If you are needing a mess free and completely nutritional meal all in one plate, this chicken tortilla soup for crock pot is for you. I have been making this recipe for quite some time. I absolutely love how juicy and flavorful it is. This chicken tortilla soup for crockpot also allows you the freedom to set up the meal, walk away, run errands, go to work, and come back to the most colorful, and nutritional meal. Warm and ready to eat.
The reason why we love to make chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot so much is because it takes only about 15 minutes to prepare all the ingredients and gather them together. Then I can walk away for a few hours and know that dinner is preparing all by itself. I often leave early in the mornings, or run errands all afternoon and take my children to sports. By the time we come home we are not only ALL tired, but also ravenous. All we want is to eat right away. During the winter months especially we like to eat warm meals.
I also am not a fan of eating fast food. Children’s young bodies are still in the developmental stages where they growing. Their bones are absorbing calcium, and their body needs nutrients to develop. Fro their brains to their heart. It’s important they eat right. Learning how to eat healthy from a young age will also set a habit foundation for them to look back to for the rest of their lives.
By simmering all the food together for hours in the crock pot, the broth becomes extremely flavorful and also nutritious. This recipe also calls for different vegetables. Tomatoes, corn, onions, and the avocado as toppings make it a complete meal with a good amount of vitamins and protein.
We like to serve it with some tortilla chips and sometimes even sprinkle it with some cheese. Aside from that everyone gobbles it up real fast before running off to shower and relax for the evening.
For added flavor we also like to top it with some fresh cilantro leaves. I do so as a garnish, too. We place a few leaves on the side of each bowl after pouring the soup and voila, a pretty picturesque and colorful meal is ready.
I first discovered this recipe when we had our fourth child. That was the first time in our lives that we started being extremely busy in the afternoon. Chasing after our toddlers, and running everywhere for sports and music activities. Having a new born child also made cooking in the kitchen seem really time consuming. Trying to do it 3 times a day was now starting to feel like a full time job.
I have the fondest memories of this chicken tortilla soup for crock pot meal slowly cooking, while the kids do their homework around the kitchen island on some afternoons. When I discovered this recipe we used to live in what we call our gray home. Every day our oldest two children had 1 sheet of math homework from school that they needed to complete. Luckily they rarely complained about their homework even though we did it almost every day right after a long day at school so that they wouldn’t get tired.
Tired kids would usually complain a lot more about their homework. And by the time I was tired too, that would have turned into a disaster.
I knew during that stage I needed to simplify our meal planning a little. I didn’t want to compromise health and eating a meal made from scratch with fresh ingredients.
The beauty of crock pot meals is that it allows one to safely step away, and the longer the meal cooks the better it will actually taste.
This recipe has also been a life saver many times when I have had friends over and I needed a meal that wouldn’t create a mess in the kitchen, and wouldn’t require me to be tied to the stove up until meal time.
As a busy mom I love to prepare meals that don’t require using different pans and kitchen gadgets. Couple that with a messy stove. Nope, some days I just can’t take that.
In order to prepare this dish we actually use our Breville (LINK) cooker. It’s a machine that is both a pressure cooker and a crock pot. But this appliance also has many other built-in options.
You can sauté, steam, cook rice, and reduce. I love that it allows me to sauté right before cooking a meal In the slow cooker. Regular slow cookers, don’t have this optio that allow you to do it all in one appliance.
Most slow cookers call for recipes that require sautéing on the stove in a pan prior to placing the meal in the crockpot. That is the case for most meals with roasts, vegetables, and even chili recipes. Onions usually also require sautéing before adding them to the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients.
With the Breville I don’t need to start by using a pan. I start directly within the alliance where I can fry the onions and then add the rest of the ingredients and set it up a a slow cooker.
Because I also like to freeze my chicken, I can often pressure cook it for a few minutes any time I am dong a recipe that calls for poultry. For this reason this appliance has saved me so much time and headaches.
This recipe luckily is truly simple. I do precook the chicken if it’s frozen by pressure cooking it in my Breville, or if I want the meal to be ready faster than usual. But most times that is not the case so I can just slow cook everything all the way through.
Enjoy and don’t forget to check out some of my other favorite meals with my Breville appliance such as my favorite 15 minute Minestrone Recipe which you can find HERE.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of ghee or light olive oil
1 white onion diced
2-4 garlic cloves
1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes (14-16 oz.)
1 can of low sodium black beans ( 14-16 oz. Size) I wash them in the sink and drain the water
2 large chicken breasts without skin and bones
6 cups of chicken broth (if available bone broth is even better)
1 lime ( we squeeze over the meal once we serve it for added flavor)
Salt to taste (1 teaspoon at least)
½ cup of chopped cilantro leaves
1-2 avocados peeled and cut into cubes
½ cup of Mexican cheese blend
1 bag of corn tortilla chips
Instructions:
Chop the onions and the cilantro. Set the cilantro aside for later by storing it in the fridge.
I recommend waiting before chopping the avocados since they will turn brown. But here is a little hack so they don’t. Cut the avocado in half. Remove the pit. Run a knife across the avocado forming a grid. Keep the avocado inside the shell. Place the pit back on the avocado. Close the avocado and store it in the fridge in an air tight container or covered in surround wrap. The peel and the pit will prevent the avocado from oxidizing aka going dark, once it has been opened. Otherwise wait until the meal is ready to serve before opening and cubing the avocado.
On the stove warm a large pan. Add the olive oil or ghee. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
(If you prefer, this step can be omitted. It’s best not to, but if you decide to you can also directly begin by adding the onions directly to the crock pot.)
In the crock pot, pour the onions, canned tomatoes, beans, chicken, salt, and top it with the broth.
Cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 6 hours. Most crock pots will keep the food warm if done cooking until you are ready to come home and eat it.
Right before serving, peel and chop the avocados.
Serve the meal by adding the soup to a bowl. Topping it with some of the chopped avocados, some cilantro leaves. Sprinkle with some cheese if you are not on a dairy free diet. Enjoy while nibbling on some of the tortilla chips. You can dip them in the broth, scoop up some of the avocado at crunch on them together, or just eat them on the side while enjoying this delicious soup.
Notes:
If using the Breville pressure cooker and starting with frozen chicken breast. Begin by cooking the chicken with 2 cups of the broth under the poultry setting. Remove the broth and the chicken and save them for later. Saute the onions, then add the rest of the ingredients. Finish by cooking under the soup setting either on low or high depending on when you would prefer to have the meal ready by.
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