Chicken Tortilla Soup with Garden Tomatoes

You know those weeks where you are trying to pinch pennies so you put off a grocery store trip and get creative as you empty the pantry?  Last week, was one of those.  I ended the week with a Tex Mex inspired salad and felt like I just just forded the river with all my horses intact.  You know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, that got me in the mood for Tortilla soup, like the awesome soup I had at Red Rock Canyon Grill a while back. I know it is a sauna outside, but I just like soup all the time.  Besides, we have tomatoes galore from the garden and I knew I could add those in somehow.  Grocery time came and I got a chicken and made broth and shredded chicken.  I also found a recipe for fire-roasted tomatoes and did a lame copycat on the Foreman.  So prep done, I set about actually making the soup today. My ingredients, recipe, and process were pieced by this, this, and this.   That Two Sisters cookbook is a great place for healthy recipes . . . I own one compliments of my friend Heather.

yesterday's broth and tomatoes

The Recipe

Ingredients
4 TB of butter
1 very large white onion
8 cloves of garlic chopped
1 bell pepper (I used one half red and one half green-it's what I had)
1 jar of Shawn's jalapenos rinsed without the juice (about 1 cup)
16 small corn tortillas
8 cups of chicken broth (about, I used mine with the fat on top too)
4 cups worth of roasted tomatoes and juice (they shrink on the grill, I used about 10 medium garden tomatoes)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
1 tsp coarse Mediterranean sea salt
1 bag frozen corn (1 lb)
Shredded chicken, about 1 cup or more
Cilantro- just a few sprigs
A lime
Optional toppings:  cheese, black olives, sour cream, jalepenos, avocados, and salsa

1.  With the pot on high heat, toss in butter, coarsely chopped onion, bell pepper, garlic, tortillas, jalepenos, cumin, cayenne, and salt.  Toss for a few minutes.

My helper- Dom

Sol:  Mom, that's a good smell!
(It is a really good smell.)

2.  Add in chicken broth, roasted tomatoes and juice.  Bring to boil.

3.  Remove soup from heat, process the soup(HOT!) in a blender or food processor. Put soup back into pan.

4.  Put soup over medium heat, add corn and chicken, chopped cilantro, and a few squeezes of lime juice.

Dom: What's that?
Sol:  Just a bunch of killed chickens.
Mom:  . . . . 

Once it is heated through, serve with desired toppings.

Dom and I made this for a late lunch and the boys liked it, but they called it spicy.  It had a little more heat than I intended, but I liked it that way.  Tone it down with less or no jalepenos and less cumin and pepper.  If you like it thicker, add more tortillas.  We are serving it with cornbread for dinner.

(I will insert pretty picture of it all garnished to serve here after dinner.)

Happy Sunday!