White Chicken Enchilada Soup (or Turkey!)

If you love Enchiladas and creamy soups, this is White Enchilada Soup is for you. It’s a  It tastes like this ever popular Creamy White Chicken Enchiladas….except its in soup form!

Last Friday it was 40C/104F here in Sydney (which the newspapers labelled as “Fry-day” – ha ha). Then on Saturday it was 22C/72F and I was wearing a jumper to the beach.

The weather here at the moment is nuts. So I’m swinging between no-cook meals and winter comfort foods.

This soup clearly falls in the comfort food bucket! On Sunday I had friends over for an early Thanksgiving Dinner where a 5kg/10lb roast turkey took centre stage. (PS I made it using a GENIUS Dry Brining method – too late to start it for Thanksgiving now, but remember this recipe for Christmas!! Get it here. Oh, and get my full 2015 Thanksgiving / Christmas Menu and recipes here!).

As always, there was plenty of turkey leftover so I wanted to share a recipe today that is perfect for throwing leftover turkey into.

However, I made this recipe from scratch using chicken breast. But it’s very easy to adapt to use leftover turkey, and it means you’ll have this on the table in around 20 minutes!

But there’s a second reason I decided to share this Enchilada Soup with you today. It’s because I was in LA last week and canned green chilies were at the top of my shopping list. That probably sounds nuts to those of you in America, but it drives me nuts that it isn’t available here in Australia!

Why oh why? Old El Paso, please start sending canned green chilies here so I don’t need to bring back 20 cans every time I go to America!

YES I did! I had a whole second suitcase to bring back food from my travels. Most people go crazy shopping for clothes when they go to the US. I picked up a few essentials (I emphasise the word essentials! I had to have those earrings, the scarf, yet another black top!), but mostly, it was food. 🙂

Want to know what I brought back? Those of you in the US will think I’m so weird!! OK, so I brought: Lots of canned green chilis, plenty of chili powder (in Australia, chili powder is pure ground chili, much spicier), creole seasoning (proper stuff not available here), Old Bay Seasoning (very difficult to track down!), about 15 packets of Chex Mix (I’m officially obsessed, doesn’t exist here), Muddy Buddies (OMG, shoot me, I only brought 1 packet back, very distressed at the thought of it being empty), corn husks (to make tamales! Yay!), light corn syrup (suspiciously difficult to track down here) and a bunch of other “only in America” things like Salted Caramel Pringles (so wrong and yet so right) and Twinkies.

One very happy traveller, hunkered down back at home in Sydney with a pantry stockpiled with American goodies to sustain me until my next trip. 🙂

OH! Long winded way to say I wanted to use canned green chilis in a recipe which is why I’m sharing this White Enchilada Soup today! But to all non US readers, never fear! Simply substitute with either roasted green capsicum (bell peppers) or jalapeño. Easy! – Nagi x

PS In all the ramblings about the crazy food I brought back from America, I forgot to describe this soup! It’s creamy like a chowder but it tastes like White Enchiladas because there’s a teeny tang from the additional of sour cream plus the ingredients in this are pretty much what I put in Enchiladas. It is so good. SO so good. My friends’ picky teenage son is obsessed with this. That’s high praise! 🙂

PPS Toppings are not optional! Must have as many topping options as possible!

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White Chicken (or Turkey) Enchilada Soup

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4.91 from 11 votes

I tried making this various ways, including poaching the chicken in the liquid. I found this to be the best way - maximum flavour AND as white as possible! This recipe is also perfect for using up leftover turkey. Just skip the chicken cooking step and toss in chopped or shredded turkey straight into the soup!

Prep Time:10 minutes

Cook Time:20 minutes

Total Time:30 minutes

Servings:4

Hover over "Servings" value to reveal recipe scaler

Author:Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Course:Soup

Ingredients

• 400 g chicken breast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Soup

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 1 onion , diced (brown, white, yellow)
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1 cup chicken broth / stock
• 4 cups milk (I used low fat)
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander power
• 2 to 4 tbsp canned jalapeños , finely chopped OR 1 x 4.5oz / 127g canned chopped peeled green chili
• 1/4 cup sour cream (I used light)
• 1 1/2 cups corn (frozen or canned)
• 21 oz / 600g canned white beans (1 1/2 cans), drained
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt
• Black pepper

Instructions

Chicken

• Slice the chicken breast into 1cm / 1/3" thick steaks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the chicken breast (in 2 batches if necessary) and cook each side for 2 minutes each or until golden and just cooked through.
• Transfer to a plate. Once cool enough to handle, shred with a fork or your hands (I do this while the soup is cooking), or chop it.

Soup

• Turn the heat down to medium and add butter into the same pot. When the butter is melted, add onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes or until the onion is translucent and soft.
• Add flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and cook, scraping the bottom of the pot to stir the brown bits into the liquid (extra flavour!).
• Add the milk, cumin powder, coriander and jalapeños. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook, whisking occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly - about 5 minutes.
• Whisk the sour cream in. Then add the corn, beans and shredded chicken. Cook for 1 minute or so until everything is heated through.
• Adjust salt to taste.
• Serve piping hot with all the trimmings!

Recipe Notes:

1. Topping options: corn chips / fritos, cilantro/coriander, grated cheese, sour cream, diced avocados / guacamole, pico de gallo.

2. Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings (toppings not included). To reduce calories, reduce the amount of beans and substitute with diced vegetables. The beans account for around 150 calories in this.

Nutrition

Serving: 590gCalories: 633kcalCarbohydrates: 60.8g (20%)Protein: 54.9g (110%)Fat: 19.9g (31%)Saturated Fat: 7.8g (39%)Cholesterol: 117mg (39%)Sodium: 1055mg (44%)Potassium: 1029mg (29%)Fiber: 12.6g (50%)Sugar: 17.9gVitamin A: 18%Vitamin C: 29%Calcium: 41%Iron: 33%

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