Smoked Chicken-Banana Pepper Soup

I found this recipe in the book from below. It's taken me a while to actually make it but tonight I decided to. And I made several substitutions. I couldn't find the prechopped celery, onion and bell pepper mix and I was out of celery so I just used one whole white onion and an orange bell pepper. I didn't saute the veggies in the bacon grease before because I didn't want them to turn into mush in the slow cooker. I did still add the bacon grease to the soup after the bacon cooked. I used 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut up into bite-size pieces instead of the smoked chicken. For more of a smoky flavor, right before I served the soup, I added about 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika and it worked for the smoky flavor. The recipe calls for 8 plum tomatoes to be put in with the soup to be cooked for the 6 hours but I didn't want the tomatoes to be mush so I added them during the last 10 min of cooking time. I also substituted a cup of quinoa instead of using the rice. And I only cooked the soup for 5 hours instead of the 6. I don't really like how the texture of chicken changes during the time in the slow cooker so I cooked it for less and it did taste a little better. I also added 2 more tbsp of the juice from the banana peppers. All in all, the soup tasted really good. It has a different flavored broth than most soups and I would definitely make it again.

Smoked Chicken-Banana Pepper Soup (8 servings):

4 bacon slices
1 (8 oz) container refrigerated prechopped celery, onion and bell pepper mix (here I used 1 white onion and 1 orange bell pepper)
6 c chicken broth
2 c sliced pickled banana peppers
2 tbsp juice from pickled banana peppers (I used 4 tbsp)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 lb pulled smoked chicken
1 (14 oz) pkg boil-in-bag white rice (I used 1 c cooked quinoa)
Garnish: Fresh oregano

Cook bacon in large skillet over med-high 5-7 min or until crisp; remove bacon and drain on paper towels, reserving drippings in skillet. Coarsely crumble bacon.

Ad celery mixture to drippings in skillet; cook, stirring constantly, 5 min or until tender. Add chicken broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Transfer broth mixture to slow cooker. Stir in bacon, peppers and next 7 ingredients (again I didn't stir in the tomatoes at this time). Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours. Stir in rice (and tomatoes if you wish) during last 10 min of cooking time. Cover and cook 10 min or until heated through. Garnish.




Ingredients added...






Tomatoes & Quinoa added...






Enjoy!...