Have I mentioned that we have leftover chicken from the big “Chicken Grill” a couple of weeks ago? Well, I still have 3 to 4 quarts of deboned chicken in the freezer, so I got some out this morning to make soup for lunch. I know, it’s the first hot spell of the summer and I am making soup, but it’s not like we work outside. In fact, it may be cooler in our house in the summer than in the winter. Anyway, I felt like making soup so I did!
I have been looking for a Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe for a while but haven’t found what I want, so I went on a search mission this morning and combined several recipes. I wanted it spicy but not too tomato-ey. After experimenting a bit, this is what I came up with. The fried tortilla strips are a great addition to the soup, absolutely, for sure necessary!!
The soup might be a little hotter than I usually make, but I was so excited to find a nice little jalapeno in my garden this morning, that I decided to add it! I would recommend using half a jalapeno or stick with a little hot sauce. The heat had my nose running (TMI, yes?) all the way through lunch, even though I loved every spoonful of it! The cilantro was from the garden too! I love my little herb garden!
I do want to mention my favorite new kitchen gadget, my mini-food processor. I used it 3 times in this recipe (bonus points if you guess all three! Now if I was really a Jr. Pioneer Woman, I would be giving one away, but sorry…). It is so much easier to pull out than the big, heavy food processer, doesn’t take up half the dishwasher when I’m done and it gets the job done. It was a good $40 investment.
PS: I chopped the onions/chopped the garlic & jalapenos/pulverized the RoTel in my mini-food processor. In case you were wondering!
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Print recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups Shredded Chicken (cooked)
- 5 cups Chicken Broth
- 1/2 Small Onion (chopped)
- 2 teaspoons Canola Oil
- 2 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 1 Small Jalapeno (seeded and diced (can substitute 1 Tbs. hot sauce))
- 1/2 Small Lime (juice of)
- 1 can RoTel Diced Tomatoes & Chiles (10 oz can. Blend in food processor or blender)
- 1/2 can Black Beans (15 oz can (I used dried black beans, cooked per pckg directions to make 1 cup))
- 3/4 cups Frozen Whole Kernal Corn
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Cilantro (fresh or 1 teaspoon dried cilantro)
- Additional toppings as desired (avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese, pico de gallo)
Fried Tortilla Strips
- 4 Medium Flour Tortillas
- 1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 2 cups Canola Oil (for frying)
Directions
| Step 1 | |
|
Heat 2 tsp. oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and jalapeno (or hot sauce), and cook two minutes, stirring frequently. Add shredded chicken, stirring into onion, garlic and jalapeno for an additional minute. |  |
| Step 2 | |
| Add the broth, blended Ro Tel sauce, beans, and corn to the pot. Add cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. | |
| Step 3 | |
| Serve soup topped with fried tortilla strips, sour cream, pico de gallo, shredded cheese and/or avocado as desired. | |
| Fried Tortilla Strips | |
| Step 4 | |
|
To fry tortilla strips: use pizza cutter to cut 2 tortillas into thin strips (1/4 to ½ inch). Heat vegetable oil (1/2 inch deep) over medium high heat in medium fry pan. Gently drop tortilla strips into oil and fry until golden brown (2 to 4 minutes). Remove to drain on paper towels. If desired, dust lightly with mixture of seasoned salt, cumin & paprika (equal parts). Let cool. Drop into hot soup when serving. |  |
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