Recipe #71: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Oh man... I could rave about this one for quite awhile, but I'll restrain myself.  This is even better than I was hoping for, and the home-made tortilla chips are a perfect garnish!  You can use store-bought ones, but these are so much better, thicker, and more flavorful!  Copied from allrecipes.com, here's a new winter favorite:

Without toppings...

Ingredients

• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken  (I hand-shredded a store-bought rotisserie chicken)
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped (I used more)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced  (I used more)
• 2 cups water  (I replaced one cup with chicken broth)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn  (I used more)
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro  (I skipped this)
• 7 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil 

I also added a can of black beans...

Directions

1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.  (Instead, I cut them first, placed them on the sheet, and sprayed them with olive oil spray.  Then I lightly salted them with kosher salt.)
4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup. (I also added cheese and sour cream!)