[HuggerBunny]

I made this tonight and my husband and I loved it. It has lots of flavor and the chicken is really tender. My husband is not the biggest soup fan because he thinks it's boring, but he liked this one and described it as "exciting" (which made me laugh!). It is definitely kind of spicy, but I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to heat and I did not think it was too hot. Now I'm wishing I'd tasted the canned tomatoes with chiles and the enchilada sauce since the heat probably came from one of those!

This is a recipe that I heavily adapted from this Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe on the Eat Live Run blog. I consider it to be a pretty darned healthy soup. It is quite low fat, fairly low calorie, and has a good amount of protein from the beans and chicken. You can control the sodium levels by purchasing low sodium broth and beans and not adding salt.

Also, this recipe makes a LOT and you need a slow cooker that holds at least 6 quarts! It should freeze very nicely.

Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken Enchilada Soup

8 cups chicken broth (I used two 4 cup cartons)
10 oz can diced tomatoes and chiles (I used Ro-tel)
19 oz can mild red enchilada sauce (I used La Victoria)
2 15 oz cans black beans, drained
1/2 cup frozen corn (you can use more if you want, I try not to eat too many carbs)
1 4 oz can diced mild green chiles
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder (I use Spice Island brand)
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 t black pepper
1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt to taste

In the crock of a 6 quart or larger slow cooker, stir together all ingredients except chicken and salt. Add chicken. Cook until chicken is cooked through and very tender. How long this take greatly depends on your slow cooker! Mine personally takes about 3 hours on high or 6 on low, but yours may be different and this can probably cook for quite a while without harming the flavor. Remove chicken from the crock and shred, then return to the crock and add salt to taste.

When you serve the soup, feel free to garnish with shredded cheese, avocado, olives, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla chips, or whatever floats your boat. We just had ours plain.

Yield: about 15 servings