Chicken Fajita Soup

Serves 4

Oh my holy taste buds, this soup was a real treat! I am traditionally not a soup-person. I never ever order it in a restaurant and tend to get quite bored by the same mouthful after mouthful. This soup, on the other hand, is so packed with flavour and there are so many different tastes and textures on each spoonful, it’s a proper party in my mouth! 

This is the soup-based version of Taco Tuesday. All of the favourite taco flavours, packed into a hearty bone broth base. It came about when I was half way through making all the trimmings for Taco Tuesday only to discover (oh the horror!), I had no tortillas to wrap them with. But there was no postponing for another day, oh no! My taste buds had already started with the taco-tingle and there was no way back from that. So I needed to scratch the itch another way and boy was this one helluva happy accident (like my 13-years-older-than-me brother describes me!). 

It was super quick and easy to make on account of me having leftover roast chicken from the weekend (isn’t it just the best gift that keeps on giving?!). I topped the soup with some sliced avocado, fresh radishes, creamy sour cream, crunchy paprika-roasted chickpeas and crushed tortilla chips. Obviously you don’t need all of those accompaniments, but I had them all already to hand so I chucked them all in and I can highly recommend you recreate it! 

This can also be used as two recipes in one because you can just drain off the excess broth and simply fill a soft tortilla with all the ingredients like it was originally supposed to be served!

It packs in a ton of brightly coloured veggies and one portion provides a massive 200% and 66% of my daily Vitamin C and Vitamin A requirements respectively. Each serving is 221 calories and provides 18g of protein and 5g of fibre. 

INGREDIENTS

For the Soup

·     200g Roast Chicken - Shredded
·     1 tbsp Olive Oil 
·     1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
·     150g Salsa (I used Luchito Smoky Chipotle Salsa)
·     3 Sweet Red Peppers 
·     1 Large Red Onion 
·     6 Garlic Cloves
·     500g Bone Broth (I used Ossa’s Chicken Bone Broth) 
·     Salt & Fresh Black Pepper
·     Chipotle Chilli Flakes 

For the Toppings

·      Sour Cream
·       Avocado - sliced
·       Radishes – raw and sliced 
·       Fresh Coriander
·       Tortilla Chips
·      Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas 
·      Spring Onions - sliced
·      Lime zest & a squeeze of Lime Juice

METHOD

·      Shred the chicken into small strips.
·       Slice the red peppers and onions.
·       Mince the garlic
·       Heat some oil in a wide based saucepan, and fry the peppers and onions over a medium heat.
·       Cook for 8-10 minutes until starting to caramelise.
·       Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
·       Pour in the stock and add the smoked paprika.
·       Simmer for 10 minutes before adding the salsa and the shredded chicken.
·       Season with salt and black pepper, and some chilli flakes if the salsa doesn’t have enough of a kick.
·       Continue to simmer for another 5-10 minutes to let the flavours infused.  
·      Serve with your choice of toppings or else drain off the excess broth and serve in a tortilla. 

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (without toppings)

Calories – 221
Protein – 18g
Fat – 10g
Carbohydrates – 17g
Fibre – 5g
Vitamin C – 200%
Vitamin A – 65%
Iron – 11%