Chicken E nchilada Soup

Yesterday, it poured rain and the wind was more than strong.  Thankfully, we kept our electricity.  My daughter and I decided it was a good day for soup.

We adapted a recipe from   Realmomkitchen.com to meet the criteria for cost and so we didn't have to go out on the rain and wind to get anything. LOL

CROCKPOT CHICKEN ENCHILADA SOUP

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1  - 10 ounce can enchalada sauce
1'can cream of celery soup
1-1/2 cups milk

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

 1 family sized portion of shredded chicken.

In a 3-5 quart slow cooker, dump everything but the milk.slowly stir in the milk.  Cook on high 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8.  When almost done, break up your cooked chicken (last 1/2 hour) and add it to the cooker to heat through.

Top with cheese,  we had tortilla chips with it also.

Notes:

This recipe called for cooking raw chicken breast .  I am a "chicken-- " pardon the pun!) to cook raw chicken in the slow cooker.  I don't know about bringing the chicken to temp soon enough.

I precook meats so I always have either chicken cubes cooked or shredded chicken.  I always have a few cans of corn.  I don't usually buy frozen.  I picked up cream of celery soup when our grocery store closed for 1/2 price.  Otherwise, I might have made a cup and a half of cream soup from my base.  I would look for a sale about thanksgiving time and stock up for the year.

I got enchalada sauce for fifty cents at ALBERTSOMS.  Enchalada sauce is one of the easiest things to make.  At it's usual price of more than a dollar, it is a rip off.  I watched a lot of videos on the Internet when I was stuck in bed a while ago.  All it is is a white sauce that you make with water instead of milk and add chili powder to instead of milk.  I used the recipe on the food channel the first time----it will knock your sox off!   I would prefer a bit less chili powder.  LOL red peppers I diced when they were going bad.  They were 3/1 at grocery outlet.  The cheese was from the dollar store, I used part of a chunk.

Black beans .50
Diced tomatoes .48
Corn .33
Red peppers  .25
Enchalada sauce .50
Soup .60
Milk.19
1 cup shredded cheese .75
Chicken 1.00

Total 4.71.

If my budget was larger and I was feeding teen children I would maybe replace the cheese top with a dollop  of sour cream and make some quesadas.  That still would put you really close to the five dollar budget.

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane