Guest Blog: Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup

Today we have Lillian from Lilly Sue’s Bites and Brews. When she sent this post I immediately fell in love with it. Beer with chilies, avocado and chili powder: YUM! Check out this great recipe and Lilly Sue’s Bites and Brews…

Life can be crazy. Some days or weeks or even months are crazier than others. Since the New Year, I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It’s not that I don’t know which direction I want to go but it is all the other things pulling me back and keeping me from it.

It is hard to juggle the things you want to do with the things you need to do. I am an engineer and currently working on my master’s degree which I really enjoy but I also have a huge passion for my blog and beer 🙂 I made a horrible decision by taking on a HUGE project of putting together the first ever Engineering Internship and Job Fair on my campus. I have a quality that is overall good but sometimes very bad. If something will not get done well, I feel the need and responsibility to take control and well, that is what I did.

Leading up to most big events in my life, a nightmare occurs. I am not one to have dreams/nightmares often but when I am stressed and fully involved in an activity, I have anxiety “dreams.” It was lunch time at the job fair and there was NO food…I completely spaced ordering food. How could I have done that?! Luckily, waking up in a sweat, I discovered it was all a nightmare 🙂

My New Year goal for my blog was to experiment more in cooking with beer. Evident by the name, my blog is everything food and beer. Beer and restaurant reviews and recipes are shared with an occasional adventure here and there 🙂 This journey of cooking with beer has slowed down my posts but for a positive end goal that will provide lots of fun experiments in the kitchen! The recipe I am sharing is one of the first experiments that I loved.

This Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup is wonderful and perfectly in time for some brand new snow and cold weather, at least in Colorado 🙂 I hope you enjoy it too!

Tomato Chicken Chili Beer Soup

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/4-1/2 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 32 fl oz (1 qt) organic low sodium tomato soup

1-2 Billy’s Chilies by Twisted Pine

1 can white beans

1 can hominy

1 lime

2 t Chili powder

Red pepper flakes (to taste)

Chop onions. Cover the bottom of a large pot with olive oil. Simmer the onions on medium heat until tender. Add the minced garlic and let simmer for another 2 minutes.

Add the tomato soup and 1 bottle of beer. Bring it to a slight boil. Place the chicken in the pot. Add a lid and reduce the heat to medium or medium-low. The soup should maintain a low boil. Check chicken after 8-10 minutes. Pull chicken pieces out when done. Add the other beer (if using two bottles). Add the lime and chili powder. Keep the heat on medium and let the soup return to a boil.

Let boil on medium heat for 10 minutes. In the meantime, shred or cut the chicken. Drain the white beans and hominy and then add to the soup after the 10 minutes (may want longer for more heat). Bring it back to a boil and add chicken.

Bon Appetit!

Additional Notes:

Always watch the soup after pouring in the beer. It has a tendency of overflowing.

Using one beer makes an excellent mild soup. Using two beers should kick it up a notch but when I made it with two I did not think it was any hotter. To make it hotter, just add more time to boiling the soup before throwing everything else in at the end. This soup definitely does not taste two hot right away but can leave some heat in your throat 🙂

Twisted Pine is currently available in the following states: Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Check out their website to find out which locations it is distributed.