Mt. Blanca Chicken Soup

Okay Alison - this one is for you.

At a playgroup lunch a few years ago the hostess made chicken chili. The recipe she used is from Better Homes and Garden. Here is the recipe, called Wasatch Mountain Chili. Well, it was really good and we all asked for the recipe. A couple of weeks later I made it. My family thought it was okay but they didn't like the lime. They didn't know it had lime in it and couldn't really describe what they didn't like about it, but the next time I made it I left out the lime and they said it was much better. I've been making it for a while now and the recipe has evolved to more of a chicken soup rather than a chili. Here is my version which I have called Mt. Blanca Chicken Soup:

1 whole roasted chicken from the grocery store
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans of hominy, drained
2 cans of great northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans of chicken broth
black pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
dried herbs, about 1/2 tsp. (I use Mural of Flavor from Penzey spices, but Italian spices would work or just some basil. Fresh herbs are also good but I usually make this in the winter and don't have any fresh.)

Cut the chicken off the bone and then into bite size pieces. Put everything in the crock pot and top it off with water if your crock pot isn't full. Let cook all day. Sometimes I add diced carrots, celery or some mixed vegetables (canned or frozen are fine). What I usually do is buy two or three chickens when they go on sale. Cut them up and freeze them. Then buy all the stuff so I can just pull the chicken out of the freezer in the morning and defrost it in the microwave. Dump everything in the crock pot and sew all day.