I've been meaning to share this with friends and family for quite some time. This is the old version of my fantastic tortilla soup. Not much to it. Simple ingredients, amazing outcome and remember, add enough salt. Too many times the lack of salt can RUIN a good meal.
Here we go:
1 Small bunch of cilantro, washed and chop as finely as you'd like. I tend to use a food processor for almost everything but I just do a rough chop for this pot o' gold.
1 can of tomato paste - I use organic because I get it on the cheap at Costco.
4lbs of chicken, you can use breasts, or boneless or just anything you have as long as there is meat
(Note: you can also omit meat but why would you want to do that?) *
Now here is where it gets a little funny, you may use chicken stock from a can/container. I do not do this unless I have zero time and wanted to eat 2 hours ago. I'm not a fan of processed foods so I usually boil the chicken and use the stock it made. Also, I use carrots, onion and celery in my stock so these items are usually in my soup.
1 tbsp. black pepper
2 potatoes, but the more the merrier, diced
2 cups of frozen or fresh corn. If you are using canned, just use 1 can, and wash the heck out of it
1 clove of minced (or food processed hahahaha) garlic
1 cup homemade salsa or store bought salsa, I like to just use what I have on hand.
1-2 cups cooked black beans. I usually have cooked beans in the house, any beans work but I prefer black beans. Again, a can of black beans works fine, rinse and dump in the soup.
1 Serrano pepper - minced
1 1/2 tspn Cumin
1 1/2 tspn Cayenne pepper
Salt to taste. Again, make sure you use enough salt. It's incredibly important. This amount will vary but I generally start about 2 tspns to 1 tbsps. depending on the amount of veggies I add and go from there.
Boil your chicken in a large soup pot filled 3/4 of the way to the top. Add salt and veggies on hand (diced celery, onions and carrots usually). Remove the chicken to shred, or debone if you used bone in, and season with some garlic powder, salt and onion powder. Seasoning is really important. Food needs flavor people!!!
Add everything to the pot, you may add more water depending on what your broth looks like. Your pot should be around 3/4 full after adding everything including the chicken. After about 30 minutes your soup should be done. Really you just want to make sure your potatoes are soft.
Also, you can use cheese (Colby and cheddar work really well) and you can use tortilla chips or fry up your own tortilla strips and add at the end. I'm a huge fan of avocado so consider using some of that for a fresh approach and maybe to play down some of the spice if you don't handle it well.
So let me show you what I do...
1. Make beans in the crock pot overnight and set some aside. I try to soak the beans during the day if I'm going to be short on time the next day. I wake up pretty early so if I plan on having soup at 8am, I need those beans 100% ready when I'm ready to use them.
2. Boil chicken the night before, and separate as I usually buy a really large package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I shred and season everything and separate some for the soup. I keep some stock for rice and some stock for the soup. I only need a cup or two for rice so it's easy to have enough stock for the soup the next day.
3. Throw potatoes, salsa and stock into a soup pot. I add everything else into a frying pan to cook and slowly develop the flavors using some grape seed oil, coconut oil or just the stock depending on what I feel like. About 5 minutes in, the pan can be CAREFULLY dumped into the pot. Let the beast cook for about 25 minutes. The veggies are usually dehydrated so I'm just waiting for the potatoes to soften and the veggies to plump back up.
4. I add the beans and maybe even some bean juice, just for fun and because I like to see what happens. I also know bean juice has tons of iron so that's pretty awesome.
5. Add your fixin's to a bowl and enjoy, my hungry friend.
* If you'd like a vegetarian version, omit all meat and use vegetable stock rather than chicken stock, it's pretty close as long as your seasoning is prepared well. You can even season your veggies as you would the chicken to get all the same flavors.
In recent years this recipe has evolved to a full on assault of a meal. It's really loose so you can add broccoli, egg noodles, extra long green beans or basically whatever you'd like. I have been know to use whatever is in the freezer or pantry. By just adding the seasoning, you can get the effect of a nice spicy soup.
I'm not sure if you can tell by my post but I love for things to work together. I like to have so many corners cut that if I needed to cook with my eyes closed I could throw more than one meal together with the ingredients on hand. You'll see a lot more of this in future post. I love homemade foods and I appreciate the hard work and love people put into meals but I also love time and spending it doing the 50 million other things I like to do.
So I'll leave you with this, you can have an amazing meal every night with fresh ingredients and homemade everything by simply organizing your menu, shopping and food items.
Sweet Brown comes to mind when I think of spending a day in the kitchen " Ain't nobody got time for that".
Stay blessed.
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