Taco soup

We just got a slow cooker the other day (Crock-Pot, 5-quart: is that good? I dunno: it's just what BB&B had), and this was the first thing we tried. I got the recipe here, but modified it, partially according to the comments on the recipe, and partially according to what we had.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 can chili beans (15 oz), with liquid
1 can black beans (15 oz), with liquid
1 can whole kernel corn (15 oz), drained
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz) (update 2/13/11: 8-oz can tomato paste works better)
12 oz or so chicken broth
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies (14.5 oz), with liquid
2 tbsp or so of taco or similar seasoning (we had a bottle of Paul Prudhomme's Fajita Magic, so that's what I used)
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts, whole
shredded Mexican cheese blend
sour cream
tortilla chips (we like blue corn, Garden of Eatin' brand, unsalted)

1. Open all the cans and pour them into the cooker. Chop the onion and pepper (not too fine) and put them in. Stir in the seasoning. Put the chicken breasts in and press them down so they're just barely covered by the other things.

2. Cover, turn slow cooker on "low," and cook for 5 hours.

3. Remove chicken breasts and shred them with knife and fork. Return the chicken to the soup, cover, and cook for another 2 hours.

4. Serve topped with sour cream, cheese, and/or crumbled tortilla chips to taste.

Next time I might increase the amount of corn, and maybe even use two onions and/or peppers: more veggies might be good. As for the ways our version diverged from what's on allrecipes: we used more diced tomatoes because our market only had 14.5-oz cans, instead of the 10-oz cans the recipe called for, so it was either have a half a can left over or use it all. We also took a commenter's advice and substituted chicken broth (storebought) for the bottle of beer the recipe originally called for. Also I threw in 1/2 a can of chopped olives because we had an open can in the fridge - but to tell the truth I didn't notice them at all in the finished dish, so next time I'll either skip them or use more or maybe use sliced olives instead of chopped.

We loved this. A perfect hot spicy meal for a cold and wet autumn evening, easy to make, and really convinced us that the slow cooker was worth it. The chicken got incredibly tender. And it made way more than enough for two people: we're looking forward to leftovers tomorrow night.

I'm sure this would be just as good without the chicken and with veggie broth instead of chicken broth. In that case, maybe it wouldn't even need to be made in the slow cooker, just done on the stove in much less time.