Crockpot Taco Soup

If you haven't gathered, I'm lazy.  I take after my greyhound and try to conserve as much energy as possible.  Unlike my greyhound, it is frowned upon for me to nap for 20+ hours a day, so I have to do adult things to look responsible.

One of those responsibilities is cooking.

Now I would never go so far and say that I love to cook, because I do not.  I do not love standing in the kitchen for an eternity.  But, I do love good food.  So there has to be a trade off somewhere, and that trade-off is my crock-pot.

I'm a huge fan of dump recipes and this taco soup is exactly that.  This is a dynamic recipe so you can adjust whatever you'd like to make it more to your tastes, which is yet another reason that I love it so much.

And yes, I know that soup in the summer is weird.  Do not curr.  I also eat ice cream in the winter because I'm a rebel!

Crock-pot Taco Soup

Ingredients:

-3ish chicken breasts (I used breasts because I felt like thighs might be too fatty.  Already cooked hamburger meat/sausage would probably also fare well, probably about 1-1.5 pounds.  Already cooked so the fat can be drained, but that is not in the spirit of energy conservation.)
-1 can of enchilada sauce (I use the mild green enchilada sauce)
-1 can of diced tomatoes (the Rotel cans are great)
-1 can of corn
-2-3 cans of beans (I used kidney beans, black beans, and chickpeas this time)
-Taco seasoning packet (you can make your own, but in the effort of energy conservation, I used prepackaged taco seasoning)

Toppings:

-Cheese
-Sour cream
-Cilantro (alllll the cilantro)
-Tortilla chips (you can make your own, but in the spirit of conserving energy, I did not)
-Hot sauce (for others, because I do not need my food to set my mouth on fire to enjoy it)
-Avocado
-Whatever else you like on your Mexican dishes

Directions:

(I'm going to break this down Megan-style.)

-Get out crock-pot.  Do not bang it into cabinets.  Do not drop it.
-Plug in crock-pot.
-Place chicken in the crock-pot.  Frozen chicken is fine.  The crock-pot does not care.
-Open a mabillionty cans by hand and consider buying an electric can opener because you live in the first world and you had one growing up and why don't we have a stupid electric can opener?
-Dump all the cans on top of the chicken.  Do NOT drain.  Just dump it all in the crock-pot, yes really.
-Sprinkle the seasoning packet on top of the mix and stir (as best you can with frozen chicken hindering progress).
-Put the lid on the crock-pot.
-TURN ON THE CROCK-POT.  Set it to 8 hours on low.  This step is imperative!
-Ignore crock-pot until it starts beeping incessantly, then ignore it for longer until your people decide they are finally hungry.
-Pop the top!  Ok, maybe this is just my crock-pot since I have the lid clamps, but whatever.
-Fish out the chicken breasts and shred the chicken (I used Bets, my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle with the Y in it, for optimum energy conservation).
-Dump shredded chicken back into crock-pot carefully so you don't splatter soup all over yourself.
-Stir!
-Slice and dice an avocado and some (1/2 a bunch if you're me) cilantro.
-Add cilantro to the crock-pot and stir.
-Chop up a wee bit more cilantro for my own personal use (note: I love me some cilantro).
-Have your kitchen minion/assistant get out the sour cream, cheese, chips, and hot sauce/whatever else you want on your soup.
-Use a ladle to spoon soup into bowls.  Enough is a good measurement.  Calories don't count in delicious, easy to make food.
-Top with ALL THE THINGS!  I personally crush a few handfuls of chips between my palms and let them fall into the soup.  A dab of sour cream, "enough" cheese, that extra cilantro, and 1/4 of an avocado and I'm set.
-Stir and enjoy!

I'm pretty sure that this recipe could feed 6-8 people and you might still have some leftovers (depending on portion size).  Teh German and I can eat this for several meals, which is perfect for my lazy ass.

Also, if you don't like avocado, don't use it.  If you luuurve hot sauce, add it when you add all the ingredients and let it cook with everything else.  If you don't love kidney beans, use something else.  This is a perfect recipe for using whatever you have on hand.  I happened to have kidney beans on hand because I intended to make chili at some point and failed.  You can use all black beans.  You don't have to use chickpeas.  If you want a thicker soup, drain the beans before you put them into the crock-pot.  It's a completely versatile recipe so you can make it your own!  Dare you!

PS.  This soup makes for some BOMB leftovers.  

I love when food is even better the 2nd time around!