40. Jim's Chili-Chicken Soup

I pulled out The Best of Cooking Light All Time Favorites from Readers, (ISBN 0886-4446) and found this recipe.

Jim’s Chili-Chicken Soup

1 teaspoon olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can no salt added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 ½ cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1/2 pound)
¼ cup taco sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
½ cup water
3 (15.75 oz) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (15 ½ oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained
1 cup cooked long grain rice

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Add tomatoes; cook 5 minutes over low heat. Stir in chicken and next 8 ingredients (chicken through chilies); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in rice. Yield: 8 servings.

Changes and Shortcuts: Somehow some of the cooked chicken that I had in the refrigerator disappeared. No one seemed to know what happened to it, so maybe there wasn’t as much as I thought there was. So, I wound up putting less chicken in the soup. I also had more than a cup of rice so in lieu of the chicken I added extra rice.

Results: Good soup! This is the kind of soup that can be made according to the recipe or can be changed to your preferences. It’s good with chickpeas, but any type of bean would be good. I used much less chicken than the recipe called for, but it was still good. I think it would be good with or without chicken. Wild rice would be good in the soup—I just used instant white rice.

Keeper? YES!