Chicken Tortilla Soup
This soup is one of our favorites. The tortillas blended into the soup give the broth an added dimension and the chipotle in adobo adds a subtle but pleasant heat. If your heat tolerance is low, use less or if you want a spicier soup, use more. Make sure that you are pulling out a chipotle pepper to use and not just scooping up the adobo sauce (although the sauce is delicious, it won’t provide much heat).
One of my favorites things about this soup are all of the toppings. If you haven’t tried them before, I would encourage you to make the baked tortilla chips. The oven will already be hot from roasting the corn and they only take a few minutes to throw together. While you could buy chips, the homemade ones hold up better in the soup and everyone is always excited about them. Alternatively, you could also fry up some chips to use when you are frying the tortillas that go into the broth. The one topping I would not skip is the lime; the fresh lime juice adds the right amount of acidity to make all the flavors bright.
This is a great soup to make with my homemade chicken stock. The stock utilizes the carcass and scraps from a rotisserie chicken and this soup uses the meat. If you do use homemade chicken stock, keep in mind that you will need to add more salt than if you were using a commercial stock. For reference, I used about 2 Tb of salt to season at the end. Taste as you season and make adjustments until it tastes right to you.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Adapted from NYT
1 yellow onion, cut into quarters
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
8-10 cups chicken stock
2 Tb vegetable oil
2 corn tortillas
1 12-oz bag frozen corn
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 ½ Tb canned chipotle chilies in adobo
1 can black beans, rinsed
Shredded chicken from 1 rotisserie chicken
For serving:
Feta cheese, crumbled
Cilantro, roughly chopped
Avocado, diced
Lime wedges
Preheat the oven to 425°. Roughly dice ¾ of the onion, setting aside the remaining quarter to use later. In a large pot, over medium-high heat, sauté the onion in some olive oil until translucent and beginning to brown. Add the cumin and coriander and stir for 15-30 seconds until very fragrant. Add broth and bring to a boil.
While the broth is warming, heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry two corn tortillas, one at a time if necessary, depending on the size of your pan.
Spread the frozen corn out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and toss with olive oil, 1 tsp salt, and ½ tsp cumin. Roast until the corn is golden and some of the kernels are beginning to darken, about 25 minutes.
In a blender, combine the reserved ¼ onion, chipotle, and cilantro. Crumble the two fried tortillas in and add several ladles of stock. Blend until smooth, adding more stock if needed. Return the puree back to the pot. When the broth comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the corn, beans, and shredded chicken. Season with salt to taste. Serve with toppings!