This soup is delicious—would I post it if it wasn’t?  Rhetorical question: of course not!—I am also posting this recipe because most everyone I know enjoys tortilla soup, but not many of us have a tried and true recipe in our repertoire. My friend Adele made this soup for an Ina Garden | The Barefoot Contessa-themed cookbook club.  Two of us immediately re-made the soup for our families, and both to rave reviews!  I think Adele found a winner! Yay, Adele—and Ina!

The picture above is from one of Ina Garten’s posts. My photo disappeared in The Great Computer Meltdown of a few years ago 🙁

I had to twiddle with the original recipe a bit—you know I just can’t help myself! I added corn and black beans, plus I pureed part of the soup to make a thicker broth, which I enjoy, but you can totally skip the pureeing part if you want fewer steps, and less mess. You’ll still achieve a tasty, hearty soup 🙂

So, without any further ado, here’s my version of Adele’s version of Ina’s Garten’s Mexican Chicken Soup from the 2006 book, Barefoot Contessa at Home.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped—baked, grilled, or poached chicken breast or thighs, or shredded from a roasted chicken
• 2-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions—brown or red, or a combo—1 or 2 onions
• 1 cup chopped celery—2-3 stalks
• 2 -4  jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
• 1  or 2 15-oz. cans black or pinquito beans—one of each is nice, too
• 2 cups chopped carrots—about 4
• Approximately 2½ quarts chicken broth—10 cups
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• Approximately 1 tablespoon salt, to taste
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups frozen corn
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 6 small corn tortillas—approximately 6″ in diameter
• For toppings—be SURE to include these!—try lime wedges, chopped cilantro, grated jack and/or cheddar cheese, sliced avocado, and crushed corn chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. If cooking the chicken specifically for this recipe, sprinkle chicken thighs or breasts (or combo) with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder. Bake in preheated 350° oven for about 20 minutes, turn chicken over and continue to cook for an additional 10-15 minutes—cooking time is determined by how large the chicken pieces are and whether or not the chicken pieces have bones.  Remove chicken from oven and when cool enough to handle, dice or shred and set aside. Discard  bones and skin.
2. Heat approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil in large skillet.
3. Add onions to hot oil in skillet. Sauté onions until translucent, 5-8 minutes.
4. Add celery and desired quantity of chopped jalapenos to onions and sauté for an additional 2-3 minutes.
5. Add garlic cloves and sauté for another 30 seconds or so—do not let the garlic brown.
6. Remove approximately one third of the onion-celery-jalapeno-garlic mixture and place in a blender, leaving the remaining 2/3 in the pan.
7. Add 1/3 of each can of beans to the blender—you can add one can of beans or two, depends on how you like your soup and how much fiber you want—along with enough of the crushed tomatoes to make a puree-able mixture (1/3-1/2 of the can). Whirl on high until mixture is pureed.
8. In large stockpot heat the chicken broth, add the pureed mixture, the reserved onion-celery-jalapeno-garlic mixture, the chopped carrots, the drained and rinsed beans, and the spices—cumin, coriander, chili powder, salt and pepper.
9. Bring soup to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
10. Add shredded chicken and corn and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
11. Cut tortillas into noodle-like strips, cutting tortillas in half and then cutting crosswise into ½” strips.
12. Stir cut tortillas and chopped cilantro into soup and simmer for an additional 5 minutes, or until chicken is heated through.
13. Serve the soup hot, topped with lime wedges, chopped avocado, grated cheese, and crushed tortilla chips—if desired, and everyone I served this soup to, desired everything, including the crushed tortilla chips! The t-shirt people—my running addicted friends—added the most chips! 🙂

Note: If you are just going to eat half the soup, divide the soup and add half the tortilla strips.  When you eat the remaining half of the soup, add the remaining tortilla strips. The soup keeps well, but the tortilla strips, when sitting in a liquid, don’t.

Thanks for dropping by my kitchen today!