Chicken Tortilla Soup

Recently, my oldest daughter has discovered that she loves tortilla soup.  She first ordered it in a restaurant while we were on our summer road trip, and loved it.  I said that I’ve made it before, and she said, “NO way!”  ”Yeah way!  I’m multi-talented even if I am your mom!”  Anyway, some time passed, and she forgot about it, and honestly, so did I.  Until yesterday.  I had planned to feed my family an extremely wholesome meal of …. sandwiches…. what?  It’s hot here!  110°!  Sandwiches is perfectly reasonable!

Except Caleigh simply isn’t a fan of sandwiches.  Even fancy sub sandwiches with salami, pepperoni and ham.  So she asked if she could have soup… during a heatwave, the child wants soup.  Yeah ok, whatever.  I’ll feed her some soup.  Then she remembered that I claimed to be able to make chicken tortilla soup.  ”So uh, Mom.  How about some tortilla soup?!”  I think she was expecting to stump me.  She’s getting to that age where she wants to see just how much of what I say is complete BS, so she tests me.  I lived up to it.  I said, “Sure!  That’s easy,” and truly it is!  Here’s the recipe:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ teaspoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onions

1 tablespoon lime juice

½ teaspoon minced garlic

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

2 (14.5 oz) cans fat free chicken broth

1 cup bottled salsa

1 cup frozen corn kernels (optional)

Tortilla chips

Montereyjack or cheddar cheese

Heat oil on low in a 4.5 quart soup pot.  Cut the chicken into bite size chunks, adding them to the pot as you cut.  Raise the heat to high and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the onions, lime juice, garlic, chili powder and cumin.  Cook 2 minutes.

Add the broth, salsa and corn (if using).  Stir to mix.  Cover the pot and bring the broth to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium-high and continue to boil 8 to 10 minutes to develop the flavor.  Meanwhile, crush the tortilla chips lightly.  Place the crushed chips into soup bowls.  Ladle the soup into the bowls.  Sprinkle each portion with cheese and serve.

Last night I did it the lazy way.  I didn’t cook my own chicken.  I picked up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli section and shredded half of it.  I also left out the onions, because Caleigh isn’t a fan.  Basically, I just put the stock and salsa into a pot, shredded the chicken into that and warmed it up.  I added the spices, lime juice, and garlic powder instead of fresh garlic and the corn.   I let it simmer for about 15 minutes while I gathered up the sandwich makings.  Then I served the soup with crushed tortilla chips and cheese.

Caleigh was impressed.  She raved about the soup as she ate an entire bowl.  I had the leftovers for lunch this afternoon, and it was amazing.  I will definitely be making this more often!  It would be great for Caleigh to take in her lunch thermos to school this year.

 

 

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