Inspiration: As B and I have been cutting carbs out of our diet, we love to take soups for lunches during the work week. There seems to be an endless variety of low-carb soup recipes out there, and having a nice, hot bowl of soup midday is such a warming treat in these cold winter months! I bought a few handy soup thermoses, and I’m always on the lookout for new soups to try. As chipotle peppers are one of our favorite ingredients, this soup sounded interesting and looked fantastic!

What we Loved: This soup is great because it reminds me of a classic, comforting chicken soup, but at the same time, it’s a little bit different and has a nice, spicy kick and a little bit of a Southwestern feel. This appeals to me, because I’m always looking for new and different recipes, yet I always feel a little bit of a pull toward classic favorites, too. This recipe is the best of both worlds! I loved the taste of the fresh cilantro and the heat from the chipotle, and I loved the hearty chicken flavor of the broth. I tend to make a lot of thicker soups or stews, so I really appreciated the lightness of this soup as well.

Helpful Hints: This soup recipe is really straightforward, so I don’t have much advice in terms of preparing it. My only thought is to make sure that you aren’t too generous with the chipotle peppers, if you haven’t cooked with them before. When I was new to cooking with chipotles in adobo, I was always (regretably) tempted to throw in more than the recipe called for. But they’re extremely hot, and one small pepper is more than enough for this soup!

Chipotle Chicken Soup

Source: We Heart Food, originally from Cooking Light

I made only a few changes to the recipe, omitting the celery (because we don’t like it) and the potatoes (to eliminate the majority of the carbohydrates). Here’s the recipe as I made it.

Extra virgin olive oil
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced with 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce
2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup carrot, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
6 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups chicken broth
2 small chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon salt

1. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chile, adobo sauce, onion, carrot, cumin, oregano, and garlic. Cook until the onion is tender, approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add the broth, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

3. Remove the pan from the heat. Use an immersion blender or a food processor to puree the mixture until smooth. Return the pan to the heat, and stir in the chicken, cream, and cilantro. Simmer for 5 minutes, and then season with the salt, adding more to taste, if necessary.