Chicken Tortilla Soup

An experiment that went right!

Who doesn't love soup?

I got it in my head to create a chicken tortilla soup.

I make a Taco soup that is so easy it's dumb.

I figured if I took the bones of that and just take it up a notch

I could be on to something.

Here's the Taco soup recipe:

1 lb. ground beef that you brown with a taco seasoning packet

1 - 24 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 - can corn (not drained)

1 - can beans

And that's it!

Stupid easy, right?

Here we go, 

I got bone in, skin on chicken breasts, rubbed taco 

seasoning between the skin and the meat and baked

them in a 350 oven for about 40 min.

I shredded the meat and then took the bones and skin,

put them in a pot, covered with water and simmered for 4 hours.

This made some pretty intense stock so I used mostly 

regular chicken stock and just a hit of this stuff.

Probably 3 to 1 ratio. 

The rest I put in quart size ziploc bags

and froze, with a warning on the label, "hot".

Now the construction! 

Into my pot:

The shredded chicken,

black beans that I drained and rinsed,

frozen roasted corn (from Trader Joes)

24 oz. can crushed tomatoes

14 oz can of diced tomatoes with chilies

The chicken stocks

and the the secret ingredient,

strips of corn tortillas!

They melt away and thicken the soup and give it that

extra layer of flavor.

Ina would be so proud!

For toppings I served the usual suspects, shredded cheese and

sour cream, but then I made my own tortilla strips.

You just take corn tortillas and sprayed them with Pam,

sprinkled them with a little salt, cut them into strips

and then baked them in a 375 oven for about 30 minutes.

They're baked, not fried.

They're a health food, right?