Chicken Tortilla Soup

Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, one of my favorite things to order is Chicken Tortilla Soup. The main ingredients usually involve chicken, fried tortilla strips, a hearty broth, avocados, cilantro, lime, and onion. After that there are a ton of different spins on the recipe ranging from adding corn, black beans, rice, and so on. Here is my spin on this popular Mexican soup. 

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 30-45 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: 

6 corn tortillas

vegetable cooking spray

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 jalapeno pepper (optional)

1 yellow onion

3/4 cup diced carrots

3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup cilantro

1 Tbls. ground cumin

2 Tbls. chili powder

2 bay leaves

6 cups chicken broth

1 rotisserie chicken

1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles

2 avocados

2 limes

1 small red onion

Queso Fresco, crumbled for serving

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the 6 corn tortillas into very thin strips. 

Spread the tortilla strips on a cookie sheet and spray them lightly with vegetable oil cooking spray. Bake the tortilla strips on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes. About every 5 minutes, give the strips a stir to ensure even baking. 

While the tortilla are getting crispy, slice your carrots, yellow onion, and garlic into a small dice. 

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil has heated up, add your chopped onion, carrots and garlic to the stockpot. Remove the the seeds, chop, and add 1/2 to 1 jalapeno at this point if you like a little extra heat. I used 1/2 jalapeno and it was just enough heat.  Saute the vegetables for 5 minutes. 

After about 5 minutes and the vegetables have started to get soft, stir in the cumin, chili powder, and bay leaves. Allow the spices to cook with the vegetables for about 1 minute. 

After you have cooked in the spices for 1 minute, stir in 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves and cook for an additional minute. 

After the spices and cilantro have become incorporated into the vegetables, stir in the whole can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. 

Stir and cook the tomatoes in for an additional minute. 

Once everything has been incorporated, stir in 6 cups of chicken broth. 

Bring soup up to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. 

While the soup is cooking, remove and discard the skin from the rotisserie chicken. Shred the meat and set it aside. 

After simmering the soup for 5-10 minutes, stir in the chicken and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. 

After the soup has finished cooking, stir in salt and pepper to taste. 

Garnish soup with diced red onion, cilantro, avocado, a squeeze of lime, crumbled queso fresco, and the toasted tortilla strips. 

Enjoy!!

'Till next time,
Caroline