We’re enjoying moderate weather here in the DFW (50s-70s), but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not chilly in the evenings. We also tend to keep our house at 65° in winter. It saves on our electric bill. Before you express alarm, I stay pretty active during the day and I always have cozy cardigans (like this Merokeety Soft Chunky Knit Cardigan I found on Amazon) and cute Puma sweats to keep me warm.

The Mr’s father and step-mother blessed me with The Pioneer Woman’s Come and Get It! Cookbook for my birthday. A couple of things I enjoy about The Pioneer Woman: her use of color in the kitchen and her simple, yummy food. Food doesn’t have to be fancy to be good; it just has to taste good.

The Mr doesn’t typically care for only soup for dinner, but this Slow-Cooker Mexican Chicken Soup is hearty enough for any man who’s been at work all day. Plus it’s mostly hands-off if you’ve been working all day yourself! My SIL has made a version of this a few times and it’s so filling! It’s got so much heft, it could almost constitute as a stew. Also, depending on your chicken breasts, it has the potential to be thicker.

There isn’t a whole lot of prep to this recipe other than chopping the onion and peppers. The slow-cooker recipes that have you cook each of the individual components and then put them in the slow-cooker always leave me scratching my head. The slow-cooker is supposed to make things easier, not simply heat my food. At that rate, I’ve already made dinner, why would I need the slow-cooker? Thankfully this was one in which it was a set-it-and-forget-it recipe. And if you have a programmable slow-cooker like my Cuisinart 6-1/2-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker, it’s even more set-it-and-forget-it! When the cooking time finishes, it automatically switches to warm on an 8-hr timer.

We topped ours with Mexican-style shredded cheese and sour cream and enjoyed plenty of chips & salsa on the side! Does your family have a version of this hearty soup? Tell me about it in the comments below!