Chicken Tortilla Soup-- In Honor of Mom

 

We're posting this one this weekend because it's Mother's Day and this is Nanny's (Todd's mom) FAVORITE!! Sorry Nanny! We're making this Chicken Tortilla soup without you. Blame it on the virus! 





We miss you! When do grandparents reopen??!






Chicken tortilla soup has been a many years long, trial and error recipe. Eventually, Todd became inspired by Blue Zones and he wanted to find a way to make beans a star of this recipe. That's how the magic happened. 

It can be something you make in the winter as the perfect cozy warm thing, but it has such a great medley of flavors that it works well in summer as well! 

Let's get started! 

Ingredients:

• 3 strips Bacon, cut into small squares
• 1 T. oil, canola or olive, or Bacon fat
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red pepper diced
• 1 yellow pepper diced
• 1 c. sweet corn
• 10 oz. can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel)
• 15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes 
• 1-1/2 t chili powder
• 1-1/2 t cumin
• 1 t oregano
• 1/2 t granulated garlic
• 1/2 t salt
• 1-1/2 lbs finger pulled chicken breast meat, precooked
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1 T. chicken base
• 3 oz. (half of a 6 oz can) tomato paste
• 15 oz. can of black beans
• 15 oz. can pinto beans
• 3 T. corn meal
• Tortilla chips (a base layer for each bowl)
• Shredded cheddar (a sprinkling for each bowl)
• 1 avocado, diced
• Cilantro, chopped, to garnish
• Sour cream (a dollop for each bowl)
• Wedges of lime 

Instructions:

Heat up the oil in the Dutch Oven (DO). Cook the Bacon (we capitalize Bacon because it's Bacon) until crispy.

Remove the bacon from the DO and set it aside in a bowl to be used as a garnish at the end. 

Too bad for this guy...we're smarter this time. 

Add the onions into the DO and carmelize (until softened), stir deglazing the DO in the process.

Add in the peppers and cook until softened. Next, go in the can of tomatoes and chilies (juices and all) and the sweet corn. Now pour over the spices (chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic and salt) and stir together.  

Stir in the chicken. 

Add in chicken stock, chicken base and tomato paste. Bring it all to a simmer.   

  

Drain and rinse the beans--The stars of the show. Add them in and bring it back to a simmer.

Sprinkle corn meal in. Then, bring to a simmer for at least 25 minutes to melt all the flavors together. 

Time to prepare your serving bowls. Take a small handful of tortilla chips, crush them and layer them across the bottom of the bowl. Grate cheddar cheese over the chips. This is the hidden secret that your diners won't even realize makes it so, so good! Here's steps 1, 2 and 3: 

Get your lime, cilantro, avocado, sour cream and bacon ready. 

And Todd will help you bring all the magic together!

This one can't be beat. 

And we'd both just like to say how very blessed we are to have mothers that love and serve and care for us and our kiddos so much. We are counting our blessings and feeling rich this weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. It's the hardest, most full time, most fulfilling hat a woman can wear and we are so, so grateful for the investment our mamas have made in us and our family!