Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup

Not a cook? Doesn't matter. You can totally do this simple recipe for chicken tortilla soup.

I'm a fan of chicken tortilla soup; I have a bunch of recipes most of which I haven't tried yet. I saw this recipe in the 30 minute meal section of the February/March 2012 Cook's Country magazine and decided it was worth a try. It was delicious. The only real prep is chopping the red peppers; most everything else is store bought stuff. You can find my recipe here.

The line up. I forgot to pose the 2 cans of low-sodium chicken broth.

Ingredients minus the 2 cans of chicken broth

Shred the store-bought rotisserie chicken; chop the bell pepper; chop on smokey jalapeno; juice the lime; empty the picante sauce and chicken broth in measuring cups. Easy-peasey

Ready for the soup pot

Slice 4 tortillas into strips

Tortillas ready for crisping in the oven

And put in the oven for about 8 minutes. I was worried that since they weren't fried they wouldn't taste good. No worries.

Tortilla strips crisping in the oven

While the tortilla strips crisp sauté the red pepper for a few minutes 'til it gets a little color.

Sauté the red peppers in 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil

Add everything but the lime juice and tortilla strips and simmer for a few minutes. When the chicken is warmed through turn off the heat and add the lime juice and tortilla strips and serve

Ready for serving

Serve and top with grated cheddar cheese and diced avocados

Dinner is served

I think I made it look harder than it is; really this is very very simple and very very tasty.

Try it and let me know what you think.