No Work Tortilla Soup

I mentioned last Monday we freezer cooked for ourselves and some lovely recipients.

But I have a confession: we picked practically the easiest recipes in the box. 

You know, those recipes that people fawn over but you take the compliments gracefully and say to your husband after the guests leave, "if they only knew that the most work we did was open a can!" 

Kidding {sort of}. 

I get asked time and time again what my recipe for tortilla soup is (we frequently freeze and take to ill family members like it was really hard work). But we are letting the cat out of the bag, here is it!

{Practically} No Work Tortilla Soup

You'll need: 

1/2 Pint of heavy whipping cream

1 can Rotel {heat of your choice}

1 large can or box chicken broth

2 cans sweet corn

2 cans ranch style beans {with or without jalapeño - or mix for a more mild soup with a hint of spice}

3 large cans of chicken in water

1 large can diced tomatoes 

1 regular can cream of chicken soup {forgotten in the picture I guess?}
Optional: {when you are feeling it} 1 can of unseasoned black beans (rinse before putting in), cheese for topping, tortilla chips or tortilla strips from shells, cilantro for topping, sour cream topping, lime juice, hot sauce.

How to:

1. Open all cans. This is the part where one of those fancy opens-for-you openers would be handy. Or at least an electric can opener. But like the really technological people we are, we don't have one. 

DON'T DRAIN ANYTHING!

Shred the chicken if you want it to be really yummy. Don't shred it if you want it to be inferior. Up to you. No pressure.

2. Throw all ingredients in very large pot. For a double batch, we used a 16 qt pot and had about 1-2 quarts of space leftover. So somewhere around 8 quarts would be close to boiling over but maybe not. Really scientific. For the sake of your stovetop, put the chicken broth in last and only add as much as you think is safe not to boil over. 

3.  Here is the hard part: let it boil, then let it simmer for about 15 minutes. 

4. Eat. Or if you are freezing, let cool completely and put in container or ziploc bags and freeze. We prefer Ziplocs because we lay them flat to preserve space in the freezer. But everyone has their own system.  {See an example of that from last week's Feel {Great} Friday}