If you have a bunch of leftovers and are getting tired of eating it the same way, the best thing to do is create something new. One of my favorite leftovers to work with is rotisserie chicken. You can do so many delicious chicken dishes. It basically cuts out the time for cooking the chicken so some dishes will take less time to prepare. If you ever want to do your own rotisserie chicken in the crock pot I can show you that in another post because it’s super simple.
I was originally going to use some uncooked chicken for this recipe but then we conveniently had all this chicken left over from my 2 year old’s birthday this past weekend. We try to eat all leftover food but my kids get tired of the same thing all the time unless it’s rice. They love my rice!
You don’t want to wait too long to use left over chicken because it starts to get dry and won’t last for more than a week in the fridge. Soup is probably my favorite and easiest way to recapture the moistness of a well cooked chicken.
Most of our family enjoys dark meat more than the white meat so we had a lot of the chicken breast to work with. I shredded 3 chicken breast halves in a medium bowl and placed that to the side to start chopping up the veggies.
I used about a half of an onion, one green bell pepper, two stalks of celery, one cup of baby carrots, one cup of corn, one cup of black beans, and one can of diced tomatoes. You can use white, yellow, or red onions for this recipe but white onions are what I use the most for all my recipes. Also, baby carrots is what I buy for my kids so I have the big bags from Costco on hand and just don’t really buy the large carrots unless I have to. I would recommend one medium to large carrot for this recipe.
For the herbs and spices I used, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin. Optional additions would be a chili powder or jalapeño to add some kick and fresh lime juice. For garnishes you’ll need avocado, tortilla strips or chips, and shredded cheese. I buy the Mexican blend shredded cheese bags from Costco because we eat a lot of quesadillas in this house.
Since I had recently made a batch of black beans I was able to use them in this recipe. My black bean recipe can be found in an earlier post here. It’s so yummy and easy that you may not want to buy the canned beans anymore.
After all the ingredients are prepped then you are ready to throw it all in the pot. I use a large pot for all my soups because I love to have some leftovers for lunch and other dinners. This recipe freezes well so I highly recommend making a big batch if you can.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil on high and add in the onions and garlic. Let that cook for a bit and add in the rest of the veggies, lowering the temperature to medium. Stir it around so all the ingredients get some heat. Add in 2 cups or cans of chicken broth and two more cups of water. Keep it stirring and add in the cilantro and spices.
I didn’t realize as I started this recipe that I was low on fresh cilantro so I used my stash of frozen cilantro. I usually freeze half of the cilantro I buy so I can have some on hand for recipes like this one. The fresh cilantro was used for the garnish and the frozen was used to cook with. You can see how I freeze my herbs in this post here.
You have probably noticed that I haven’t added the chicken yet. Don’t panic, because I wanted to explain why. So there are two things you can do at this point: add the chicken and serve it as a chunky soup OR blend the veggies for a smooth soup and adding the chicken in the pot to cook everything together for 30 minutes. I give you these two options because I have kids who are more likely to eat a blended soup than a chunky one.
I did a combination of both but that’s because I’m trying to get my kids used to seeing chunky veggies. It kind of worked, though I did have some protesting at the start of dinner.
Once everything is in the pot let it cook for 30-40 minutes. The time depends on whether its chunky or blended. Either way you need to make sure that all the ingredients are cooked and the chicken is back to being tender.
Once it’s ready to serve garnish with tortilla strips, shredded cheese, and fresh cilantro. You can also squeeze some lime juice, add a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt, or even some sliced jalapenos for those who love spicy food.
To make this completely vegetarian replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth and omit the chicken. It’s still a flavorful soup without the chicken ingredients.
Let me know in the comments below how yours turned out! Did you make any substitutions? I’d love to know!
Chicken Tortilla Soup with Leftover Chicken
Ingredients:
- 3 rotisserie chicken breasts, shredded
- 1/2 white onion (yellow or red is good)
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, cubed
- 1 cup of frozen corn, thawed
- 1 cup or can of black beans
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1/3 cup of cilantro
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tbsp of sea salt
- 1/2 tbsp of ground pepper
- 1 tbsp of ground cumin
- For garnishes: Lime juice, jalapeños, avocado, shredded cheese, and fresh cilantro (use the desired amount for each)
- Heat the oil on high in a large pot and add in the garlic and onions. Let cook for 1 minute and add in the bell peppers, corn, carrots, and can of diced tomatoes. Stir and let cook for 1 minute.
- Add in the chicken broth and water. Stir and lower the heat to medium. If you are not blending the soup skip to step 4.
- If you are blending the soup let the veggies cook and soften a bit for about 7-10 mins and then scoop them up, leaving the broth in the pot. Blend all the veggies with a little bit of broth and then pour it back into the pot.
- Add the salt, pepper, cumin, and shredded chicken into the pot and stir. Cover and lower the heat to low medium and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
- Check the flavor before serving.
- Serve with shredded cheese, tortilla strips, fresh cilantro and avocado slices.
- Optional garnishes: lime juice and jalapeño slices.
Amor y Ajo 