Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a recipe from way back in the archives.  I don’t make a habit of redoing recipes.  Sure, I remake and enjoy our favorites, but I don’t re-photograph and blog them unless I’ve made a lot of changes.  The blog is a celebration of my growth as a cook and as a budding photographer, so I like to leave those old recipes as a testament of my journey. 

But this recipe.  Oh my.

It was a recipe passed to me by a friend.  There were ingredients I was unfamiliar with and the instructions boiled down to “throw it in a pot and cook it!”  I was still a novice chef at the time and I did my best to make sense of the recipe and even made a delicious bowl of soup time and again, which is why I chose to share it, despite the odd cooking methods.

Plus there’s the original photo, go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait.

That photo isn’t unusual for recipes posted in that time period.  I was often using flash and had no concept of good lighting or food styling or photo composition.  This was back when I was simply compiling recipes for myself and the friend here and there who wanted replicate something I had created.

But since then, I’ve gotten followers.  And I’ve become more familiar with ingredients.  And I’ve started developing my own recipes.  And I know what “throw it in a pot and cook it” means now.  And I’m slowly learning the basics of food photography.

And so this recipe got a complete make over.

The method is completely different.  Instead of already pureed vegetables (a cooking staple of mine 2 years ago), we’re sautéing and blending vegetables and getting even more flavors out of those fresh ingredients.  No more tomato paste – now it’s vine ripened tomatoes.  No more chicken stock granules, now it’s homemade stock.

This recipe is much easier to follow and the photo far more appealing.  I do hope you enjoy this soup as much as me.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

An Amy’s Cooking Adventures Original

Soup

1 tbsp canola oil

1 small onion, diced (about ¾ cup)

4 large carrots, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

5 small tomatoes, diced (about 3 cups) or 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

6 cups chicken stock

2 canned chipotle peppers, chopped, plus 1 tbsp sauce

2 ½ cups cooked chicken, shredded (about 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts)

Toppings

Avocado, diced

Tortilla chips, crushed

Shredded Cheese

Heat the oil in soup pot over medium-high heat.  Add the carrots and onions and sauté for about 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in the tomatoes and garlic and cook for 2 minutes more.

Stir in the chipotle pepper, sauce, and chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Skim off any foam that rises to the top.

Remove the pot from the heat and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.  Stir in the chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.  Serve topped with avocado slices, cheese, and crushed tortilla chips.

Serves 4-6