"Green Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup is a tasty combination of chilies, chicken, and broth, garnished as you wish - simple to make and delicious to eat!"
The making of Green Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup
My son likes to play with his food.
I like to play with my food.
Green Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup is fun to play with.
Yes, it's as much fun as regular Chicken Tortilla Soup.
I started my Chicken Tortilla Soup adventure with a basic recipe that combined chicken broth, chicken, and lime. Pretty basic stuff. I embellished this recipe with my original Chicken Tortilla Soup which is a wonderful full-bodied soup...but I wanted one that allowed me to use the fresh peppers that I had growing in the garden. A bit spicier...more of the chilies than the chicken or the tomato. Tomato is easy, balanced chilies, a bit more difficult.
You can certainly adjust the flavors of this soup to suit your particular "heat" factor. But overall, the soup is not hot hot hot, only nicely heated. And if you want to roast the peppers, well, you certainly can do so, the soup will be milder even still, with a different flavor...but I've done it and it's still delicious. I prefer the ease of not having to roast and peel the chilies...raw, then sautéed is fine with me.
What the heck is hominy
Hominy, while an optional ingredient, is, to me, required. Hominy, like harmony, brings this dish together.
Hominy is simply a food made from kernels of corn that are soaked in an alkali solution of either lime or lye. The corrosive nature of the solution removes the hull and germ of the corn and causes the grain itself to puff up to about twice its normal size. So it's corn, stupefied!
What's in your soup?
So as I said, my son likes to play with his food. I like to play with mine. And my hubby plays with his too. Put out whatever ingredients you think your family will love and let them add them ... (This reminds me of a favorite movie... The Princess Bride)... "As you wish".
Green Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil
- 4 chicken breasts bone-in with skin
- 3 poblano chilies seeded and roughly cut
- 3 ancho chilies seeded and roughly cut
- 3 jalapeno chilies seeded and roughly cut
- 1 white onion roughly cut
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin or to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano or to taste
- 8 cups low-sodium or homemade chicken stock
- 1 14.5 - ounce can white hominy, (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Serve With:
- Baked tortilla strips cut the tortilla into 3rds then into thin strips and bake in the oven at 350º F for about 10 minutes
- 2 ripe tomatoes diced
- I avocado diced
- 3 green onions sliced
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
- 2 limes cut into quarters
Instructions
- Heat the oil until hot, but not smoking, in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Generously season the chicken breast with salt and pepper then place in the hot oil, skin side down. Leave to brown, about 5 minutes. Then turn and brown the other side, about 3 minutes. Take the chicken out of the pan and set aside. When cool, remove the skin.
- Meanwhile, put the chilies and onion (in batches) into the work bowl of a food processor. Roughly chop, do not pulverize, with on/off pulses (about 7 or 8). After you take the chicken out of the pot, lower the heat and add the chopped chilies and onion, stir, then cover and allow to sweat over low heat, about 10 minutes.
- Add the cumin and oregano, some salt and pepper, then add the chicken stock. Put the chicken breasts back into the pot, bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.
- Remove the chicken breast and allow to cool. Add the hominy to the pot and simmer another 10 minutes.
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred as much meat as you want in the soup (I used only 3 - save what you don't use for another use) and add back to the pot. Simmer until hot.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and top with your toppings of choice, and squeezing lime juice into it as desired
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