Spicy Chicken Soup

Sometimes you just pull a Bucky Dent. Bucky Dent was a not so fabulous baseball player who hit a crucial and unexpected grand slam. I have pulled 2 Bucky Dents that I can recall. One was last summer when I made an in the park grand slam for my work softball league, and Bucky actually became my nickname. Sadly, we still lost the game. The next one was about a month ago with this dish.Picking up the ingredients during our weekly grocery shopping, the roomies clearly were not expecting much. Salsa, 2 types of canned tomatoes...and tomato soup?! What good could come of this? Not much was expected of this odd list of ingredients.Then came the homerun. It. Was. Phenomenal. It was spicy, but not overpoweringly so. It was filling, but not heavy. Just wow. You have to try it. It is like a really good version of a chicken tortilla soup.

I changed the recipe to fit our desires. I used low sodium chicken broth, decreasing the water, instead of using salty chicken bouillon. I used a can of diced tomatoes, drained and a can of diced tomatoes with garlic and onion with the liquid (instead of a can of plain diced and a can of whole tomatoes). I decreased the amount of chili powder because we don't like too much spice,but you can bump it back up if you want. Also, I only put 1/2 the sour cream in the soup so that I could put pretty dollops on top. I wouldn't change anything for next time though. I LOVED it.
Spicy Chicken Soup
1 cup water
4 chicken breasts
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 TBSP dried parsley
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (16 oz) jar chunky salsa
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes w/ garlic and onion
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed tomato soup
2-3 tsp chili powder (recipe says 1 1/2 TBSP so you can up it)
1 (15 oz) can corn, drained
1 (16 oz) can black beans, undrained
1 (8 oz) container sour cream, divided
4 flour tortillas
cooking spray
salt to taste
cheddar or mexican cheese
1.In a large pot over medium heat, combine water, broth, chicken, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, and onion powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, or until chicken juices run clear. Remove chicken, reserve broth. Shred chicken.

2.In a large pot over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in olive oil until slightly browned. Stir in salsa, diced tomatoes, tomato soup, chili powder, corn, beans, 1/2 of the sour cream, shredded chicken and the broth. Simmer 30 minutes.

3.While it simmers, cut tortillas in 1/2, then cut into thin strips. spray with cooking spray and bake in 350 oven until lightly browned. Toss with salt to taste. 4. Serve soup in bowls. Top each bowl with cheese, sour cream and tortilla strips.