Chicken Tortilla Soup

One of my favorite things about wintertime is that I get to make soup for dinner! I love making soup and I love eating soup more than that! So, here's my take on chicken tortilla soup.

First, let me just say that you can vary this soup to your own liking by adding other vegetables that you like or omitting ones that I mention. I didn't have zucchini the day I made mine, but if you have that, you can add some to your soup. You can add frozen corn to this as well.

For the basic soup, you will need:
1. one yellow onion, chopped (red onion works fine, too)
2. three or four cloves of garlic, chopped
3. 2-3 celery stalks, chopped (1/4 inch pieces)
4. 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped (1/4 inch pieces)
5. 1-2 boneless, skinless breasts of chicken, cubed into 1/2-1 inch pieces, depending on how much you have (I used one and it was fine, but if you want it more hearty, you can use two)
6. one 16 oz can of black beans
7. handful of cilantro and 2 green onions, chopped for garnish
8. three cheese mexican blend (about 1/2-1 cup)
9. 8-10 white or yellow corn tortillas cut into thin strips, I prefer white corn tortillas. I tend to cut up a lot of tortilla strips because I like a lot of them in my soup! Just eyeball how much you want. The leftovers are fun to nibble on and they keep well in a ziploc bag for the next day, too.
10. vegetable or canola oil for frying the tortilla strips
11. two big 32 oz cartons or cans of (organic, if you have it) chicken broth
12. lime
13. extra virgin olive oil
14. salt and pepper
15. teaspoon of mexican oregano
16. bay leaf
17. 16 oz can of cut tomatoes (petite cut or regular)
18. teaspoon ground cumin (you can add more if you like cumin)
19. 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
20. teaspoon ancho chile pepper powder or mexican chile powder or regular chili powder

First add some oil into a fry pan until it reaches about 1/2 up the side. Set the heat to medium/medium-high depending on your stove. After a few minutes, test the oil with a wooden spoon by sticking the handle stick into the oil until it touches the bottom of them pan. When you see bubbles forming around the handle, your oil is ready to go. Add a handful of tortilla strips and fry until they are lightly golden brown. Keep frying in small batches until you have used up all the tortilla strips. Place strips on a paper towel or cooling rack and season with salt immediately after taking them out of the oil.

In a large dutch oven or stock pot, add a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil and turn the heat to medium. Add the onions and saute for a minute or two. Add the carrots, celery and garlic and saute for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the oregano, chile powder, cumin, coriander and stir the veggies. Add the black beans and tomatoes. Season with more salt and pepper. Add the chicken broth and bay leaf. Turn up the heat to high until it comes to a boil, then lower the heat back to a medium simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the carrots soften. At this point, this will hold for quite some time on low heat until you are ready to add the chicken. (Once you add the chicken though, you should serve it immediately, so the chicken doesn't overcook and get dry.) Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the gently simmering soup and let the chicken poach for a few minutes. Check the chicken after a five minutes or so to see if it's cooked through. If it's still pink inside, let it finish simmering a couple minutes longer while you get the garnish (green onions, cilantro, cheese, lime) ready. Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings; add more salt and pepper to your liking.

To serve:

Ladle a generous amount of soup into a big bowl (trust me, you will want a big bowl of this!) and add a sprinkling of green onions and cilantro. Squeeze the lime all over for an extra kick of flavor. Add a handful of tortilla strips and pile them in the center of the bowl. Sprinkle the strips with a handful of cheese. You may add extra cilantro on top for added garnish (plus, I just love cilantro, so I can never have too much of it on anything). My husband likes his soup spicy, so he adds some Tapatio hot sauce.

This is a warm and comforting treat to eat at the end of a cold winter's day. It's worth the time to make your own tortilla strips (It doesn't take long either! Really, it doesn't! I just fry them up while I am chopping the veggies). If you don't want to make your own tortillas strips, you can always use store bought tortilla chips and crumble them into the soup instead. But, believe me, it really makes the soup when you make your own tortilla strips. Plus this soup only gets better the second day, so make a big batch, even if it's just for one or two people, and keep the rest for leftovers for the next day's lunch.

This is also a good "use up" meal because you can use up your extra tortillas and use up your root veggies. You can easily make this a vegetarian soup by omitting the chicken and using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Just add the corn and zucchini to make this soup a little heartier. Enjoy!