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.

Tortilla Soup

Okay, there is this one place in Playa del Carmen that has wonderful tortilla soup. It is very creamy and warms you up. We had it the other day and I have been craving it ever since. I looked up a few recipes and sort of combined some and made adjustments.
Today at the fruteria we got the stuff we needed and a bunch of fruit I have never had. We are going to branch out and try new things. For breakfast I am planning on making some sort of tropical fruit and plantain crepe situation.

But tonight it was tortilla soup. Since the pain in my hands teeters between awful and absolutely unbearable, I use my mini chopper all the time. For just about everything. So in went my onion, red bell pepper, garlic and jalapeno. I threw that in some oil to soften.


I chopped up 2 tomatoes, -(next time I will use more) and threw those in too. I added some cumin and a little salt and pepper.

After about 3-4 minutes I added some chicken stock. I had made some chicken soup from scratch the other day and had set this aside. I let it boil for a and cook down.

In another saute pan I heated some oil and fried some tortilla strips. While they were draining on a towel I threw on a little salt and pappy's seasoning.

To plate the soup I put a little handful of tortilla strips, spooned some soup, added some chopped avocado, a squeeze of lime and some fresh cilantro (from my garden!!! YEAH!!!)
*** If I would have had queso fresco I would have put that on top- possibly crema as well (Mexican sour cream) But we did not. Chicken would have been really good in this too***

The kids loved this soup as well. I want to eat the last of it but I know that Ruben will want to have some of this when he gets home from work.

Ruben had a good idea... he said that he would blend it with some tortillas and then put a few strips for garnish. This would make it easy to reheat as well.