Slow cooker chicken tortilla soup

This week I was hit with the most diabolical of all wintertime cravings: one for spicy, soothing chicken tortilla soup.

It came out of nowhere, and in the words of Spoon, it hit me like a tom.

Here is where I must confess one of the great things about being an able-bodied grown-up. When the craving for chicken tortilla soup hits you, you can go out and just get yourself some chicken tortilla soup.

Better yet, you can make your own.

I did a quick recipe search and found this recipe for slow-cooker version. God bless Allrecipes.

It's extraordinarily simple, and highly delicious. If you don't want to cook your own chicken, you can pick up cooked chicken from the deli. The most you'll be responsible for, besides opening a few cans, is chopping up an onion and a few cloves of garlic.

This soup doesn't photograph all that spectacularly, as I found out moments ago, but what it lacks in photogenic pizazz it makes up for in flavor. (I'm slurping it down even now. I should know.)

Ingredients

• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 7 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil

Directions

1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, discard bay leaf from soup. Sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.