the best soup ever

A few years ago, we were at Wegmans for lunch and I had the most wonderful southwestern chicken soup.  If you have never been to WEGMANS you should stop reading this immediately and go there-not the website, but the actual store.  If you have to drive several hours, don't worry-it will be worth it. 

Back to the soup-it was amazing.  I tried to track down the recipe on their website (because they do publish most of their prepared food recipes) and even asked my brother-in-law who was a chef there before moving on to his own restaurant.  No one, and I mean no one, could get me the recipe.  Thus began my quest for making the perfect soup. 

On top of being so crazy delicious I could eat this every day, this soup ends up being really healthy, too and it's simple to make. Line up your ingredients:

This is about as easy as it gets, because all you have to do is start dumping the ingredients into your soup pot.

Let's start with the onions.  I hate, hate, hate chopping onions, and thankfully someone at Wegmans knows this and they have packaged their chopped onions for me so I don't have to cry about how much I hate chopping them.  I also love how their food is called FYFGA (food you feel good about) because really, I do feel good about already chopped onions.  Put some olive oil in the pot and pour in the onions.  I use half of this bag.

Once you've got the onions nice and translucent, it's time to bring on the chicken.  I usually marinate the chicken overnight (at least) in the Wegman's Fajita marinade.  This marinade is tomato based and spicy without adding any heat.  I cook the chicken covered on low-medium heat till it's tender and ready to be chopped. 

Many people use two forks to shred chicken or meat in soups and other recipes-I prefer this tool, which is used for making cheesesteaks.  This way, I can chop the chicken right in the pot. 

Next, get your can opener ready, because you are going to add the canned goodies:

I use two cans of original ro-tel and a can or two of mexicorn-undrained for both.  The next step is the beans, and lots of them.  Don't forget to rinse the beans if you are using canned (or drain them if you are using dried and then soaked beans).  I use three cans of black beans, you could use more or less or even throw in some other beans if you want. 

At this point, the soup looks like this-try not to eat it yet. 

Sorry for the blurry photo-I think I was getting hungry!  Add 2-3 cans of vegetable broth and a few cups of water and simmer the soup for a few hours.  In the end, it comes out like this:

We eat it with shredded cheese (I like the jalapeno jack or cheddar for some kick) and a few crumbled tortilla chips.  I tried to figure this soup out roughly for Weight Watchers and I think a one cup serving (without the chips and cheese) is 3-4 points.  Enjoy!  If you end up making the soup, let me know how you liked it!