When I was menu planning for the week, my husband requested we make chicken tortilla soup. We tried this recipe by Chef Rick Bayless: https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/tortilla-soup/ This soup is an ingenious and hearty way to use leftover cooked chicken and tortillas.
Our modifications: first, we couldn’t find dried pasillo chiles, so we used a total of three dried ancho chiles — 2 for the soup aromatics, 1 toasted and crumbled for the garnish (see Note below). Second, instead of canned fire roasted diced tomatoes, we used 15 oz canned diced tomatoes supplemented with 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. We also used 1/2 tsp dried epazote (and thus had no physical sprig of epazote to remove).
Third, for the chicken broth we used 1 quart (4 cups) no salt chicken stock plus 2 cups Better Than Bouillon (i.e., 2 tsp dissolved in 2 cups hot water). Fourth, following Chef Bayless’s tip, we used shredded rotisserie chicken (we used meat from 1 breast, 1 thigh, and 1 wing). We also followed his instructions on making crispy tortilla chips and a crisp dried whole chile, and they turned out well.
Finally, at the end of cooking we tasted the soup and balanced it out with salt (about 1/2 tsp) and sugar (1/4 tsp). We garnished each serving with sliced ripe avocado, crispy tortilla strips, minced cilantro, crumbled toasted dried chile, lime wedges.
Note: we used kitchen shears to cut the dried chiles for both the soup aromatics (uncooked) and for the garnish (after toasting). (Mar. 2024)
Cooking Adventures 