Chicken Tortilla Soup

Another cold cloudy day . . . another soup recipe.  I've decided that I could live on soup if I needed to.  I love trying out the different tastes that come together as you 

combine seasonings and ingredients to make a bowl of soup.  

Put together like it is in this chicken tortilla soup you've got a winning combination! 

 Now that's coming a long way from the girl whose food couldn't touch on her plate. 
I found this recipe on thepioneerwoman.com its great.  My only complaint was that it disappeared to quickly. I'll probably double it next time.

What you need:
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 to 3 chicken breasts
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper (or any colored bell peppers you like)
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with sweet onion
1 4 ounce can diced green chiles
32 ounces chicken broth plus another 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons cornmeal and 1/3 cup warm water

What to do:
1.   Mix garlic, chili, and cumin powders together to make one seasoning mix

2.   Cut chicken breasts into chicken tender size pieces and season with the seasoning mix 
      Keep approximately 1 teaspoon of mix to sprinkle on onion and peppers when sauteing 
3.   Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
4.   Shred the cooked chicken pieces with two forks

5.   Dice onion and bell peppers
6.   Put some olive oil in the bottom of the soup pan on medium heat
7.   Saute onion and peppers with seasoning for a couple of minutes
8.   Add can of diced tomatoes and green chiles
9.   Add shredded chicken and chicken broth
10. Stir in tomato paste
11.  Blend cornmeal and warm water.  I use an airtight plastic container and shake to blend
12.  Pour cornmeal/water mixture into soup and stir, let this simmer for about 20 minutes
13.  Garnish individual bowls of soup with tortilla chips or strips and shredded cheese.

***This made about 6 generous servings.  I think next time I'll double everything but the chicken so it stretches a little farther.  Done with the ingredients as listed above (3 chicken breasts) it had tons of meat in it and could totally handle doubling the other ingredients and still be great.  ENJOY!