping it up with the tortilla chips was very easy. I suppose more or less liquid could be added to adjust to the consistency you like. The only thing I would do next time is turn the heat up a little bit. My husband isn't wild about super hot food and even he said it needed more kick. I don't know exactly how I will do this - maybe hotter enchilada sauce, maybe some jalepenos, maybe some cayenne pepper. There are lots of variations that can be done with this recipe. Enjoy!!