Chicken Enchilada Soup

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law Emily, after we enjoyed some at Christmastime. It's delicious, and quite healthy too. Thanks again, Em!

Ingredients:

2 quarts water
2 T chicken boullion
3 chicken breasts
1 can chopped green chilies
1 large onion, quartered
1 red pepper, quartered
5 medium potatoes, peeled & quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 butternut squash or 1 acorn squash (not easy to peel raw, so cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, then microwave for about 8 minutes until slightly soft. Then scrape the squash out of the skin and put in the pot with everything else)
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1 c sour cream
1/4 - 1/2 can red enchilada sauce
1 T taco seasoning
1 can white or Great Northen beans


Put first 11 ingredients in a large pot (water through squash) and boil until chicken is done and veggies are soft. Take out chicken and set aside. Puree the broth & veggies in one of the following ways: with an immersion blender (which would be the easiest), or strain out the soft veggies and blend them in your blender in two batches (adding about 2 cups of broth to each batch so it blends better), or in your food processor, then return it all to the original pot.

Shred chicken, then add it and the remaining 4 ingredients to the pot. Stir it, heat it up, & serve! Fun topped with extra sour cream, cheddar cheese, Fritos, fried tortilla strips, or nothing at all. Deeeelicious!


A few notes:

• I had a hard time getting the taco seasoning to mix in well without being clumpy, so next time I'll add it to the blender while pureeing the vegetables.

• I didn't include the squash or beans since I didn't have them on hand, but it was still quite yummy. Next time I'll be better prepared! Come to think of it, this would be a perfect recipe to add some canned (soft) beans to during the pureeing stage too, to hide a little extra protein in there. I would stick with light-colored beans though, to maintain the pretty color of this soup.

• I used one pint of canned chicken, which I had on hand since I recently pressure-canned 40 pounds of chicken. A full pint jar was just about the right amount for this soup.

• The recipe called for 1 tsp salt; you might want to start with 1 tsp and then add more at the end if it needs it. Mine needed a good extra teaspoon.

• Measure the water: I approximated and in hindsight I probably had closer to 3 quarts in there; it was a bit watery for my liking so next time I will measure out 2 quarts!

• Soup is not an exact science. I make a lot of soup around here and it's never the same each time; soup is a great thing to experiment with spices... just add a little of this and a little of that! Have fun with it :)

P.S. Do you pronounce it "kyoo-min" or "coo-min" ?? I have always said it the first way but I've heard plenty of people say it both ways. Having just done a little research online, both ways are acceptable and some people even say it like "comin'."