Tortilla soup

A great way to use some of those leftover corn tortillas is in a tortilla soup -- a light, spicy broth of vegetables, corn, and chicken, garnished with crispy tortillas.  Served with a refreshing side of jicama slaw, and corn muffins, it's a good meal.

Before I get to the soup, I just want to make a quick trip back to the jicama slaw.  I know I blogged about this recipe before, so I won't go into to much detail, but I wasn't taking pictures before, and I thought you might want to see a bit of the slaw action, and the finished product:

Ingredients for the slaw.  The recipe is in an earlier blog.

The white and light green parts of the green onion, the orange and lime zest, a tsp of salt, the lime and orange juice, one or two hot peppers, and a half cup of oil go into a blender, and are blended until you have a creamy, pale green dressing.  Simple as that.

A very easy dressing getting ready for the blend.

The julienne jicama, the thinly sliced sweet red pepper, and chopped cilantro get tossed in a bowl, and dressed.  The result:  a pretty, crisp, citrusy slaw that compliments many spicy foods.  Or even a burger, for that matter.  Can't find jicama?  No worries.  I've done this exact recipe substituting Granny Smith apples for the jicama, and it makes a wonderful and unusual apple salad.

A real plate and palate brightener.

The tortilla soup.  It's a very easy, almost chili-like soup loaded with healthy, delicious ingredients.  I start by poaching half of a chicken breast, very low and slow (bone in, no skin) in half a diced white onion and four cloves of garlic sweated until soft but not brown, chicken broth, one or two chipotle peppers, a little salt, ground cumin and coriander, and some diced fresh tomato, until JUST cooked through, about 25 minutes at a very low simmer.  

Chicken breast poaching in broth and veggies, just after the addition of spices.

I allow that to cool, remove the breast from the broth, shred the meat, then blend the cooked broth until smooth.  Add that back to the pan, then add fresh or frozen corn, small diced onion, and more fresh diced tomatoes, some diced sweet pepper if you like, and any other veggies that float your boat.  The idea is to have the rich flavor of the long cooked veggies, topped with the bright note of just tender fresh vegetables.  

While the fresh veggies simmer for 15 minutes or so, cut a few corn tortillas in thin strips, toss with a little oil, just enough to lightly coat them, and crisp them under a low broiler or in a 425 oven, stirring every few minutes.

Shred the chicken, and add it to the soup.  Warm it for a minute or so, then ladle into bowls, garnish with a dollop of guacamole, or a couple slices of avacado, a little nest of crisp tortilla strips, maybe a little grated cheese and chopped cilantro, and a drizzle of crema.  And how could I forget.  A nice squeeze of lime over the top...

(A little cheese tip:  buy the very best cheese you can afford, and you'll use less and get more flavor.  Tonight I used a very sharp English cheddar, and just a couple of tablespoons of grated cheese added a ton of flavor.) 

 Loaded with flavor and texture