Tortilla-less Chicken soup from Paleo Slow Cooking

Paleo Slow Cooking: Gluten Free Recipes Made Simple by Chrissy Gower caught my eye at the library...the Paleo diet is an excellent refuge for allergen free-food. The big, glossy images, clear directions, and generally short ingredient lists induced me to pick it up and try a couple recipes.

Before my food allergies manifested my slow cooker was a favorite kitchen tool, a bit of chopping, turn it on before leaving for work or school and come home to a fragrant home and ready meal. Yet all the recipes relied on condensed soups, cheese, cream, flour. So the big slow cooker was given away, and a small one entered the kitchen to make organic beans affordable again, because even organic canned beans often contain wheat flour, corn starch or "natural flavorings" of unknown origin.

One of the foods I miss in winter is a bowl tortilla soup full of chicken shreds swimming in a thick red sauce. It usually has kernels of corn, strips of tortillas, and corn starch thickener.  So when I flipped to page 94 in the book and read Gower's note on turning this soup into a 20-30 minute stove-top quickie, I had to try it.

Tortilla-less Chicken Soup

1 medium yellow onion
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, diced
16 oz chicken broth
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire-roasted for this recipe)
14.5 oz can of enchilada sauce (unavailable where I live, substituted a can of tomato sauce, a little can of diced green chilies, and a heaped tsp of Penzey's Taco Seasoning)
1 1/2 tsp each cumin & chili powder
1/2 cup coconut milk

1 rotisserie chicken (Whole Foods has one that is gluten-corn-dairy-soy free)

Directions

In  a dutch oven over medium heat saute the carrots, onion, celery in a bit of olive oil until translucent.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pain, simmer for 20 minutes. While the sauce and veggies simmer, pull the rotisserie chicken apart & drop into the pan.

Ladle into bowls and serve with a sprinkle of cilantro. This makes 6-8 servings. Perfect for freezing a quart, lunch with a friend and then leftovers the next day...or feeding a hungry horde.

To prepare in a slow cooker: Saute the veggies, chunk 3-4 boneless-skinless chicken breasts or thighs, and add everything to the slow cooker. Cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Based on the success of this meal, I'm excited to try more recipes in this book. Highly recommend this book for folks who are new to cooking, don't enjoy cooking or don't have much time to spend cooking.