Bright and spicy with lots of color, flavor and wonderful aroma, Mexican chicken soup is perfect for warming you on chilly days or cold nights. You can make this soup as spicy as you want and use jalapeno, habanero, or long red chili peppers. Adapted from Delicious & Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Finlayson, this recipe for Mexican chicken soup is cooked slowly in a crock pot to meld the ingredients and allow the flavors to develop.

Serve the soup in a large bowl or tureen for a family-style gathering or arrange them in colorful bowls and garnish the soup with tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese for a hearty meal and authentic experience. You can arrange the garnishes around the soup and allow your guests to garnish their own bowls themselves for a fun dining experience. You can also serve the soup right in the crock pot to keep it warm and fresh the whole time.

This recipe includes a lot of warm and comforting spices and ingredients including cumin seeds, fresh cilantro, hot chili pepper, celery, carrots, onions, lime juice, and peppercorns. Chicken breasts, with the skin and the bone on, are used as well as chicken stock. In this recipe, the chicken used is raw and it is cooked in the stock together with the other ingredients. You can also use leftover chicken breasts from whole roast or baked chicken, however, and add it to the soup at the end to heat it up.

The chicken soup is garnished with sliced avocados and whipping cream to complete the dish. Make sure you add the avocados only at the end since it is soft and delicate and you want it to retain its shape and color. You can also garnish the dish with freshly chopped cilantro and add fresh lime juice and hot chili powder depending on how bright, hot and spicy you want the soup to be. Season the soup with salt as you desire and sprinkle on some grated cheese to counter the sourness and spiciness. Get your vegetable soup recipes here.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 onions (chopped)
4 stalks celery (chopped)
2 carrots (chopped)
3 sprigs fresh cilantro
1 hot chili pepper (seeds removed and chopped)
10 peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (cut in half)
10 oz. chicken stock
5 cups water
½ cup whipping cream
2 small avocados (skins removed and sliced)
Lime juice

Toast the cumin seeds by placing them in a skillet (with no fat or oil in it) over medium heat. Stir until they are golden and their scent is released. Spoon into a bowl and allow to cool completely. Use a spice grinder, a mortar and pestle, or a rolling pin to grind the seeds.

Pour the onions, celery, carrots, 2 sprigs of cilantro, pepper, peppercorns, salt, chicken, stock, and water into a crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours, or on low for 6 hours.

Using a slotted spatula or spoon, remove the chicken from the crock pot and debone it and remove the skin. Place the chicken on a plate and use two forks to shred it.

Strain the liquid in the crock pot. Keep the strained liquid warm. In a mixing bowl, beat the whipping cream. Fold in the cumin seeds.

Serve the soup with the chicken on top, followed by some avocado slices. Sprinkle lime juice over this, then add a spoon of the whipping cream. Sprinkle with a few cilantro leaves.