Chicken Tortilla Soup

My father-in-law, Johnny, was the inspiration for the creation of this soup. He loves the one we serve at the Mexican Restaurant I work for and back then they didn't have a location in Wichita for him to get his fix. I wanted to make something healthier and a little more robust than the one from work. So I got busy. The first time I got to make this for Johnny and my mother in law, Karen, they both flipped over it and I boxed the rest of it right up for them to take back home to the ICT. I do believe they had it for dinner again the next day. It made my millennium to make him so happy.

Now, my husband wanted to make sure I told you that I usually poach the chicken breast whole in some well seasoned broth w onions, garlic and chilis and then shred it (his preferred method). But today I didn't have that kind of time so I did it this way. It turned out every bit as delicious and I quite enjoyed the chunks of chicken for a change.

 

What i used for 4 servings: 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, frozen corn thawed, 1 can of black beans drained, drained can of RoTel w cilantro and lime juice w liquid reserved, 1 carton chicken stock, 1 Anaheim chili, 1 jalapeno, 2 Serrano peppers, fresh cilantro, garlic, white and green onion, fresh lime and one bag of my special ingredient, we'll get to that later.

Begin by adding some oil to a hot dutch oven or other deep soup pot. I like to use Omega-3 oil, it's a blend between extra virgin olive oil and Canola oil. {Incidently, do you know why Canola oil is called Canola oil? Because it's made in Canada! It's true, look it up.}

You are looking for ripples here folks. You wanna make sure the oil and the pan are super hot so the chicken will sear and get some sweet color.

Cut the chicken into your desired bite-size, keeping in mind that it shrinks as it cooks and it will eventually get so tender it almost falls apart. That nice sear is gonna prevent that from happening though. I used kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, dark chili powder, ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, mexican oregano and dried red pepper flakes to season the chicken.

Do not be stingy with the seasoning. This soup is anything but bland. Stir the chicken to get it well coated and then let it sit so it develops that nice caramelization. Stir it every so often making sure to keep it moving so it doesn't have a chance to stick.

You can see it starting to brown and plump up. juicy juicy juicy!

When it's cooked through, remove w slotted spoon and place on paper towel lined plate. Pull the pan off the heat to cool for just a min. Make sure to leave all the oil and the bits of goodness on the bottom of the pan.

Dice up the white onion, the peppers and the garlic. I like to grate the garlic for this soup. I also season at this step, this time w kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and ground cumin.

See all those good bits of deliciousness??? Add a little bit more oil if needed, let the pan get hot again and then toss in the onion and chili peppers but not the garlic, not yet.

Season the veggies with the salt, pepper and cumin. Stir constantly so as not to get too much color on them and be sure to scrape up all the awesome bits of goodness from the bottom of the pan! That stuff is called "fond" but I think awesome bits of goodness sounds much more edible.

See, no more fond, it's all mixed in.

Add the garlic and stir to combine. Let cook, while stirring for a few min but do not let the garlic start to brown.

Add in the drained RoTel tomatoes.

Cook for a few minutes to let the flavors combine and the tomatoes heat through. Make sure to stick your face directly over the pot to enjoy a steamy veggie facial. So good! 

Put the chicken back into the pot and stir while it simmers...

Taste for seasoning before you add in the liquids. This is super important my friends. You absolutely must taste everything as you go. I mean, if you don't like it, who will???

Add the entire carton of chicken stock. thank the food gods for boxed stocks and broths! what. a. time. saver.

Add in 2 cups of hot water, the hotter the better. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and let simmer covered for one hour. Feel free to busy yourself doing something else at this point. Just go stir the soup every now and then and adjust the heat so it stays at a nice simmer and doesn't boil. AND DON'T FORGET TO TASTE IT!!!

It's simmering nicely, that means it's time to bust out my SPECIAL ingredient...

