Have I mentioned that I love my crock pot? I should give her a name, but I wouldn’t want to upset Nancy, my GPS. I figured since I use my crock pot a lot, that I would post my favorite recipes for Manic Monday- Let’s Go Make Some Noise. I mean Soup.

This recipe is from A Year Of Slow Cooking. I have used several of the recipes from her blog, and they’ve all turned out great. This is called Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. I changed very little from the recipe. I used dry beans, not canned, so I soaked them overnight first. I had never used frozen cutlets without thawing, but they worked great frozen as she suggested. I added a little more cumin than suggested, because it adds a little Cuban flavor to the soup. Lastly, I used Mild Salsa, so that Alex wouldn’t find it too spicy. She said that it “made her tongue itch” anyway (her way of saying it was spicy), so next time I will use the Hot salsa. I cooked the soup on Low for 9 hours, then 1 hour on High.

Oh, and enjoy!

Ingredients

–1 pound chicken (I used frozen breast tenderloins)
–1 cup dried black beans (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
–4 cups chicken broth
–1 cup sliced mushrooms
–1 cup frozen corn
–1 jar prepared salsa (16 oz)
–1 1/2 tsp cumin
–1/2 cup sour cream (to stir in at the end)
–shredded cheddar cheese, avocado slices, cilantro (all optional)

I used a 6.5 quart crockpot. You will need a 4 quart or larger.

If you know you are going to make this the night before (yay for meal planning!) soak the black beans in enough water to cover and another 2 inches overnight. In the morning, drain the water and rinse the beans.

If you don’t have super hard water or live in a super high altitude, you can quick soak the beans by pouring boiling water over them and let them sit for an hour or two. I did an hour, but 2 would really be better if you have the time.

Drain and rinse the beans. Add to the crockpot. Put in the chicken, and add the broth and salsa. Pour in the corn and mushrooms, and add the cumin. Stir, but don’t disturb the beans—let them stay at the bottom of the pot, closest to the heating element.

Cover and cook on high for 9 hours. Yup. High. For 9 hours. It took a crazy long time for the beans to soften, but they did.

If you are using beans you soaked overnight, canned beans, or pre-cooked beans, you can cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5–similar to normal soup-cooking time.

If you’d like to thicken the broth (I did this), you can use your immersible blender (I love that thing) to blend a bit of the beans and chicken. If you don’t have one, scoop out 2 cups of the soup and carefully blend in your traditonal blender. Stir the mixture back into the crockpot.

Stir in the 1/2 cup of sour cream before serving, and garnish with shredded cheese and avocado slices.

Time to get the yum on!