Soup Season

I suppose now that Spring has arrived, it's not really soup season anymore but I love soup every day of the week and would eat it year round! As I am such a devoted lover of soup, I am always looking for new recipes to try out and I recently gave three Pinterest recipes a whirl - and two out of three turned out pretty great - so I guess one Pinterest fail isn't too bad, right?

I've ranked the soups from best to worst (in my experience) and shared the recipes for all three. The first soup was easy and a huge hit, the second was easy and got a positive review and the third was less easy...did not turn out so hot...and ended up being converted to chicken, corn and potato chowder after it's failure in it's original incarnation.

Chicken Crack Soup

• 3 cups cooked chicken (I used 2 cans white meat chicken)
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cheese soup
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 2 stalks celery; chopped
• 2 carrots; thinly chopped
• 1 (1 ounce) package Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing Mix
• 1 (2.25 ounce) package Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 ounce dried fine egg noodles; uncooked

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, combine cooked chicken, cheese soup, chicken broth, milk, chopped celery, sliced carrots, ranch dressing mix and bacon bits.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until vegetables are soft.

Stir in dried noodles and shredded cheddar cheese. Cook for 5 minutes, until noodles are soft.

You guys - this soup is absolutely amazing! It has crack in the name for a reason and it's because it is so good, it's addicting. This soup was an absolute hit at my house and given how easy it is to make - if you choose one of these soups to make, I'd tell you to make this one every. single. time.

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion; diced
• 2 cloves garlic; mixed (I used 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
• 8 ounces fire roasted green chiles
• 3 cups shredded chicken (I used 2 cans of white meat chicken)
• 1 cup salsa
• 10 ounce can green chili enchilada sauce
• 32 ounces low sodium chicken stock
• 8 ounces shredded cheddar and/or jack cheese
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 2-3 corn tortillas

Heat olive oil in a soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion & cook, stirring often, 4-5 minutes or until soft. Stir in garlic & cook for 3-45 seconds. Add green chiles, chicken, salsa, chicken stock and enchilada sauce. Bring to a boil, then cover & turn heat to low. Simmer for 20-30 minutes
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Stir in cheeses until completely melted and combined

Garnish soup with tortilla chips - you could also garnish with (more) shredded cheese, lime or sour cream!

Another soup that I absolutely loved - this tastes like an enchilada in a bowl and I am all about that. It's just the right amount of spicy and creamy and just all around delicious! It got positive reviews from my taste testers too...

Mexican Street Corn Soup

• 1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
• 6 cups fresh corn kernels (save 6 stripped cobs for simmering)
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• salt & pepper
• 2 cloves garlic; chopped (I used 1/2 tsp. fresh minced garlic)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup grated Cotija cheese (you can also use Romano...which I did)
• 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

Heat oil in a large nonstick pan or Dutch oven until shimmering. Add corn kernels, chopped onion, chili powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until onions are soft & corn is light, golden brown in spot; about 10 minutes.

Add garlic & cook until fragrant; 1 minute. Remove 1 1/2 cups of corn mixture from the pot & set aside. Stir broth & 6 stripped corn cobs into the pot, scraping the brown bits on the bottom. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer for 20 minutes.

Use tongs to remove corn cobs from pot & discard.

Stir sour cream and Cotija cheese into the soup. Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor (in batches, depending on the size of your processor or blender) or use an immersion blender to puree soup until smooth.

Return soup to pot & if needed, gently reheat to desired serving temperature. Stir in half of the reserved corn mixture & lime juice. Season to taste with salt, pepper & chili powder.

Well - this soup did not turn out well and there are probably a million reasons for that. I used canned corn combined with some corn scraped from the cob and well...that just didn't seem to work out so well. I'm not sure where else I might have gone wrong, but for me this soup just turned out like...a lot of creamed corn.

The flavor was fine - but it just tasted like a big ol' pot of creamed corn. I had such high hopes for this soup because Mexican street corn is what made me fall in love with corn after not eating for basically my entire life. So - this one was a let down for me, but perhaps if you follow the directions, your batch will turn out much better?

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Each of these recipes were taken from Pinterest and are not my own; I merely tried my hand at them. The pictures are also from Pinterest and while the pictures I took of the first two batches of soup definitely look like the pictures above, my Mexican street corn DID NOT! I like pretty pictures - so I went with those!