Almost every day, I’m opening at least one jar of home canned foods, but the other day I popped the lids on five. I was short on time, and needed a quick dinner fix, so I gathered an arm full of jars and headed to the slow cooker.
It’s fun to have a variety of home canned goods, so you can “shop” your pantry. I picked out black beans, tomatoes with chilies (copy cat Rotel), turkey stock (from Thanksgiving), enchilada sauce, and jalapeño chicken. With taking these jars from the pantry, I gained some wiggle room on my shelves for some barbecue sauce I’m looking to can this week . . Stay tuned for that recipe.
This is a recipe where you benefit from all the hours canning, to make other days easier. Of course, if you don’t have these items canned you can absolutely still make this with store bought versions, and it will still be great. Toppings for this soup makes for a fiesta in a bowl. I chose avocado, cilantro, green onions, and a squeeze of lime to top my enchilada soup. Sliced jalapeños and tortilla strips would be nice additions too.
If you don’t have pints of canned chicken, a rotisserie chicken would be a good choice. You could have the chicken one night for dinner, use leftovers in the soup, then make broth with the bones. The recipe calls for just one cup of enchilada sauce, but I’m using my home canned version. If you are buying enchilada sauce you might want more – you just have to taste and see. Since there are two cups of enchilada sauce in the pints I canned, use the extra as a dipping sauce for tortilla chips. Just put the leftover sauce in a bowl, add Mexican cheese, and microwave for a delicious dipping sauce.
Slow Cooker Enchilada Soup
1 1/2 cups of poultry stock
1 cup of enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cups of home canned black beans, or one commercial can
1 pound of shredded chicken
1 can of Rotel, or home canned tomatoes with chilies
3/4 cup diced white onion
1 cup of corn
1 8 oz block of cream cheese
Topping suggestions – avocados, green onions, tortilla strips, sliced jalapeños, shredded cheese, cilantro, and lime.
Add all ingredients except cream cheese, to a slow cooker and cook for 6 hours on low. Then, cut cream cheese into blocks and add to soup. Stir, and allow cream cheese to melt into soup. Allow soup to come back up to temperature, and taste to see if seasonings need to be adjusted. Top with desired extras.
Will this soup freeze well? It sounds and looks so good!
I’ve never tried to freeze it, but it’s something I would try.