Warm Up With Crock-Pot Southwestern Chicken Soup on Cold Winter Days

Every week, Yahoo Food spotlights a cookbook that stands out from the rest. This week’s cookbook is Paleo Perfected: A Revolution in Eating Well with 150 Kitchen-Tested Recipes by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen (America’s Test Kitchen). Read more about Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week here.

Photograph by Daniel J. van Ackere and Catrine Kelty

By the editors at America’s Test Kitchen

Slow-Cooker Southwestern Chicken Soup
Serves 6 to 8

Why This Recipe Works: This turbocharged, south-of-the-border chicken soup features a spicy, tomatoey broth overflowing with tender shredded chicken and fresh, bright garnishes. Typically, this broth acquires its deep, smoky flavor from charred vegetables. To replicate these flavors in a slow cooker, we browned some of the vegetables in a skillet before adding them to the slow cooker. Using a combination of fresh jalapeño and chipotle chile powder ensured balanced spice in every bite. The gentle heat of the slow cooker kept our bone-in chicken breasts tender and moist through cooking. Zucchini added heartiness to the dish without making it heavy, and stirring it in at the end kept it from getting too mushy. Don’t omit the garnishes; the flavor of the soup depends heavily on them. For a spicier soup, reserve, mince, and add the ribs and seeds from the jalapeño. We prefer to use homemade chicken broth; however, you can substitute your favorite store-bought broth. You will need a 4- to 7-quart slow cooker for this recipe.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped fine
1 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
Kosher salt and pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoons chipotle chile powder
8 cups Paleo Chicken Broth (see below)
3 (12-ounce) bone-in split chicken breasts, trimmed
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 avocados, halved, pitted, and cut into ½-inch pieces
4 radishes, trimmed and sliced thin
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
Lime wedges

Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onions, jalapeño, and 1 tablespoon salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, oregano, cumin, and chile powder and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in 1 cup broth, scraping up any browned bits; transfer to slow cooker.

Stir remaining 7 cups broth into slow cooker. Season chicken with salt and pepper and nestle into slow cooker. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, 3 to 5 hours on low.

Transfer chicken to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred into bite-size pieces using 2 forks; discard skin and bones.

Using wide, shallow spoon, skim excess fat from surface of soup. Stir in zucchini, cover, and cook on high until tender, about 30 minutes.

Stir in shredded chicken and let sit until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top individual portions with tomatoes, avocados, radishes, and cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

Paleo Chicken Broth
Makes about 8 cups

Why This Recipe Works: This rich and well-rounded chicken broth is perfect for use across a wide range of paleo recipes-—as a base for soups, stews, and sauces; as a cooking medium; and even on its own. Many recipes for chicken stock call for simmering a whole chicken, but we found that cutting the chicken into pieces yielded more flavor by providing more surface area for browning. We tested a variety of vegetables to round out our broth and found that onion enhanced the chicken flavor while also imparting a gentle sweetness. Chopping and then sautéing the onion in the pot after browning the chicken helped concentrate the onion’s flavor. We simmered pots of broth from 1 to 24 hours, and tasters agreed that at 4 hours, our broth had the best flavor—a deep, well-rounded chicken base with a slightly aromatic sweetness. After 8 hours, the broth began to taste slightly metallic, and further cooking gave way to bitter, harsh, and even burnt tones. If using a slow cooker, you will need one that holds 51/2 to 7 quarts. You can reserve the separated chicken fat in step 4 and substitute it in savory recipes where olive oil, coconut oil, or ghee are called for.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 pounds whole chicken legs, backs, and/or wings, hacked into 2-inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
8 cups water
3 bay leaves
Kosher salt

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Brown half of chicken, about 5 minutes; transfer to large bowl. Repeat with remaining chicken; transfer to bowl.

Add onion to fat left in pot and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cups water, bay leaves, and 1 teaspoon salt, scraping up any browned bits.

For the stovetop: Stir remaining 6 cups water into pot, then return browned chicken and any accumulated juices and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer gently until broth is rich and flavorful, about 4 hours.

For the slow cooker: Transfer browned chicken and any accumulated juices and onion mixture to slow cooker. Stir in remaining 6 cups water. Cover and cook until broth is rich and flavorful, about 4 hours on low.

Remove large bones from pot, then strain broth through fine-mesh strainer into large container; discard solids. Let broth settle for 5 to 10 minutes, then defat using wide, shallow spoon or fat separator. (Cooled broth can be refrigerated for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month.)

Reprinted with permission from Paleo Perfected: A Revolution in Eating Well with 150 Kitchen-Tested Recipes by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen (America’s Test Kitchen).

More paleo recipes to love:

Chocolate Chip Georgia Pecan Pie from ‘Down South Paleo’

Orange Sriracha Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo

Grilled Mayan Pork Chops from ‘One-Pot Paleo’