Chicken Salsa Soup

If you love tortilla soup and salsa, you will LOVE this soup! It's a recipe from the Rachael Ray magazine that I tore out a long time ago and just tried last night. Chris & I were both craving some sort of chicken soup, it was a rainy day and I knew I'd have 30 mins. or less to pull off dinner. Emerson completely loses his cool when there's a cooked bird on the counter and during dinner, Chris kept saying, "this is so good." In short, everyone was happy.


You can check out the link to Rachael's recipe by clicking on the post title, "Chicken Salsa Soup," but here's my very quick variation & notes.


2 pound fully cooked, store-bought rotisserie chicken 
32 oz. chicken broth
2 TB olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 head garlic, cloves diced
1 cup salsa (chunky, smooth, green, red, hot, mild....your favorite)
1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
greek style yogurt or sour cream (optional dollop for garnish)


Heat your oil in a medium-to-large pot. Add onion & saute over medium heat until soft (5 mins.). Add garlic & cook 2-3 mins. Add broth & salsa; bring to a boil. Meanwhile, peel back the skin of your chicken, find the meat and shred into chunks. Add chicken & tomato to broth, simmer 2-3 minutes. Add cilantro, then remove from heat. Ladle soup into bowls, top with avocado & yogurt or sour cream. You don't have to add the dairy, but if your salsa is spicy, it tames the heat a bit. Serve with tortillas. 


This will feed 3-4 people as an entree. I was thinking today that if you wanted to make this heartier, you could add leftover rice (white, brown, spanish- whatever). I'd nuke it slightly, then add to the bowl before ladling in the soup. 


Enjoy!