{"id":266434,"date":"2010-02-02T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com,2010-02-02:8de5e178-584f-47ad-adaf-b52a4efe95ab"},"modified":"2010-02-02T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T16:28:00","slug":"taco-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/266434","title":{"rendered":"Taco Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><IMG style=\"WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 266px\" hspace=4 vspace=4 align=left src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/2\/4\/6\/4\/2\/133294-124642\/ChickenTacoSoup.JPG?a=2\"><br \/>\n<DIV>Superbowl Sunday is coming up this weekend, and if you&#8217;re looking for an easy, crowd-pleasing dish, here&#8217;s one you can try for game day.&nbsp; One-pot meals like this are great for crowds because each person can tailor the toppings according to their own tastes, and you can serve it all buffet style.&nbsp; (See vegetarian option below)<BR><BR>This soup combines the flavors and textures we all love about tacos, into a hearty soup.&nbsp; I was inspired to create this dish when I spotted Taco Seasoning Mix on the &#8220;new items shelf&#8221; at my local TJs.&nbsp; I&#8217;d often wondered why TJ didn&#8217;t carry taco seasoning, so when it finally appeared, I had to find a way to use it.&nbsp; I decided to make a soup rather than regular tacos for two reasons: it&#8217;s been raining heavily for weeks, and a soup just felt like the right thing to have for dinner; and also because a soup is easier for my young kids to handle than regular tacos.<BR><BR>I had originally intended to put some jalapenos or chiles into the soup, but decided to wait and see how spicy the taco seasoning was.&nbsp; Yowza, it has a kick!&nbsp; The spice level was just perfect for the spice-loving adults at the table, but the kids ended up adding quite a bit of sour cream and yogurt to cut down the heat.&nbsp; So if you like fiery-hot spices, you could try experimenting with jalapenos or chiles.&nbsp; But if you prefer mild heat, don&#8217;t add any additional spices.<BR><BR>I used chicken, but&nbsp;for a&nbsp;vegetarian version, try substituting Trader Joe&#8217;s Chicken-less Strips in the refrigerated section.&nbsp; It has gotten good reviews, and apparently people really like the flavor AND texture.&nbsp; Please report back and let us know how you like it!<BR><BR>Offer guests any combination of toppings you&#8217;d like.&nbsp; I think the one that is mandatory is tortilla chips!<BR><BR><FONT size=3><STRONG>Taco Soup Recipe<\/STRONG><\/FONT><BR><BR>1 (approx 1.3 lb) pkg boneless chicken breasts or thighs, or 1 pkg Chicken-less Strips (vegetarian option)<BR>1 Tbsp olive oil<BR>1 onion, chopped<BR>1 pkg Taco Seasoning Mix<BR>1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes<BR>2 (15 oz) cans black beans<BR>1 (15 oz) can corn, or 1 1\/2 cups frozen corn<BR>2 cups chicken broth (optional; omit for a thicker stew)<BR><BR><SPAN style=\"TEXT-DECORATION: underline\">Your choice of toppings:<\/SPAN><BR>Tortilla chips<BR>Fresh cilantro<BR>Sour cream<BR>Shredded cheese<BR>Avocado<BR>Fresh chopped tomatoes<BR>Chopped green onions or red onions<BR>Jalapenos or chiles<BR><BR>1. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.&nbsp; Cook onions for 5 minutes, or until softened.<BR>2. Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling.&nbsp; Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 1 hour.<BR>3. Remove chicken, shred, and return to pot.&nbsp; Stir and heat through before serving.<BR><BR>Prep time: 15 minutes<BR>Hands-off cooking time: 1 hour<BR>Serves 6-8<BR><BR>Slow cooker method: Place all ingredients into a crockpot and cook for 5-6 hours on low setting.&nbsp; Remove chicken, shred, and return to crockpot.&nbsp; Stir and heat through before serving.<BR><\/DIV><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Superbowl Sunday is coming up this weekend, and if you&#8217;re looking for an easy, crowd-pleasing dish, here&#8217;s one you can try for game day.&nbsp; One-pot meals like this are great for crowds because each person can tailor the toppings according to their own tastes, and you can serve it all buffet style.&nbsp; (See vegetarian option [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3666,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3666"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}