Creamy chicken tortilla Soup!!!- Amazing!

I am back with one of the very best recipes EVER!!!! This is the BEST tortilla soup recipe I have ever. I love tortilla soup. And there are many different ways to prepare it. Some people prefer the broth chicken soup texture. Here in the Yucatan we have a wonderful soup called Sopa de Lima or Lime soup. It is VERY similar to chicken soup with a lot more lime. I prefer to eat that for my chicken soup fix. When I eat tortilla soup I want it creamy like tomato soup. The great thing about this soup is that there is no cream in it. But it still has a wonderfully creamy texture. So here it is.... so far the best thing I have ever made and I have made some pretty incredible meals.

This recipe is FULL of veggies. It is so good for you. Really the only thing not that good for you is the fried tortillas- and if were die hard you could use regular tortilla chips instead of frying tortillas yourself. But in my opinion- when it is already this healthy- you can afford a little fried tortilla.

 

Here is what you will need:
Chicken breast (or whole chicken if you prefer.)
Veggies- really any ones you want- the more the better- I usually have and use a combo of
onion
garlic

carrots

celery
broccoli
frozen corn
bell pepper
calabasa or other squash
tomatoes
potatoes
Chili (jalapeno or habanero)

You will also need:
corn tortillas - a little old and dry are even better
oil

chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, Pappy's (my favorite seasoning) and a box of tomato puree.

For toppings: avocado, sour cream, fried tortilla strips, red onion, queso fresco (I have also used shredded pepper jack and it was killer)

Okay so to get started cut your tortillas into strips and fry them until they have a good crispness and set aside to drain on a paper towel.

Prepare your veggies. Go through and cut off the crown of the broccoli, carrots, celery, bell pepper,-- eat veggie and put the part that you would normally throw away or compost into a large pot and put the part that you would normally eat into large bowl and set aside. Your veggies do not need to be bit sized just a rough chop is fine.

Once all of the veggies are prepared and all of their stems are in the sauce pot- season your chicken whether breast or whole and throw it into the pot. Fill the pot with water and add a little bouillon. Let this boil for a good 20 minutes.

remove the chicken from the pot- shred or cut up the chicken and set aside.

remove all of the veggie bits from the pot so all you have left is your broth. add all of the cut veggies to the broth and add the tomato puree. Allow the veggies to cook and soften in the broth for about 15 -20 minutes.

Once all the veggies are good and soft, spoon soup into a blender and blend. This soup is worth making a lot of so you will need a 2nd pot to pour the blended soup into. You will want to add a handful of the tortilla strips that you did earlier while you are blending.

Once all of the soup has been blended allow the soup to simmer a bit while you get you bowls and toppings ready. I like to do this step last because one I throw all of my veggies into the broth to cook I can clean my workspace and start getting my blender ready and while the soup is simmering I can put my blender away and prepare my bowls and toppings.

To serve!!!! put a mound of chicken in the bottom of each bowl, add the soup but pass through a strainer- This is what takes it from a killer soup to a restaurant quality soup is straining it! You will have a beautiful rich deep orange soup!

top with chopped red onion, chopped avocado, queso fresco (or other cheese- pepper jack was amazing too) and some of the tortilla strips. I also add some finely chopped chili- I like my soup spicy.

Obviously serve with a cold Carona! I mean --- Obviously.

you will love this soup and it is SOOOOOO HEALTHY! Perfect for kids. And it is also filling. And that is handy when you have a hubby who likes to eat as much as mine does.

Chicken -Yummy and low fat

okay, this dinner was so simple and low key that I did not even think about taking pictures of it until I was finished making it and then I realized... these are exactly the type of dinners that need to be on this site.

This dinner was literally just some butterfly cut chicken breast with salt, pepper and Pappy's fried in a little bit of oil.

I put down some large lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and little onion. Once the chicken was on top I added a little herbal salad dressing. It was great.

At the same time I made chicken breast sandwiches for the kids. It was a really good dinner and I HATE salad. But I need to eat it more.

Oven roasted Chicken w/ home veggies & low fat gravy

Okay, so this recipie was inspired by one of my favorite places in Paris. It sits on a perfect corner on Rue Cler. It was called Cafe du Marche. My ex-husband and I would go here all of the time and I always had the same dish (and then ate half of his while he ate the other half of my favorite.) That way, if we hated the other dish- we knew we would be leaving happy with mine. It was so simple, roasted chicken, potatoes with a simple gravy/dressing and a small salad. But many of the best recipies are always the ones that use the simplest of fresh ingredients and prepare them well. No wonder I loved Paris, and all of France for that matter.


