Mexican Tortilla Chicken Soup

I am going to try to pull a fast one this week and enter the same recipe for both Tyler Florence Fridays and Souper Sundays- is that okay? I have a couple reasons for this- 1. its school vacation and everything is crazy, 2. I have been helping to clean my grandfather's house just about every day this week- and therefore not been here as much, and 3. I bought Rachel Ray's new magazine this week, and have been looking at that more than anything, just about every recipe looks great!!

First, I am going to complain about buying chicken at BJ's Wholesale Club, where I usually shop. They used to carry frozen chicken, 10lbs in a big bag, loose, already cleaned up, easy to get out. When I went last week, they have replaced it with a bag of this:
The bag is only half the size and each breast is individually wrapped! I was disgusted with the waste of plastic here. Since I was out of chicken, I did buy it this once, but I won't again.

I took all 4 kids to the grocery store to get a couple things- I forgot how much I dislike that process. I dislike the grocery store in general (as I said I prefer BJ's) but with the kids- I think I said "no" probably 100 times. can I have, can I have.....

For this recipe I needed to buy jalapenos- which I had never purchased before. There was a bin with at least 6 choices, each with their own "hotness" level. I chose these, which were the most mild as I didn't want to worry about burning my eyes out or scarring the children...

Mexican Tortilla Chicken Soup

(my changes to the recipe)
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (canola oil)
2 medium white onions, diced (one very large)
2 garlic cloves, minced (four- we like garlic)
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
3 ripe medium tomatoes, chopped (one can diced & seasoned tomatoes)
1 quart chicken stock (2 quarts using Minor's Chicken Base)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
I also added some cayenne pepper & cumin

Canola oil, for pan-frying
8 corn tortillas, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (2 breasts)
2 avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, and diced (only one)
1 cup shredded Jack cheese, optional (low fat cheddar)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish (parsley)
1 lime, cut in wedges, for serving

Directions

In the morning, I poached the chicken breasts by putting them into a 11X14 baking dish, covering with water and cooking in 400 degree convection until they were done- or floating.
Place a stockpot over medium heat and coat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, jalapenos, and tomatoes; cook, stirring for 15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked down and pulpy. Pour in the stock, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1-inch of canola oil in a skillet over medium-high flame. When the oil begins to smoke, add the tortilla strips in batches and fry until they are crisp on all sides. Remove to a paper towel-lined platter and sprinkle with salt while they are still hot. I found I had to begin removing them before they were done as the last ones would end up burnt.
Ladle the hot soup into 4 soup bowls and put a pile of shredded chicken on top of each. Top with the diced avocado and fried tortilla strips (and cheese if using). Garnish with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com here.

final thoughts: Very good! Adam is a big fan of spicy things, so he thought it was excellent. I liked it too, but I was glad for the cheese & avocado to temper the heat of the soup. As I was cutting the peppers, they did not seem hot at all so I added in the extra spices. But, judging by how spicy the finished product was; I guess they did have a little kick to them. One of the girls were having a sleepover- so with the remaining three one thought it was good but the other two thought it was too spicy. Although- they had talked me into sushi at the store and had eaten that first so they were not really hungry when this was done.

In other news- our first egg is hatching today and we are all very excited!! If you are interested, you can follow the progress on my other blog Sogkonnite Chickens.

Corn Chowder

First- today is the mid-point of winter, yea! A good thing to know as I watch the snow falling- again!

Last night I made corn chowder, a bit late, I had hoped to make it over the weekend but it's kind of hard to make corn chowder with no corn! So, I am submitting it for next Sunday's Souper Sunday at http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/ and I think also to this weekend's chowder cook-off here in town. The community center is holding a chowder cook-off to raise money for a new stove. I have to the end of the day to decide, we'll see, I might still chicken out.

Here is the recipe I used. I took what I liked from 4 recipes- Tyler Florences', Rachel Ray's Vegetable Choup and 2 I found on allrecipes.
4 cups frozen corn
2 red peppers
2 zucchini
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried thyme
1/4 cup flour
6 cups chicken stock
4 small potatoes
2 cups light cream
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Frank's hot sauce
1 tbsp paprika

Pour corn into broiler pan, drizzle with olive oil and stir to coat. Convection roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
Chop into small pieces peppers, zucchini & onion. Put into a large pot with finely chopped garlic and thyme. Saute in 2 tbsp butter until soft, about 6-7 minutes.
Dust with flour and stir to coat everything well.
Pour in stock and bring to a boil.
Stir in potatoes, cream and seasonings. Bring to a boil, boil hard for about 7 minutes until potatoes begin to break down.
Stir in corn and simmer until corn is soft, about 10 minutes.
makes about 3 quarts.

notes- Roasting the corn was a bad idea. It really dried out the corn and made it stick to the teeth- I hate that. I was hoping for a little extra flavor, didn't happen. I adjusted the spices as I went along, so I really can't think of anything else to add. If I make it for the chowder cook off, I will make it with vegetable stock to enter it into the vegetarian category. The paprika gave it a nice color- I was trying to document the recipe as I went along so I forgot the pictures, oops!

If anyone has any suggestions of something else I could add, please let me know. I've never entered a contest before either, so if there are any suggestions for that, I'd appreciate that too.

Cheesburger Soup

Cheeseburger Soup
(adapted from Holly's recipe at allrecipes.com)
I doubled the recipe to make aprox. 10 servings


one package of ground turkey (mine was 2.2lbs)
2 onions, chopped
5 carrots, shredded
3 stalks celery, diced
2 tsp basil- I probably put in more
4 tbsp dried parsley- again, probably more
one stick butter
6 cups chicken broth
5 potatoes, mashed
1/2 cup flour
8 oz processed cheese food (I used Velveeta)
3 cups milk
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream


Directions:
Brown turkey, drain & set aside. In the same saucepan saute onions, carrots, celery, basil & parsley in 2 tbsp butter until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.


Add broth, potatoes & turkey and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. (since the potatoes are already cooked- this is really just a holding time for the next step or to warm the potatoes if you are using leftover ones like I have in the past)


In a small skillet melt remaining butter. Add flour and cook for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup. Cook & stir soup for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.


Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper and cook and stir until cheese is melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in sour cream. Serve immediately.



my comments- I have written in the ways I have changed it already except that I didn't double the Velveeta- it should have been 16 oz (sometimes the kids are just a bit distracting!!) and it tasted very good this way.


I really love this soup. I went out looking for it maybe a year ago (probably in a cold stretch of winter like we are having now) because my mother in law used to own a deli and she would have 6 different soups a day. One of the favorites was a cheeseburger soup.


I tried with the presentation a bit today. I have a very small plant of parsley they I brought in from the patio in the fall. Not enough to actually cook with - but it served its purpose here!


I am entering this into Souper Sundays at http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/. I was so excited to see Deb's soup group (ha ha) because I LOVE soup! What a great way to plan a soup into the week.