From the Stove #5: Chicken Tortilla Soup

It’s been a while since I did a “From the Stove,” so I know it’s been overdue.  Fortunately, this particular one represents our foray into making chicken tortilla soup, and the results were totally worth it.  Came out delicious; so much so we made it again a couple weeks later.

Here’s the recipe from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
• 1 cup white hominy
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
• crushed tortilla chips
• sliced avocado
• shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• chopped green onions

Directions:

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.

Naturally, the perfect dish never follows the exact recipe, but involves some “tinkering.”  In this case, did cumin instead of oregano, and skipped hominy, added more corn.  For the fancy “tortilla” effect, we just crushed up tortilla chips, and came out just fine.

 

Here the chicken breasts cook in the delicious smelling mix.

 

Addition of corn and necessary spices

 

Then beans, chilies, and tomatoes

 

The results came out great . . .

 

. . . And tasted absolutely delicious