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Best Chicken Tortilla Soup recipes

Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

Shock Munch
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Ingredients
  

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
  • ½ onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 yellow pepper, chopped
  • 1 pablano pepper, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 8 cups of chicken stock
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1 can Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies
  • 1-2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon chili power
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon Tajin Classico seasonings
  • ¼ tablespoon pepper
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 ear of corn, with the kernels cut off
  • 3-4 corn tortillas cut into strips
  • 1-2 avocados
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Cheddar cheese (optional)
  • Cilantro (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Combine the curry, chili power, garlic powder, Tajin seasonings, and black pepper in a small dish.
  • Rub the majority of the seasonings onto both sides of the raw chicken breasts, leaving approx 1 teaspoon of the seasonings in the dish for later use.
  • In a dutch oven or large soup pot, heat your oil of choice over medium- high heat.
  • Sear the chicken breasts, on both sides, in the oil. You will finish cooking the chicken later, so don't worry about cooking the chicken through, you just want the surface to be a nice golden brown and you want a fond to form on the bottom of the pot.
  • Remove the chicken and put it on a plate for later.
  • Do not wipe out the dutch oven, but add a little more oil if need be, turn down the heat a little, then the garlic.
  • Stir the garlic around and cook until it becomes fragrant, approx 30 seconds.
  • Now add the onion, red/yellow/pablano peppers, and the remaining seasonings mixture. Give everything a good stir and cook until the veggies start to soften, approx 5-7 minutes.
  • Time to add the liquids! Pour in chicken stock, water, can of tomato/green chillies, and tomato sauce. Scrape the bottom of the dutch oven with a spoon to ensure all of the chicken fond gets released into the liquid, adjust for salt, adding more if necessary, then bring the liquid to a boil.
  • Once the liquid is boiling, turn it down to a simmer, then add the black beans and chicken breasts. Cover and let simmer for approx 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Once the chicken is fully cooked, put it on a plate to cool, set aside.
  • Return the cover to the pot and simmer for another 45 minutes. During this time, once the chicken cools down enough to handle, shred the chicken using two forks.
  • After 45 minutes is up, remove the cover, and add the corn kernels, cooking them in the soup for approx 5 minutes.
  • Add lime juice to the soup, a half at a time, until you like the taste. This recipe makes a big batch of soup, so I used two limes. Now, if you feel the soup needs it, add more salt.
  • Remove the pot from the heat and add in your corn tortilla strips and shredded chicken.
  • Serve the soup in bowls, of course, and garnish with cheese, avocado, cilantro, sour cream, whatever you prefer!
  • Enjoy!

Notes

Tajín Classico is magical Mexican seasoning consisting primarily of chile peppers, lime, and salt. Since Tajin already has salt, I decided not to add additional salt when making the rub for the chicken.
The majority of recipes I've ever seen for this type of soup uses cumin instead of curry powder. I forgot to buy cumin so curry powder is all I had on hand. It tasted wonderful, but if you prefer cumin, use it!
A lot of recipes I've seen for this soup cook the chicken separately in the oven. That's perfectly fine to do, however, I think searing the chicken in the soup pan, then finishing the cooking in the liquid of the soup, builds more depth of flavor in the broth.
Most recipes for this soup don't use tomato sauce, they use a couple tablespoons of tomato paste. I love using tomato paste, but for this particular recipe, I wanted the broth to have a richer, tomato-y flavor, so I used an organic, low sugar tomato sauce. You can always add 1 cup of sauce first, then add more to taste later if you feel so inclined.