Crockpot Tuesday–Chicken and Rice Soup

I pulled out a pack of chicken tenderloins from the freezer that I got for $1.47/lb at about noon with plans on making Chicken Fajita Chowder, but oops – I ran into some difficulty.  Mainly, I was out of 3 of the main ingredients, and the amount of time I had to cook the meal was about three hours less.

So I adapted the recipe to what I did have on hand.  This is actually a great way to save money. Don’t shop for recipes, but instead use what you have in your stockpile that was bought on sale and with coupons and change up the recipes a bit.

Since I didn’t have sour cream or cheese, I figured I would make the meal a soup instead of a chowder.  The other ingredient I was missing was Enchilada Sauce.  So I checked out my stockpile and figured I could try out one of the Knorr Homestyle Stocks that I bought last week for $1.08 for a pack of 4.  I’ve never used it before, so I wasn’t 100% sure how it would turn out, but there always has to be a first time.

So here’s the changed up recipe for Chicken and Rice Soup.   I have put ** next to the different ingredients.

• 1 1/2 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Tenderloins (mine were frozen)
• 1 pack of Knorr Chicken Homestyle Stock**
• 3 1/2 cups hot water** (had been 3 cups)
• 1/2 bag baby carrots**
• 1 can green chilies
• 1 onion diced
• 1 package Frozen Corn
• 3/4 cup uncooked rice
• 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper

I basically repeated the same steps as Chicken Fajita Chowder, but left out the last step with the cheese and sour cream and substituted the Chicken Stock for the Enchilada sauce.  Also to make up for the time shortage, I left the crockpot on High the whole time.

The first step is to cook the chicken. I placed my frozen Chicken Breast tenderloins in the crockpot with the water, Knorrs Homestyle Stock pack, chilies and onion.  Plus for my adapted recipe I added some baby carrots.

Cover the crockpot and turn on high for 2 hours.

After 2 hours of cooking, the chicken was pretty much cooked through. Since it was tenderloins, I just broke them apart into bite size pieces in the crockpot.

Next, I added the corn, rice, and green & red peppers.

I stirred it all together, put the lid back on and continued cooking on HIGH for 3 more hours.

So here’s what the meal looked like after 5 hours cooking on High.

I poured it into bowls, and served with some leftover Italian bread I had.  Everyone enjoyed the adapted version of Chicken Rice Soup, and I am looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch today.

So what about you?  Do you shop for recipes or base your recipes on what you have in your stockpile?

For more delicious recipes, be sure to check out Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy and Tuesdays at the Table, Full Plate Thursday, and Tasty Traditions.