Chicken Tortilla Soup

Happy Monday everyone!

I am SO excited to be sharing this soup recipe with you. Once again, a Chef Maju recipe, however I have adapted it slightly to make it a bit more simple.

This recipe makes a LOT of soup, but good news is that it freezes well! This soup takes a bit of time to prepare, but a lot of it is hands off time. It has so much flavor, and great texture from the corn tortillas that are steeped in the soup to thicken it. It’s true healthy comfort food let me tell ya!

This is really the best Chicken Tortilla Soup ever. Let’s make it!

The soup starts by placing one chicken and 2-3 dried chilis in a large stock pot with chicken stock and water.

These are the dried chilis I used. You can really use whichever ones you can locate at your grocery store. I like the ancho chilis for the rich color and flavor they give the soup.

Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce to simmer for about 45 minutes.

In the meantime, time to char our vegetables for the soup! In this bowl cut up I have 8 plum tomatoes, 1 white onion, 2 red bell peppers, and 2 jalapenos. I char them in batches in a dry cast iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast iron (even though, you should 😉 ) you can keep the vegetables whole and char them over a gas flame or you can roast them in the oven at 500 degrees for about 7 minutes.

You just want them to get a bit of color on the outside to give a nice smoky touch to the soup. Once the chicken is removed, add in all the charred vegetables plus simmer for another 45 minutes.

Meanwhile once the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred all of the chicken.

In the last 10 minutes of the soup simmering, add in 6 corn tortillas and 3 cloves of garlic. You can break them up a bit but the soup is going to get blended so its not necessary. I chose to remove a couple of the dried chilis before blending the soup, which I recommend to help control the spice level. But if you like it super spicy, theres no need to discard the chilis.

Carefully transfer the soup to a blender (or bonus if you have an immersion blender just use that, ours broke so alas, blender it is!)

Once the soup is all blended add in 3 tbsp ground cumin and about 4 tbsp of kosher salt (its a LOT of soup!)

Add the chicken back in, along with 1 can of black beans and 2 cups of corn kernels (I just used frozen) . Add in the juice of 2 limes, plus another couple large pinches of salt. Serve with all the toppings and enjoy!

For my toppings I love to do homemade tortilla strips, avocado, scallions, cheddar cheese, cilantro, radish, etc.

This soup is SO good. And honestly, tastes even better the next day! The perfect thing to have on hand for lunches throughout the week.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1 3.5-4 lb chicken 
• 2-3 dried chilis (ancho, chile de arbol, etc) 
• 64 oz chicken stock 
• 8 plum tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, roughly chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6 corn tortillas 
• 3 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 2 cups corn kernels (canned or frozen) 
• Juice of 2 limes 
• Kosher salt 
• Garnish options: tortilla strips, avocado, scallions, cilantro, radish, cheddar cheese 

Instructions:

1. In a large soup pot, add the chicken, dried chilis and chicken stock. Add enough water to just cover the chicken, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat a cast iron skillet to high heat. In batches, char all the vegetables for about 3 minutes. If you don’t own a cast iron, you can roast the vegetables at 500 degrees F for about 7 minutes.
3. After 45 minutes, remove the chicken carefully from the pot and set aside to cool. Add all of the charred vegetables to the soup pot and simmer for another 45 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, shred the chicken meat and discard the carcass.
5. In the last 10 minutes of simmering, add in the 3 cloves of garlic and corn tortillas. If you would like the soup to not be spicy, remove the dried chili’s from the pot. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup together (or transfer the soup in batches to a blender).
6. Add the ground cumin to the soup and about 4-5tbsp of kosher salt. Add in the shredded chicken, black beans, corn, lime juice and season to taste. You may need to add more salt or even more lime juice. Don’t be shy with the salt, it’s a lot of soup you are seasoning!
7. Serve with garnishes of choice and enjoy!

This soup is perfect for feeding a crowd. Not that we are gathering in crowds right now..but you know, there will come a day! Positive manifesting thoughts!

Tomorrow I’m announcing a fun virtual cooking class event I will be hosting next week! I will give you all the details of how to sign up in tomorrows post 🙂

xx Chelcie