Anyway, this was a simple roasted chicken. I let Ruben wash it up inside and out while I got the veggies ready. Just a few cut baby potatoes, sliced carrot, white onion and garlic. I threw in a little water so I had pleanty of gravy. A little salt, pepper and Pappy's and we were on our way.

We let it cook up for and hour and a half and it was perfect. I could have taken out all the chicken and veggies and then thickened the gravy... but no thanks. That is just another dish and I was set. I did not even really make a full salad, just a little lettuce and it added a great crispness to the meal. It was great. We ate a little for lunch and a little more for dinner and then we are making tacos tomarrow.

The kids loved it, I loved it, it used very few dishes and it is a usefull leftover. That is one of my favorite meals ever.

Chicken and veggies with Thai chili sauce

This is sort of like chicken soup with out the soup. I would usually serve this with rice but we did not have any. That was a good thing because we really are trying to eat less rice and bread and tummy pouch causing foods.

So this dish starts with the same ingredients that I usually buy and the fruiteria. We always buy the same basics and then a few random things. As always, I used my mini-chopper (my favorite kitchen helper) to chop up some onion, red pepper, garlic and jalapeno. I cut up some broccoli, carrots and cauliflower and got all my spices out and ready. I have decided that a major part of my joy of cooking is dependant on preparing all of my foods. It also makes the dishes easier.

This dish was also nice because it was all cooked in 1 pan.


I started by making a little chicken stock. Once that was ready I put it in a bowl to the side and started on the veggies. I sauteed the onion, red pepper, and jalapeno until soft. I then added the chicken and the garlic. I let that cook just for a moment and then added the chicken stock.

After allowing it to cook for a few more minutes I added the carrots. I have really been focusing more on when and how long I let certain veggies cook because I have noticed how much more I enjoy slightly crispy veggies.

In goes in the broccoli and cauliflower. At all sorts of random times I add salt, pepper, Pappy's and and Thai sweet chili sauce. (I love this sauce)

Once everything was cooked it was ready to eat. We pulled all of the food out and left the liquid. After serving up the kids I added some more chili sauce to spice it up.

There was some left overs and it reheated on the stove very easily. We do not have a microwave so we reheat everything on the stove. This reheated very well.

Chicken Parmesan

I am not really sure if this classifies as the traditional chicken parmesan but oh well. This dinner was literally last minute and took only a few minutes to put together. I lined a baking dish with foil, laid 2 breasts of chicken in and seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic powder and pappy's (of course). I flipped them and seasoned on both sides and drizzled very lightly with oil.
I then took the last piece of bread (you know, the one at the end that most people do not eat) and chopped it up in my trusty mini chopper and sprinkled the chicken breast. I wish I had fresh parmesan but that is just not a realistic dream here in Tulum. So I sprinkled the chicken with the Kraft parmesan in the green can.

I put the chicken in the oven at ??? again we only have 1,2,3,4 & 5 on the oven- it was between 2 and 3. I had it in the oven for about 20 minutes. I had made some red beans earlier in the day for breakfast and reheated those. I also made some white rice in chicken stock which gave it a lot more flavor.

(Beans and rice are 2 things we always have a bag of in the house) :) I served the chicken with a little lettuce. I would say salad but we had nothing else on it so it really was not a salad. -- The kids really liked it and it was a very last minute and "oh shit- what I am going to make" sort of meal.

Chicken and vegetable lasagna

Tonight's dinner was something that I had the idea for a few days ago. I have started to crave more casserole and lasagna stuff. I have never made a lasagna so I was a bit nervous. We are really trying to use all of what we have in house and fridge and not have extra around. So most of my recipes can be done with what ever veggies you have. Or even better, these recipes are a great way to sneak a lot of fresh veggies into your life and into your kids! So the recipe I had in my head... Chicken and veggie sort of lasagna. I had intended to do a very chunky veggie thing but I decided that it was easier to get a ton of stuff into the kids if I chop most things in the mini chopper. This works well for me too as my hands are no good. Tonight I had onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, broccoli, bell pepper, fresh tomatoes, zucchini (this I kept in strips) , a box of tomatoes sauce and I used some oregano and Italian seasoning and I think some Pappy's.

