Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 2-3 cups of shredded chicken meat **
- 1 cup small /medium diced onion ~ 1 medium onion (I use sweet onions
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup whole corn kernels frozen, canned or best is fresh off the cob
- 1 4 ounce can chopped green chili peppers (you can choose the heat level)
- 1 can 15 ounce black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup celery small diced
- 1-2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1-2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro cleaned and de-stemmed
- 1 tsp chili powder optional
- 5-6 cups chicken broth **
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼-½ cup Half-and-half and 2-3 tablespoons of flour if you want to make it a cream soup.
Optional Toppings
- crushed tortilla chips
- avocado slices
- shredded Jack cheese
- chopped green onions
- squeeze of lime
Instructions
- In a large stockpot over medium heat sauté onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in olive oil until softened, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, broth, thyme, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, chili powder; bring to a boil then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the chicken, corn, can of chilies, black beans, and continue to simmer for another 15-20 minutes. You can serve now or leave it in the stock pot or put contents in a crockpot on low. If in a crockpot on low, it can stay there 3-4 hours until soup time! Add cilantro about 30 min before serving,
- If you wanted to make it a creamy tortilla soup, take about 1 cup of broth out and mix in about 2-3 tablespoons of flour to make a slurry, add back to the soup and stir well, then add some cream or ½ and ½ to make it a creamy broth. If the soup is too thick just add some chicken or vegetable broth.
- Ladle soup into individual serving bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips avocado slices cheese and chopped green onion and extra cilantro if you please.
Notes
This will keep (and taste delicious!) 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
** Cooks Note on chicken and broth:
There are several choices for the chicken. You can get store bought cooked roaster chicken and remove all meat, or buy packaged shredded chicken breast (expensive!)
However, my most flavorful and cost-effective favorite is to get 2-3 chicken breast halves (skin and bone on) and put it in a crock or stockpot with about 3 cups of water and 2 cans/cups of chicken or vegetable broth, 2 bay leaves and whatever is left of the ends of celery, carrot, and onion after chopping (a poor man’s mirepoix and no waste of food!). Slow cook about 3-4 hours until fully cooked and fall-off-the- bone tender. Let it cool a little and then shred the chicken. Discard bones and skin but keep the broth/ liquid. Strain broth and this will be the soup broth. Saves money and you have maintained all the goodness of the chicken and flavor, instead canned broth. If you do use a broth, I suggest buying Better than Bouillon… it’s the best (my opinion). This can also be done 1 or 2 days before.