Hearty Tortilla Soup

-SN

(Adapted from The Pioneer Woman: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/chicken-tortilla-soup/)

Before I start, let me put in a good word for The Pioneer Woman. My friend Russ introduced me to the blog back in college and she's enjoyed a good deal of success over the past decade. With her recipes you usually get good, reliable ideas that work on a budget and make big hearty portions. She designs the recipes for a big family but it's nice to just have leftovers throughout the week.

In terms of the tortilla soup, we're big fans of Rick Bayless' version (http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=51) but we wanted to try something a little different. If I had to do it again, I'd keep a lot of these ideas but incorporate some from the Bayless version. With the Bayless version, you essentially make your own chili powder by toasting and grinding dry chiles and you use fire-roasted tomatoes, which combine to lend a more distinguished flavor. We also used chicken thighs instead of breasts because they were on sale. Honestly, I'd prefer the white meat here, as the thighs sort of had an off-putting appearance in the soup even though they tasted great.

The recipe was pretty hands-off besides come basic chopping and whatnot, but altogether took around two hours between cooking the chicken and simmering the soup. I'd call it very easy but certainly not quick.

Ingredients
~ 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 large dried pasilla (negro) chile, stemmed and seeded (sub: 1 Tbs. chili powder)

1.5 tsp cumin

0.5 tsp garlic powder

1 medium diced onion (~ 1 cup)

1/4 cup diced green bell pepper (~1/2 pepper)

1/4 cup diced red/orange/yellow bell pepper (~1/2 pepper)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can fire-roasted tomatoes

4 cups low-sodium chicken stock

3 Tbs. tomato paste

4 cups hot water

2 cans (15 oz.) black beans

3 Tbs cornmeal/masa

A couple corn tortillas, sliced or broken into bits

Garnishes (sour cream, green onion, cilantro, lime wedge, etc.)

Directions
Cook the chicken. I prefer to drizzle olive oil, a couple random spices, and bake at 375 for 30 min. You could just use a Kroger chicken or something too, it'd still taste great. Once it's done, shred it up with two forks.

While the chicken is cooking, chop up onions, peppers, garlic and store in a bowl.

(If using a dry chile) Toast the chile for a few seconds until it smells awesome. Let it cool, break it into pieces and either grind it up in a food grinder or put it into a food processor with the tomatoes to puree it.

Heat some olive oil in a big pot over medium high heat. Add the veggies in the bowl and cook for a minute or two. Add the rest of the spice mix (chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, whatever you want). Add shredded chicken and stir

Pour in tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato paste, water and black beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes uncovered.

Mix cornmeal with a small amount of water. Pour into the soup then simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste. Turn off heat and allow to sit 15-20 min.

Serve with toppings and tortilla bits.