i made this soup for the first time on a sunday, about a week and a half ago. i've been craving this for awhile - i haven't ordered it from a restaurant, because i'm wary of what dairy might be lurking in the soup base, so i finally took the time to make it from scratch.
i started by making the chicken broth myself. it looked so good! i put the chicken in the stock pot, added carrot, celery, onion, turnip, garlic, fresh thyme, and bay leaves. i filled the water just to the top of the chicken and let it simmer for a couple hours. but... it was really bland and watery when it was done! every article i've ever read has raved about the flavors of homemade chicken broth, and they've claimed that once you make it, you'll never want to go back to store-bought. i didn't find this to be the case AT ALL. i'll have to research this more before i make chicken broth again.
the good thing about making the chicken broth is that there was tons of cooked, shredded chicken at my disposal. i used some in this meal, and the rest to make enchiladas (i'll write about those later).
anyway - to make the tortilla soup base, i sauteed onion, garlic, jalapeno and fresh tomato together for 15 minutes, added the chicken broth and simmered for another 20 minutes. when i sampled the chicken broth and realized it was flavorless, i decided that this soup was going to be flavorless as well if i didn't add something extra, beyond what's listed above, to the pot. at this point, i couldn't tell you what i dumped in there. cumin, chile powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder? who knows. i kept adding different spices until it was close to something palatable.
so while my soup base simmered, i fried up the corn tortilla strips to go on top of the soup. these were the best part of the whole meal, in my opinion. :-) i cut corn tortillas into strips, fried them in oil, and drained them on papertowels. while they were still hot, i sprinkled some emeril's essence that i had mixed up a couple weeks ago over them. mmmmmmm. yummmy. i snacked on them quite a bit. :-)
once everything was ready, i ladled the soup base into my bowl, added the shredded chicken to the bowl, and topped it with fresh avocado, cilantro, sour cream (soy for me!), and the fried tortilla strips.
it was a solid meal! it was filling, fairly tasty, had a nice kick to it without being too spicy... but i just wasn't a fan of the soup base part of it. i think i put too many dried herbs in it (resulting in an almost gritty texture from all the herbs), and ended up overcompensating for the initial lack of flavor. i'd try the whole thing all over again, but using a different chicken stock and soup base recipe. :)
oh, and we had spinach salad with sliced strawberries, pineapple, pomegranate and white onion on the side. the salad was fantastic.
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2 comments:
I know you meant 'wary' instead of weary, and 'ladeled' instead of labeled, but I still had fun picturing the misspelled situations.
I agree with your rating. To me it was just kinda weird. It didn't feel like I was eating much, so when I had seconds it made me feel surprisingly, uncomfortably full. I don't know how you could snack on the strips like that- they were so salty I couldn't handle them alone.
lol, i fixed the spelling errors. thank you baby. :) i even proofed it - sad!
i love salty greasy fried food! :) that's why i loved the tortilla strips. :-)
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