Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe is super simple, but oh so GOOD!! We like to roast a chicken from time to time, but our little family can’t finish off a whole chicken in one meal. So we always have left overs…sometimes I do a chicken salad, which is a summer favorite, however most of the time we make Chicken Tortilla Soup! It’s the best on these cold winter days and let me tell you even little cowboys love it! Back when Leo was probably 18 months or so he turned up my bowl of leftovers I had placed on his tray for just a second and gobbled up what was left! To this day this is one of his favorite meals, now however he prefers the fried tortillas, but will dig in to the rice and chicken too! We hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do!

We usually always use leftover roasted chicken, however you could buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and get the same great results. In addition,  we do always make our own stock. You can use store bought, and we have found the best flavor to be in homemade stock (recipe below). It is super easy…it use to intimidate me, but really it just as simple as putting the chicken bones, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, peppercorns, and salt in a pot of water and letting it simmer away all afternoon. Seriously so, so simple and the flavors are unreal! Plus, you control the amount of salt you put in the pot…a win, win!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Left over chicken from your roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken
Homemade Chicken Stock
1 Avocado, peeled, seeded and sliced lengthwise into fourths
1 Jalapeno, stemmed, seeded and minced
¼ bunch cilantro, stemmed
1 cup grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Lime, cut into quarters
1 cup White Rice
6 Corn tortillas cut into strips to fry for topping
Oil for frying the tortilla strips

Dice up the chicken and prepare the avocado, jalapeno, lime, cilantro and grate your cheese. In a large skillet, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, working in batches add the tortilla strips and fry until golden and crisp, turning them once or twice. Remove the tortilla strips and drain them on a paper towel lined plate, be sure to season the strips with salt while their still hot.

Once you have all your ingredients diced, sliced and cooked it is time to build your bowl of goodness. First goes in 1/2 cup of rice, the chicken, then all of the other toppings you prefer with a slice of lime squeezed over it all. We like them all and I even load up on a little extra cheese! Then ladle the hot stock over the rice, chicken and toppings and complete the bowl with a handful of fried tortilla strips. The hot stock will melt the cheese and soften the jalapeño and really bring out the flavor of the cilantro and avocado!

Homemade Stock

1 picked chicken
6 cloves of garlic,
1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1 carrot, washed cut in half
2 celery stalks, washed
1 palm full of whole peppercorns
Kosher salt to taste
½ bunch of parsley, and thyme

Place the chicken bones, garlic, onion, carrot, celery, peppercorns, salt and parsley in a large stockpot. Add water to cover all ingredients. Simmer covered for 4 hours, strain the entire contents through a colander and discard the solids. This usually yields about 4 quarts. We freeze leftover stock and it will keep for several months.