Cooking things:  Tortilla Soup

I’ve been wanting soup again, and tonight seemed like as good a time as any to indulge myself since it’s chilly and a little dank.  I found part of a bag of chicken breasts in the freezer that had been there a little too long and were starting to frost up, and needed to be used, and Thursday my Twitter feed had a really great-looking recipe from a former director of the Central Market Cooking School.  With that, I got to work.

The original recipe called for commercial chili powder rather than whole chiles, but I had some whole chiles and felt like playing with them, so I did that instead.  It added a very nice overtone to the spice.  I poached and sliced the chicken breasts separately before starting, which added maybe twenty minutes to the total time.  Big whoop.  The hominy was a great touch to thicken the soup without resorting to masa or (for the traditionalist) crumbled tamales.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Recipe Originally By     : Sahar Arafat-Ray
Serving Size : 6     Preparation Time :2:00
Yield :  3 quarts
Cuisine       : Tex-Mex
Categories    : Chicken, Soups

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
  2                     Chiles anchos
  1                     Chile guajillo
  2        tablespoons  Oil
  1              small  Onion, minced
  4                     Garlic cloves, minced
  4             ounces  Canned diced green chiles, OR
  7             ounces  Salsa verde
  1           teaspoon  Mexican oregano
  1           teaspoon  Ground cumin
  1           teaspoon  Salt, or to taste
  1           teaspoon  Black pepper, or to taste
  2               cans  Hominy, drained
  15            ounces  Diced tomatoes
  4               cups  Reduced-sodium chicken broth
  4               cups  Cooked chicken, sliced thinly
                        Lime juice, to taste
  ½                cup  Chopped cilantro
  10                    Corn tortillas, cut into ¼” slices
                        Oil, for frying
                        ———GARNISHES———
                        Shredded cabbage
                        Chopped scallions
                        Lime wedges
                        Sour cream or plain yogurt

Soak the dried chiles in hot water for 30 minutes; reserve the soaking water.  When the chiles are rehydrated, slice them open and de-seed them.  Place the chiles in the container of a blender, along with a little of the soaking water, and process on purée until they are liquefied.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is soft, about three to five minutes.  (Going a little longer until the onions start to caramelize is not amiss.)  Add the chiles verdes or salsa verde and sauté for another two to three minutes.

Add the chile purée, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper.  Sauté for one or two minutes or until the fragrance comes up.  Add the hominy and tomatoes and sauté another two or three minutes.

Add the chicken broth.  Cover the saucepan and bring the broth to a boil.  Uncover, lower the heat to medium, and simmer for 30 minutes.  Taste for seasoning.

While the soup is cooking, make the tortilla strips.  Take the tortillas and cut them into roughly ¼-inch wide strips.  Be sure to separate them.  Heat a medium skillet with about half an inch of oil over medium-high heat to 350° F.  (A deep skillet or Dutch oven and a deep-fry thermometer is best here.)  Test the oil by dropping a strip in the oil; it should immediately sizzle.  Fry the strips in small batches until they are crisp, and drain on paper towels.  (Alternately, you can simply serve the whole tortillas or tortilla chips on the side, but I don’t recommend it; you want the crunch that the tostaditas fritas give.)

After the initial cooking time, add the chicken, lime juice, and cilantro.  Cook for a further five minutes.  Taste for seasoning.

Serve the soup garnished with the tortilla strips, cabbage, green onion, extra lime wedges, and sour cream.

Source:  TartQueen’s Kitchen, modified by me

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Per Serving: 399 Calories; 11g Fat (24.9% calories from fat); 35g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 1146mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 1½ Vegetable; 1 Fat.

L’s reaction was “I love this,” which is strong praise from her.  Usually she just says she liked whatever-it-was, or that it was good.  I don’t get “I love this” too often.  On the basis of that, I told M that she needed to try it tomorrow, despite her conviction that soups are “unnatural” food (I shoulda fed her more soup when she was little).

Çeci n’est pas un fnord.