Southwest Chicken Soup

I'm not sure what's wrong with me these last few weeks. All I ever want to eat is SOUP. I've made cauliflower soup, mexican bean soup, squash soup, tom ka pug soup and now southwest chicken soup. I can usually go MONTHS without eating/craving soup but ever since I restarted this diet it's all I want to eat. It's hard because a lot of soups use butter and flour which are things I stay away from but I've found several recipes that are just perfect. This soup came from my mom who went to a class years ago at one of our favorite restaurants, Bandito Burrito downtown. She made it for a friend and gave her the recipe then she gave someone else the recipe and so on. So last year after thanksgiving we went over to some friends house and they made this soup with leftover turkey. I begged for the recipe then I found out that my mom had the recipe all along! So I made it the other night and it is just as good as I remember! Here's the Recipe for anyone interested (I'll put what I used in parenthesis):


3.5 lbs of chicken (I used 2 rotisserie chickens shredded up)
4 quarts chicken brother or water (3 chick. 1 water)
4 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
3 C onion (1 large chopped)
1-2T minced garlic (3T ;))
1 lg red pepper (forgot it)
1 large yam peeled and diced
3 med. red potatoes diced (I used 2 small)
6 oz. can diced green chilis
2 sm. cans mexican tomato sauce (El Pato brand)
1-3 t. Salt (depending on stock vs. water)
1 t. Pepper
2 T Oregano leaves
1.5 T cumin powder
1 T chili powder
1/2 C chopped cilantro (mine included a fingernail which I chopped off...sorry TMI)
Fresh Limes
Small pkg. frozen corn
1 can hominy
Optional:
Cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, avocado etc...

1) heat 2 T olive oil over high heat. Add chicken pieces and brown (I skipped this part since I used already cooked chicken just added the chicken and stock together) Add stock or water, vinegar, tomato sauce, hominy and green chilies and simmer 1 hour. (I simmered it for 10 minutes)

2)Saute onion in remaining olive oil, add pepper and saute until soft. Add garlic and sautee for 30 more seconds (don't want it turning bitter) add to stock

3) Sprinkle yam/potatoes with chili powder and add to stock (I did this before the onions so they'd have more time to cook, I was in a hurry)
4) add in the rest of your spices- salt/cumin/oregano leaves and corn. Let it simmer until yams/potatoes are cooked through. Serve with your choice of toppings. We always squeeze a quarter of a lime into the bowl and have different toppings (cilantro, sour cream, cheese, avocado etc)

All in all this recipe says it takes like 4+ hours to cook but I had it done within 45 minutes-1hr. Their directions are not very clear at all so I had to improvise a little bit. I also added a pinch of red pepper flakes because I like it spicy. It will make A LOT OF SOUP 5-6 quarts. So use a big pot, I used the biggest we have and it was still right at the top boiling over all the time.

Here's a picture of the finished product in my standard soup bowl. It has a lot of flavor and is pretty good for you. If all you do is cook the chicken first (or have the precooked kind like I used which makes it even faster) and throw everything into the pot I'm sure it will taste just fine. Sometimes things are made more difficult than they need to be.


I promise I'll post about something other than soup soon, it's just a phase, promise. I'm really posting for my own records since we tend to loose recipes around these parts.

Funny story, I just posted this on my photography blog...woops! =)