This is so good, you should make it tonight. It's probably the most requested dish from my kitchen. I think it's quite easy to make, but my friend LeAnn claims that anything with more than eight ingredients won't make the cut in her kitchen. I cheat when I make this by using a store bought rotisserie chicken and buying the pico de gallo from Chipotle. It's cheaper than making it yourself and a big time saver. You can serve this soup in about 45 minutes from start to finish or you can let it simmer and thicken up overnight-then it becomes more of a tortilla stew, equally delicious either way. To be honest, I don't even put tortilla strips in the soup. The whole point of adding the tortillas is for thickening, but you're going to use corn masa for that. If you want to use them as a garnish, go for it.
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup diced red pepper
- ¾ cup diced green pepper
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 ½ tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 ½ tsp Ground Coriander
- Fresh ground black Pepper, about 1/2 tsp
- 1 quart Chicken Stock (preferably no salt)
- ½ cup frozen or fresh Corn
- 1 cup pico de gallo or Chipotle's tomato salsa
- 1 quart Petite Diced Tomatoes (28 oz. can)
- Pulled meat from one small roasted chicken (just get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery)
- 1 tbsp Chicken Base
- ½ tbsp Kosher Salt
- 6 tbsp Masa Corn Flour
Optional topping ingredients:
In a large pan, sautee the onion, peppers and garlic in a little olive oil for about five minutes. Set aside.
In a large stockpot, combine all ingredients except chicken meat and corn masa. Bring ingredients to a simmer, then gradually whisk small quantities of the corn masa into the soup, sprinkling it across the surface and stirring until dissolved.
Normally, I get all my spices from either Penzey's or Indian groceries. But I grabbed this roasted cumin from the grocery during a recent visit and love it. It's powerful good.
This is my favorite brand of canned tomato products:
Dei Fratelli products are the best. Their pizza sauce is so rich and delicious, everything else tastes like water in comparison.
For the chicken stock, my pick is Kitchen Basics. I prefer the unsalted version for this soup,
because the soup base adds plenty of sodium, and you're adding plenty of Kosher salt.
This is the only soup base I keep on hand. It's a little spendy, but so worth it because a little goes a long way. It adds a nice kick to gravy if the flavor is weak and it's the secret to my rich Chicken Tortellini Soup.
I line up all the toppings in ramekins, and let each person add to their taste. If you're on a low carb diet, this is a good choice and it's gluten free, too. I'm on Weight Watchers right now, so it's three points for a one and a half cup serving.
