Chicken Lime Soup

This may not be the prettiest dish ever, but it sure is good! This one had a lot of punch to it flavor-wise and was able to feed us for several days. This chicken lime soup is another great budget-saver from Budget Bytes that Will has been wanting to make for awhile, so he finally put it on the weekly menu while I was gone last weekend. I'm glad he did because our schedule got hairy this week and it was nice to have something ready to go in a pinch!

This soup was also the perfect light soup for slightly chillier weather-not too hearty, but spicy enough to warm you up inside. The chiles in the tomatoes and the jalapeno really help get it spicy, but the cilantro and the avocado help balance things out. Definitely do not skip out on the avocado-it's a must!

Cooking Notes: Will cooked this as-is. The only thing we added were strips of tortilla since we didn't have any kind of tortilla chips.

Chicken Lime Soup (adapted from Budget Bytes; serves 6)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
2 stalks celery
1 medium jalapeno
4 cloves garlic
3/4 lb. chicken breast
6 cups chicken broth (or Better than Bouillon)
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with chiles
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 medium lime
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 medium avocado

Dice the onion, celery, and jalapeno (scrape the seeds out of the jalapeno before dicing). Mince the garlic. Cook the onion, celery, jalapeno, and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until tender. Add the chicken breast, chicken broth, canned tomatoes with chiles, oregano, and cumin to the pot. Bring the whole pot up to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to low, place a lid on top, and let simmer for one hour.

After simmering for an hour with a lid on, carefully remove the chicken breast from the pot and use two forks to shred the meat. Return the meat to the pot. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the soup. Get as much juice as possible from the lime by using a spoon to scrape the inside of the lime. Rinse the cilantro and then roughly chop the leaves. Add to the pot, give it a quick stir, and serve. Dice the avocado and add a few chunks to the bowl-enjoy!


Recipe: Budget Bytes: Chicken Lime Soup