Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have to admit that in general I'm not a big soup fan.  I blame it completely on my Ma who would make and can gallons of vegetable soup every few months, she'd give a lot of it away but we still ended up with shelf upon shelf of canned vegetable soup.  We would have soup if...it was cold weather, rainy weather, cloudy weather, chance of snow weather, real snow weather, over cast, do you get my drift here?  I have had enough vegetable soup to last me a lifetime. 

Recently we went out to dinner at Cheddars and I saw Chicken Tortilla Soup on the menu and for some reason it beckoned to me.  "Try me, Eat me, Love me!"  that is exactly what the menu was telling me.  I'm so glad I tried it because it was very good!  Since then I set out on a mission to recreate this fantastic soup.  This isn't the recipe Cheddars uses but I think it will be close enough to make me happy.

I didn't follow this recipe very well.  But it did give me a starting point.  I added an extra can of chicken broth, left out the water, cooked my chicken in taco seasoning shredded it, and then added it to the soup. This is so good I'm going to make gallons and gallons of it every few months and make my family eat it in cold weather, rainy weather, cloudy weather, chance of snow weather, real snow weather, and over cast weather. 

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
• crushed tortilla chips
• shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• chopped green onions

Directions

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, chiles, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.

p.s.  I can't forget to give a shout out to Melissa, she got me in the mood for soup when she made a really great soup for us Saturday night.  If this recipe would have been gross it would have all gotten blamed on Melissa...it's how we roll.