In the back pan I started to boil water with chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, and oregano. I used this water to poach the chicken. I have heard that this is a very healthy way to cook fish so we are going to give it a try. Plus our chicken was already cut think so it worked well. After the chicken was done I cut it up and set it aside. I saved the stock to use with the veggies.


For the vegetable I sauteed a little garlic, onion and celery,- let them soften then added the carrots, bell pepper and potato. As I needed to I would use the chicken stock to add to the veggies as they cooked. after a while I added the broccoli and zucchini. After a few more turns with the spoon I added the box of tomato sauce.

For the cheese I had 2 types. A white that was shredded. It was Manchego. And a yellow cheddar that was cubed. I then made an easy bechamel sauce and added the Manchego.


I do not have any baking dishes here yet except for my baking one that is a heart or a train. So we had a heart lasagna. I layered the oiled dish with noodles (these ones did not need to be pre cooked which was great) white cheese sauce, chopped chicken, veggies sauce, then threw down a few cubes of cheddar. Second layer: white cheese sauce, chicken, veggies sauce, cubed cheddar- you get the idea. We only did 3 layers I think. Then on top we finished with the cheese sauce and veggies sauce on top.


I had my concerns about this dish. I mean, for 1 there were A LOT of veggies so I was not sure if it was going to be "too veggie" tasting. I mean I want to eat healthy but I want it to taste good. But after 20-30 minutes in the oven it was ready to eat. If I was serving this to my husband I would have served it with a small salad and bread- but it was just me and the kids so we just had the lazagna.

First of all- the kids loved it. They ate every bite on the plate. It did turn out great. I was really excited about it.


I saved a little of the veggies sauce to make a strata for the next morning. My friend Jordan told me about this and I have been playing with them since. In a baking dish you line with aging bread. (a great way to use up bread that is hard)Then some sauce (any number of variations could work for this) then some cheese, then some bread, sauce, cheese,& bread, sauce, cheese- topped with bread. Then you whisk a few eggs, milk, salt and pepper and pour it on top of the top bread. Put it in the fringe and the next day you can put it in the oven for 30-40 minuets - It is a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. I will post pictures of it when I get them.

Chicken and veggie fried rice

Armed with my left over white rice (cooked in chicken stock instead of water) and some cut up pineapple, and some lightly seasoned thinly cut chicken from the local pollo shop! I eagerly awaited to see what Ruben was going to bring home that was going to go into the dish. I just told him... veggies. He came home with some great stuff. We had onion, garlic, bell pepper, carrots, tomatoes and this other veggie (I cannot remember the name but it is sort of like a potato.) We threw in the onions & garlic then added the chicken, then we threw in the carrots and a short time later we added the Bell pepper because I like my bell peppers more on the crispy side. During all of the cooking I threw in random things. Some herbs, some sweet chili sauce and a little water. At the end I threw in the pineapple and rice and coated everything. It was really good. I added more sweet chili sauce to our plates after we served the kids. It was really good and was much more a veggie and chicken dish with a little rice to fill it out rather then the other way around. I really like dished that force my kids to eat their veggies. :)

Chicken salad

Okay, let me first say that last nights dinner was so much of an after thought that I almost did not even take pictures until I realized that those "oh crap what am I going to make just prior to restock" dinners are the ones that I was to share the most. Those dinners when it seems like the only things in the fridge need something that you would need to go to the store for. So last night, I had 2 chicken breasts- simply seasoned, wrapped in foil, and baked.
Then I made some simple white rice for the kids, sliced pineapple and small little salad. Let me also say that I am not one for salads.
I need to be but alas I am not. :( But I do love chicken Cesar salads so I decided to throw some lettuce, onion & tomato into a bowl and top it will chicken and a little Cesar dressing. Now 1 thing, if you are going to bother with lettuce... please do not buy that iceberg lettuce. While it tastes good it has no nutritional value. Just a lot of water. If you are going to bother eating well you might as well get some vitamins and minerals.

Okay anyway. The dinner was really good and the kids even asked for more salad. I had a lot of rice and pineapple left over so I put those in a bowl and we are going to make some kind of fried rice for dinner.

On another note, in the spirit of utalizing the things around you to be useful. We desperately need more storage in our kitchen. There is literally NONE!!! We bought a shelf system but it has to hold everything. So I asked Ruben to build me a shelf right next to our stove so i could put all of the bottles of spices and oils and such right there. We ended up using 2 cement blocks and took a board off a piece outside. It turned out really well.

