Chipotle chicken and black bean soup

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Five Good Things Friday (Including a Giveaway!)

This year is sure off to a batshit crazy start, isn’t it. I hope you’re holding up okay, that you’re out there fighting the good fight, that you and your loved ones are warm and safe. If you need, as I do, a break from the endless cycle of WHAT IS GOING ON, you have come to the right place as I have a few good things to share with you.

Good Thing #1: NICOLE’S BOOK IS OUT!!!!! Listen, I am pretty sure that everyone in our cozy blogland community is aware of this by now, but if you are somehow not aware or if you don’t yet know and love Nicole, here is the quick and dirty: Nicole wrote a beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking, hopeful book called Inhale, Exhale and it is now out in the world for all of us to enjoy.

I would love to send someone a copy of Nicole’s novel. That someone could be you, or it could be someone you think would love Nicole’s singular brand of wry humor and warm wisdom (which, honestly, is everyone). Just leave a comment letting me know you’re interested by next Friday, January 30, at midnight Pacific time and I will randomly choose a winner. (I’ll email the winner for details about where to send the book.)

The giveaway is now closed.

Good Thing #2: Winter Wonders Wow, literally everything good pales in comparison to Good Thing #1, so I am jumping straight into a Good Thing that many people dislike. (Including my poor husband.) We are deep into winter, and I am LOVING IT. We have so much snow! We’ve already had one snow day and a cold day and we may have another cold day today and another snow day Monday! Listen, my child has most definitely NOT been in school enough so far in 2026, but if she’s going to miss school, I’m glad it’s for snow and not for illness (that is not an invitation for illness to find us; TOUCHING ALL THE WOOD). I do not mind the cold (although I am of course deeply grateful that I have warm clothes and a warm home, without which I might feel very different), and I love the snow. It feels like magic, the way it transforms the world into something gleaming and soft. I know cold climates are not for everyone, but I adore winter and I’m trying to enjoy every frosty moment.

Good Thing #3: Freezer / Pantry Meal I am working my way through all the goodies I’ve stashed in my freezer over the past eleventy hundred months, and yesterday I was able to whip up a batch of my favorite chipotle chicken tortilla soup with items I already had. I even had a Ziploc full of diced onion, poblano, and jalapeno waiting for me in the freezer! The only thing I had to buy fresh was cilantro. And now I have a huge Tupperware full of delicious soup to get me through these wintry days. (Yes, I also made another batch of cucumber salad. It is so good.)

Good Thing #4: One Fewer Couch For over two years now, we have had an old leather couch standing awkwardly in our piano room. It didn’t go with the space, it had a huge tear in one cushion, all the other cushions were worn past salvaging. And yet there it stayed. Well. The couch is no more! My husband and I finally arranged for the trash collectors to pick it up, and we moved it to the curb earlier this week and it is GONE. All that snow sure came in handy; it was surprisingly easy to slide the couch along the snow-covered lawn.

Good Thing #5: Cat Grandpa My family and I recently left town for a long weekend, leaving the cat at home. We hired a cat sitter to come feed him twice a day (he eats wet food for breakfast and dinner and has access to dry food [and water] all day long). But I was worried that my lovely Lenny cat would be lonely with such big stretches of his day unpeopled. So my father kindly drove 30+ minutes each way to hang out with the cat, every single day we were gone. He also sent me (and Carla) videos and photos of our kitty, because he knew we’d be missing him. Kindest of all, when the weather prevented the cat sitter from getting to our kitty one evening, and Carla sent a rogue text begging her grandfather to step in, my dad immediately got into his car, prepared to make the long drive a second time that day. I assured him that Lenny had access to plenty of fresh water and dry food, so he didn’t need to brave the snow and the dark. But he was at our house first thing the next morning to make sure the cat knew he hadn’t been abandoned. Is that not the sweetest?

Okay Internet, that’s all I’ve got for you today. I hope you have some good things in your life lately, or at least that good things are on the horizon. Sending you love and warmth and cat purrs.

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Souper Sunday

I have been meaning to post my own version of Half Baked Harvest’s Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup for a very long time. This week, I finally made a batch of it and remembered to pay attention to the process! 

This is one of my all-time favorite soups. It’s flavorful, full of fiber and protein, and has all the fun of chili (so many toppings!) without the heaviness. 

Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken and Black Bean Soup (inspired by Half Baked Harvest)

Servings: 

Around 8-10, depending on what you consider a serving

Ingredients:

  • 1 Spanish onion, diced
  • 2 Poblano peppers, diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, diced
  • Approximately 4 cloves garlic, crushed, but measure with your heart
  • 2-6 tablespoons canned chipotle and/or adobo sauce (see note 1)
  • 2 14-oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes (see note 2)
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 pound chicken (see note 2)
  • 8 cups chicken stock (see note 4)
  • Juice of two limes (see note 5)
  • 1-2 15-oz cans of black beans, drained (see note 5)
  • 1-2 cups of frozen corn (see note 5)

Optional Toppings:

  • Cilantro
  • Shredded cheddar cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Tortilla strips or chips
  • Lime juice
  • Avocado

Note 1: I love the smoky heat of chipotle peppers, but I am weird about textures and I cannot stomach the combo of skin, seeds, and slimy flesh. So I will buy a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, blend it up, and then freeze it in ice-cube trays. Once frozen, I put the cubes (which each hold roughly a tablespoon and a half of pureed chipotle/adobo) into a Ziploc bag in my freezer. They last forever this way, and I can drop them into soup and chili and taco meat and whatever else my heart desires. I usually add about 3 cubes to a batch of this soup.

Note 2: Due to the texture issues I mentioned in Note 1, I do not simply dump diced fire roasted tomatoes into my soup. Instead, I puree them in the blender, then strain the puree through a fine mesh sieve to capture any leftover seeds or tomato skin (hork). This time, I pressed the puree button on my blender three times, rather than the normal once, and I felt like the puree had FAR less debris left over after straining. Maybe next time I will puree it four times and it will be smooth enough that I can skip the straining step entirely. 

Note 3: Although chicken thighs would be great in this recipe, I prefer white meat chicken. I have been partial, lately, to chicken tenders which are less expensive than whole breasts. I usually cook the chicken along with the soup, dumping it in frozen and then pulling it out once cooked to shred it, and returning it to the soup. Pre-cooked/shredded chicken would be fine in this too, and if you don’t like chicken, I think the soup is flavorful enough that you could leave it out entirely.

Note 4: The recipe this is based on calls for just four cups of stock, and that’s fine. My husband prefers this soup with less stock because he likes a nice chunky stew. I prefer a brothy soup, so I use two four-cup cartons of chicken stock and I loooooove it.

Note 5: I add the lime juice, black beans, and corn to the soup about a half hour before it’s done cooking. Because I love black beans and corn, and because I am receptive to my husband’s aforementioned preference for a chunky stew, I sometimes add more beans or corn. Just depends on how I’m feeling in the moment. You do you.

Instructions:

  1. Spray the bowl of your slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray, then add diced onion, poblanos, jalapeno, garlic, chipotle peppers/adobo, paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
  2. Add chicken, broth, and tomatoes to the veggies and spices.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 5.5 to 6.5 hours or on high for 2.5 to 3.5 hours.
  4. Add black beans, corn, and lime juice to your slow cooker. Shred chicken if necessary and return to slow cooker. Cook on high for an additional 30 minutes.
  5. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla strips, avocado, and more lime juice.