Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is the time of year for soup.  Deep into winter, I crave the warm comfort that a good soup delivers on a dark, cold winter day.  There are a lot of soups that I make, many I have worked on perfecting over the years, but this one remains not only one of the most simple, but the most delicous as well.

This recipe was inspired by Tyler Florence.  Tyler, in case you have been living in a cave for the past decade or so, is a Food Network chef/star.  I started watching him in 2000 when I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 11.  I had some pregnancy complications, and was on bed rest for couple of weeks, and once I got tired of regular daytime televison (maybe a day and a half in), I started watching the Food Network.  Emeril, Sara Moulton, Bobby Flay, Tyler...they took me away from my troubles and made me imagine the wonderful dishes I could create in the kitchen- once I wasn't carrying the weight of several bowling balls in my abdomen, that is.  That is what got me hooked on cooking shows.  I learned so much, from cooking terms to some unusual ingredients, to knife techniques.  Tyler was my favorite.  It didn't hurt that he is all kinds of cute, and defintitely has a way with the camera!  I have enjoyed many of his shows, but my favorite remains the original Food 911, where Tyler comes to the aid of some poor unsuspecting cook with a kitchen disaster and helps them turn out an incredible dish worthy of accolades.  On this one particular show, he did chicken soup 3 different ways.  I know that one was chicken tortilla soup, one was a Thai chicken soup, and I believe that the third was a classic chicken noodle, but I'm not positive on that.  In any case, the chicken tortilla soup really grabbed me.  I had never had anything like it before, and it looked wonderful.  Tyler, though, he is a by-the-book chef, and he did everything from scratch, right down to the chicken broth.  But heck, I am a full-time working mom of 2 kids- I don't have the kind of time it takes to do that kind of thing.  So I started to think about ways I might take his recipe and modify it to use convenience ingredients, to make it easier and less time-consuming.  I think I did a pretty decent job.  I have been making this soup for several years now, and it never fails to get praise.  This was the first time I tried in in a slow cooker however.  There is some prep involved, but once that is done, it just cooks in the slow cooker and you don't have to worry about it until it is time to eat.

Ingredients:

About 4 cups cooked chicken, shredded (note: you can use rotisserie chicken, or cook your own.  I braise bone-in chicken breasts in chicken broth with some sliced onions until cooked through, cool, then remove skin and bones and shred.  I strain the broth and reserve to use for the soup.)

1 onion, sliced (see instructions)

3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce), chopped finely.  These come in a small can in the Mexican foods aisle of the grocery store, usually near the enchilada sauce.  I usually freeze the leftovers, and just use what I need a little at a time later.  They keep very well this way.

1 can diced tomatoes (I prefer the fire-roasted ones)

1 quart chicken broth

 Vegetable oil

4 corn tortillas, sliced (see below instructions)

Instructions:

1.  Slice onions.  This is how I do it:

Cut off the root and stem ends of the onion.

Peel skin off under cold running water (helps to prevent your eyes from tearing up.

Slice onion lengthwise into thin slices.

2.  Heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil in a skillet until hot.  Add onions and reduce heat to medium.  Cook stirring often until onions are nicely browned and caramelized.

3.  Chop chipotle peppter into a fine mince.  Mince or press the garlic.

4.  Add garlic to onions and sautee 1 minute, being careful not to scorch garlic.  Remove from heat and dump onion mixture into slow cooker crock.

5.  Add chicken, broth, tomatoes, and chipotle pepper.  Stir to incorporate.  Cook on Low for 7 hours or High for about 4 hours.

 Note about the tomatoes: I like to puree mine with a stick blender.  You don't have to though.  If you don't want the tomato chunks without the work of pureeing them, you could use canned crushed tomatoes instead.

6.  While soup is cooking, slice up tortillas.  Stack tortillas and cut in half, then into strips

7.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Put tortilla strips on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tbsp. vegetable oil.  Toss to coat.  Separate tortilla strips and lay side by side on baking sheet, not touching.  Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until golden and crispy.  Remove from oven, toss and sprinkle with salt.  Set aside.

8.  When soup is done, ladel into bowls.  Top with tortilla strips and some shredded cheddar cheese.  Other optional toppings:  sour cream, diced avocado, chopped cilantro.

This is kind of spicy, due to the chipotle pepper.  If you don't like spicy foods, just use half a pepper or so.

This is a very warm, satisfying soup.  If you don't want the work of making your own tortilla strips, you can use bagged tortilla chips.  This will really warm you up on a long winter day.  I like to make a big batch to last for several days, though it usually only lasts a couple in my house, between my husband and my 15 year old son!

I hope you enjoyed this- I have many more soup recipes, which I hope I can share before the winter is up.  The way the weather is looking here in the Pacific Northwest, that may be a good long time, so I should be able to post at least a couple more!  Next time, though, I think I will show you a favorite chicken dish at my house, one that my kids BEG for.  Happy cooking til then!