Then we used 4 cement blocks to make a little table by the computer. Now we have a little place to put all of the little stuff around the computer. It turned out really well.

Roasted Potatoes, baked chicken & orange slices

This dinner was great. And since I used 1 of my all time favorite kitchen utensils ever... aluminium!!! I love this stuff. It cleans our bbq, covers our food, goes under my casseroles to protect from spilling and even wraps my food making them extra clean and makes almost no cleanup!!! I love it. This recipe was very easy.


It is simply chopped potatoes thrown in a bowl, throw in some chopped garlic, chopped onion, salt, pepper, and a few herbs and you are set. Now,my herb plants are not grown yet so I am using dried. I would have used fresh rosemary or dried rosemary if I had it but I do not. SO i used dried oregano and it was great. Plus my kids hating getting stabbed in the mouth by rosemary sometimes. And the oregano was very nice. I tossed all of these ingredients with a little olive oil and wrapped in foil. I then set that in a baking pan.
I simply pit a little foil on the bottom of a baking pan and threw a little salt, pepper and oregano on the chicken, sprinkled with a little olive oil and in they both went.

I left them in there for about 45 min - an hour. I am not sure what the temp is because the oven only has 1,2,3,4 &5. It was around 3. I am assuming that is close to 325. The dinner was really good, very juicy and easy to clean up.

I also have decided that the only way to slice oranges is by doing rings, cut in to quarters and the inside pith cut away. We eat a lot of oranges down here as it is what grows best. This is the way that I have discovered gets the most actual orange into the kids, (rather then just sucking the juice) and the least amount of seeds and sticky on my floors.

Chicken stir fry

This recipe was soooo easy and tasted sooooooo good. First we had our chicken cut into bite size pieces, chopped onion, garlic, carrots and broccoli. In a small sauce pan we had some water, chicken bouillon and made some simple white rice. I would have made whole wheat rice but do not have any.

In a large saute pan we heated a little oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Pappy's. Then add the chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, Pappy's and a little Mexican oregano. After the chicken was well on its way we added the carrots.
I like my veggies a little on the crisp side and my broccoli especially so I waited to add that. My mom gave me a huge bottle of Thai sweet chili sauce so I put some of that in as well. The pan was a little dry so I threw in a little water.

the end result was great. The chicken and veggies had so much flavor that even the kids did not eat too much rice. This was a hit and we will definitely be making it again.


We also made a bunch of home made OJ. We bought a HUGE bag of oranges for 40 pesos and so we have been loving that. Nothing like fresh squeezed OJ.

Chicken Sandwich

Today we made a great sandwich. It was really easy and tasted great!!! It was simply toasted bread, mayo, mustard, sliced tomato, white onion, lettuce, chicken breast (seasoned with salt, pepper and Pappy's) topped with a fried egg and Valentina hot sauce. They were great. filling and very easy to make. The kids ate them up as well. It was all of my favorite things in our favorite tacos but in the form of a sandwich.

Fried Chicken

Okay, now this would have made any of my country friends very happy. I have never made fried chicken before and had always been scared to make it. It seems like it is always tricky. But this was so easy. Ruben brought home a whole chicken all cut up. I rinsed the chicken and set it in a bowl of milk. At my mother's suggestion I would have used buttermilk, but as is a typical situation, I do not have buttermilk and I am not even sure if they have it at the store. I doubt it. In another bowl I threw in a bunch of flour, salt, pepper, a good amount of paprika and just because I had it some Mexican oregano. This was so simple I could not believe it was so tasty. I just rolled the chicken in the flour and gently put them into a large pan of hot oil. I thought that it would splatter a lot more then it did but it was very easy. The chicken fried for about 7-8 min and then I flipped it over. I did about 3 batches in the pan and let each batch drain on a towel.

I served it with some mashed potatoes that I cut up and boiled in some stock that I had saved from when I last made chicken soup. The broth was so flavorful that I did not add anything after mashing the potatoes. I did try to make a little gravy. This did not turn out great because I do not have a whisk so the flour was a little clumpy, but it was still good.

For the gravy we emptied almost all of the oil that had cooked the chicken, threw in about 2 cups of stock that I had saved, added a little butter and some flour. I would have added milk if I had it but I was out. So anyway... there you go.

Good old fashioned fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Needles to say, this took less effort then going to KFC. I cannot wait to make it again. And as usual, it was great cold the next morning.