And just like that it became Fall. I find that I spend a lot of weekends inside and have made Sundays my day for cooking up comfort soups for my lunches for the week. Last week, I was looking for something for my Instant Pot, I ran with White Bean Tuscan soup. In true Iowa fashion, I made it with Graziano's sausage. It was tasty.
This week, I made, what arguably, could be my favorite thing i've ever made. I saw a recipe for Chicken Chili Relleno soup on my friend Jessica's Facebook page. It sounded delicious, and upon completion, it tastes better than it sounds. This recipe is made not in a slow cooker or Instant pot, but just on the stove top. However, I mis-read the recipe and am very glad I had the Instant Pot to save this creation!!!
What you need:
A whole BOILED chicken (or cooked chicken breasts)
6 cups of Chicken broth
5 Polblano Peppers
1 small onion
2 tbl butter
1 8oz package of cream cheese
4 cups of cheddar cheese
4 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Cumin
What you do:
I've never done this, but it was pretty neat. I set my broiler on high. I put foil down on a cookie sheet and place the five polblano peppers on the lined cookie sheet and put in the oven. The idea is to get the peppers to char. You want them charred on all sides.
As the peppers are charring, dice the onion and get the soup pot out. Put the butter in the soup pot and melt. Then, add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes or until the onion turns translucent. Take the peppers out of the oven and place in a bowl to cool with plastic wrap over them.
Once cool, you'll notice the skin looks like it could come off the peppers. Take as much skin off as you can. Chop the peppers up in a chopper, food processor or blender.
Add the garlic and cumin to the buttery onion mixture. Add the chopped up polblano peppers. Stir until fragrant, about a minute.
Add the chicken broth and cook until the mixture comes to a boil. Then add chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the cream cheese and 3 cups of cheddar cheese, whisk until smooth.
Serve the soup in six bowls with the remaining cup of cheese divided among the bowls of soup. If you want, you can put the soup back in the broiler to melt.
I served my soup with corn tortilla chips as crackers. DELICIOUS!!!
**Here's the story behind the chicken emergency! I didn't read the word BOILED chicken and I only had raw chicken. I was like, "will 10 minutes in a simmering pot cook this chicken enough??" NO! So. . . as I noticed the chicken was to have been cooked already, as the soup was simmering, I quickly put a pound of raw chicken breast in the Instant pot for 10 minutes with a cup of water and a cup of chicken broth. After quick release, the chicken came out perfect. This was what I added to my soup!**
Here's the good news. . . there are only 4 carbs per bowl. The bad news. . . there are 38 grams of FAT. Ooopsies. And about 570 calories per bowl, but it's very filling! Oh, for the low carb version, DO NOT ADD THE CHIPS!!