Soup Night

During Advent and Lent we have Wednesday evening meals at church before the service. This week was soup night. I decided to make this tasty chicken soup. I made this soup when we had a bunch of pastors for soup dinner last fall. It got rave reviews, so I decided to try it out at church. 

This is one of the easiest soups you'll ever make because you can just dump all of the ingredients into a crockpot and let it simmer all day long. It's chock full of garden vegetables making it pretty healthy too. I actually used a ton of vegetables from our garden that I had frozen. I also added a little sugar to the soup to balance out the acidic taste of the tomatoes. This soup has a great flavor. I would definitely play around with the spices to your liking. Enjoy!

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
3-4 split chicken breasts, rinsed, patted dry
8 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 heaping cups thinly shredded cabbage (bagged coleslaw mix is fast and easy)
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, cut up
1 yellow summer squash, cut up
2 zucchini squash, cut up
6 to 8 baby Yukon Gold potatoes, cut up
1 4-oz. can chopped green chilies -- mild or hot, to taste
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon each of: dried basil, oregano and parsley
Hot red pepper flakes, shake to taste
1 14-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 or more cups chicken broth, as needed
A dash or two of balsamic vinegar to taste

Instructions

Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil into the bottom of a Crock Pot or slow cooker. Lay the chicken breasts in the bottom; top with half the chopped garlic. Season the mixture with sea salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine the shredded cabbage, bell pepper, yellow and zucchini squashes, potatoes, and green chiles; and toss them with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Season the mixture with sea salt, ground pepper, herbs, and a shake or two of hot red pepper flakes. Toss to coat.

Pour the veggies into the crock in an even layer. Pour on the diced tomatoes. Add the chicken broth and a dash of balsamic vinegar, to taste. The liquid should just about cover the veggies. If you like more of a brothy soup than a stew, add more broth.

Cover and cook on high for 5 to 6 hours, until the chicken is tender and easily breaks apart into pieces with a large spoon (my chicken was very cold when it went into the pot, so adjust your cook time accordingly, if you need to).

Taste test for seasoning adjustments. I added a pinch of brown sugar to mine to balance the tomato-garlic and spice. Stir in any seasoning adjustments and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Web MD.

Look at the nutritional facts.

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Calories: 301
Carbohydrates: 33.6g
Cholesterol: 72mg
Fat: 4.5g
Saturated Fat: 1.1g
Fiber: 8.1g
Sodium: 441mg
Protein: 32.4g