BOOM! Corn tortilla chips!!! Ok, so maybe you have been using this trick forever but the first time I added them it changed my chicken tortilla soup world. I am super lucky to work for an amazing Mexican restaurant that makes their own super thin, super corny tasting chips. I used about 4 oz. of their delicate chips for this batch, but feel free to use your favorite corn tortilla chips. I even used Frito's Scoops once because i forgot to bring home the chips from work. The main thing is the corn, it adds so much flavor it's ridiculous. And it helps thicken the soup as well. Really gives it a rich, silky texture.

Crush 'em up. I just used the bag i brought them home in. Rolled the right up and crushed them into smithereens with my bare hands. You should feel my handshake sometime. Iron grip. ;))

Go ahead and add in those drained black beans and stir them in really well. They like to fall right to the bottom so I like to show them who's boss and get them incorporated as soon as possible. Caution: they will stick to the bottom of the pan if you do not stir them often. And nobody likes burnt stuck on beans. :/

Dump the crushed chips into the soup.

Stir the chips in well to combine. You are doing so great, by the way. I couldn't be more impressed w the way you are workin this soup!

You can start to see the changes in the soup after only 5 minutes. Slap the lid back on and let it simmer over med-low heat for 30 mins. Continue to stir the soup every so often so those beans don't stick!

If you come back and the soup is thicker than you want it, just add some more hot water. Make sure to taste it after so you can adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Add in the about a 1/2 cup of corn. You can add more if you like, but i don't like it to become to overwhelming in the soup. 

The last stages of the soup... get ready to get your garnish on!!! Now truthfully these are more than just garnishes, I mean the soup would NOT taste the same with out them. It's not my fault that they add prettiness too.

Add the chopped fresh cilantro, chopped green onion and the juice of one whole lime. If your limes are small, use 2.  Stir it up, little darling, stir it up...

It is at this point where you need to stop everything else that you are doing. I mean it, put the iphone down, quit yelling at the kids to be quiet, press pause on your Adele cd. Your full attention should be on the soup spoon that is holding the perfect slurpy bite of the most delicious soup you have ever made. This is it, the dress rehearsal. The final fitting. You are tasting this for last time before you shout out proudly for the entire neighborhood to hear "DINNER!!!!!!"

Did you do it? Did you taste it? All that corny goodness, with the tender cuts of chicken and that subtle spiciness that is the most fantastic way to wake up your long slumbering tastebuds. Mmmmm......

Ok, snap out of it! We have some quesadillas to make!

For dinner tonight, I used both Monterrey Jack and Sharp Cheddar cheeses. I run a little stick of unsalted butter around the griddle first and then slapped the tortillas on making sure to get the butter all the way to the edges. I didn't butter the tortilla directly this time because in case you hadn't noticed w all this flavor going on, there is very little fat in this soup, and I didn't want to muck up the works w a greasy quesadilla. Sprinkle as much or little cheese as you want across the tortillas and let the griddle do the work.

Once the cheese has started to melt and the tortilla begins to brown, fold the tortillas in half and flip them over every so often so they don't get to dark on the outside before the cheese has had it's chance to get all melty.

Like this. ^^^

I like to use a pizza cutter for this job, it's easy. The pizza cutter is actually one of the most sophisticated of the simple tools, as it contains four of them: a wedge, a lever, a wheel and an axle. A very nice example of how important human ingenuity is to our cause as human race. Gotta make sure those chimps never get a hold of a pizza cutter.

Wheel that sucker into four slices and serve along side your soup. I call them quesadilla dippers for a reason: you dip them into that hot bowl of comfort.

You can get all fancy and garnish this w cheese and some more fresh cilantro and green onions if you are serving it to someone who would be impressed by that. Or you can just let the soup speak for itself and watch it go bye-bye.

And now for the moment we have all been waiting for... drum roll please...

Nailed it! Looks to me like they liked it!

And just enough for some leftovers. Like all soups this is even better the second time.