CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP.

YAY! I haven't posted many recipes since I didn't have to blog about being vegan. It's sad, I kind of liked sharing all these cool recipes I was trying out. My dad had recently poached some chicken for another dish and he was left with a whole lot of ready made chicken stock. I hate to see anything go to waste so my sister and I decided to use the chicken stock instead of throwing it out. We usually have a few ingredients that are staples in our house, so after assessing what we had we decided to make chicken tortilla soup. YUMM! We've used this recipe before from foodnetwork.com and it's really good. We do make some adjustments here and there. This is the recipe as is:

Ingredients

* 4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
* Good olive oil
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)
* 1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
* 2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)
* 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
* 2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
* 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed
* 2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
* 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, optional
* 6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas

Directions

For serving: sliced avocado, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using. Cut the tortillas in 1/2, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.

These are the steps that I took. I first chopped up all my veggies. (onions, carrots, garlic, celery, jalapenos and cilantro)


I had the chicken stock on the stove simmering. I also skimmed the fat off the top and threw it out.


Since I had chicken stock and no chicken I decided to be "semi-homemade" and go to the store to get a rotisserie chicken that was already baked. These are great when you're on a tight schedule because they're already fully cooked and only cost about $5 depending on where you get it. Most grocery stores have them in their deli section and they come in containers like this:


With the chicken already cooked you just take off the skin and bones and shred it. After all the chicken is shredded, save it off to the side while you work on the base of your soup.




For the soup; you want to first saute your carrots, onion and celery. This trio of veggies is often referred to as a mirepoix (pronounced "meer-pwah") and is used for the base of many dishes and used as aromatics.



Once the onions are browned a little, add the garlic and saute for a couple minutes. It smells DELISH at this point! :)



At this point it is time to add your chicken stock. I moved everything to a large soup pot so that it didn't over-boil on me. I added the stock, can of crushed tomatoes, chopped jalapenos, cilantro, cumin, ground coriander, salt & pepper to taste, and corn tortillas. The corn tortillas should be cut into small strips. This really helps to thicken the soup.




After everything is added to the pot you want to bring it to a boil. Once the soup is boiling you want to simmer it on low for 25-30 minutes. The soup should have thickened a lot due to the tortillas. Once you are done simmering, add the shredded chicken that you saved and stir until all the contents are mixed.



When you are ready to serve you can add whatever toppings you want. I've tried this many times and you can put sour cream, shredded cheese, fresh tomatoes, green onions, salsa, tortilla chips, etc. I just added a little dollop of sour cream, cheddar cheese and tortilla chips for crunch. This was DELICIOUS!!! Enjoy! =)



SOURCE.