Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice Soup

I combined my chicken tinga tostadas and Tex-Mex rice into a soup! Thank-you Mom. Sometimes you give me the best ideas.

Tender cubes of chicken, rice and corn swimming in a mildly spiced broth with confetti-sized pieces of onion, red bell pepper, black olives and salsa. I chopped everything smaller than usual including the chicken so you can’t help but get a little of each thing in every single spoonful.

I like to finish it off with a handful of cheddar cheese and tortilla chips for crunch.

This is mildly spiced with chile powder, oregano and thyme and dependant on what type of salsa you add. I use mild. You can make it hotter by adding cayenne, a tablespoon of chipotle peppers in adobo or a fresh red pepper or two. If you go the spicy-hot route you may also want to add a squeeze of lime at the end.

The rice soaks up a lot of the broth as it sits so if you’re not planning to eat most of it right away you can cook the rice on the side and add it to your individual bowls. I prefer to cook my rice right in the soup that way it can absorb all the wonderful flavors. You can mix a bit of water or more broth into it if it thickens too much.

Soup is one of the most deliciously satisfying things in the entire world! I’m happy to say I officially turned my family into soup lovers. Soup lovers who, like me, hate canned soup now. Once you get used to eating homemade it’s hard to go back to the canned variety. You get spoiled and it just doesn’t taste the same.

Almost every time I make a new soup my Mom claims it’s the best I ever made. I love that.

This soup? It’s making a second appearance in my house in less than a week. Maybe I’ve convinced you to make it too. I hope so.