Chicken Corn Tortilla Soup

So we are in the beginning phase of the Weight Loss Challenge and I was really hungry for my Chicken Tortilla Soup-but the way I normally make it is with lots of tortilla chips sauted with my veggies and of course that is not the greatest way to start a soup if you are looking to trim calories. Plus I wanted to get more veggies in the soup.

So the following is the recipe I came up with.

¼ large yellow and orange bell pepper
½ large onion
1 large jalapeno
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 ½ cup roasted corn
2 14 ½ oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2-3 cups cooked chicken
6-8 cups broth
3-4 Tbsp cornmeal
1 Tbsp fajita seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400. Place peppers and onion on large cookie sheet and roast until bubbly and brown. Remove from oven and put peppers in plastic bag to sweat the skins off.
When peppers are cool enough to handle remove skins and chop onions and peppers.
In large soup kettle put a little oil-add onions, peppers and garlic. Saute these for about 5 minutes at medium high. Season with salt and pepper. Add cornmeal and stir to incorporate into veggies. Continue to sauté until the cornmeal begins to brown. This will take 5-7 minutes.
At this point add about 1 cup of broth stirring to be sure there are no clumps. Add another cup of broth and cook for a minute or two. Now add tomatoes and corn and fajita seasoning.
Lower heat to simmer and let this cook for at least 15 minutes, stirring a couple of times. It should be quite thick at this point.
Add another couple cups of broth and stir to incorporate. Add chicken and see what the consistency is after chicken in incorporated. This is where you determine how thick you want your soup and add the additional broth as you wish.
It is best to allow this soup to gently simmer for at least an hour prior to serving.

Just a few notes-cornmeal is only 90 calories for 3 tablespoon's compared to about 280 calories for 16 tortilla chips which is probably close to what I would normally use.

Plus this recipe has corn and lots of tomatoes in it where my other soup does not.

This recipe makes approximately 8 servings-it depends on how much broth you end up adding.

After dinner last night Frank rated this one in the top 3 of soups that I have made. I must agree it is a very tasty dish.

Enjoy