Spicy Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

Without intention, it really is starting to be 'Soup Saturdays'. I love soup, but never really like the canned variety so am building up a huge collection of soup recipes, just by picking one main ingredient and working around from there.

This Saturdays ingredient was a chicken carcass from a herby roast chicken I had made some days before. Having made many simple chicken soups, I wanted to try something else. The carcass was set into boiling water on the Saturday morning to make the stock as I peered into the fridge to see what to add. A lone soaked chipotle chilli leftover from another dish told me it had to be spicy Mexican chicken soup. With a quesadilla on the side. And it was delicious.

Ingredients:

1  large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 dried chipotle chilli, soaked
1 tbsp. chopped pickled jalapenos
3 tbsp. tomato paste (puree)
1/5 litres chicken stock
leftover chicken, picked from the bones
1 x 198g tin sweetcorn
2 corn tortillas
1 tbsp. oil
a little fresh coriander

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions and carrots. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the spices and cook for 1 minute on a low heat and then add the chillies and tomato paste. Stir in well. Turn up the heat and add the chicken stock; bring to the boil. Put the lid half on and cook on a medium boil for about 20 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, cut the two tortillas in half and then cut into 1cm strips. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the strips of tortilla. Fry on a high heat until brown and set to one site.

Take the soup pan off the heat and with a hand blender, blitz the soup until smooth. Put back on a low heat and add the chicken and sweetcorn. Cook gently for a further 8 minutes for the flavours to develop. Taste for seasoning.

To serve: add most of the tortilla strips into bowls and pour over the soup. Garnish with the last of the tortilla and some coriander. Enjoy!

For the quesadillas:

Chop spring onions (scallions) with fresh coriander. Grate cheese. Put a little oil in a frying pan and put in a corn tortilla. Top with the onions, coriander and cheese and place another tortilla on top. Cook while pressing the top one down so the cheese melts and 'glues' them together. Flip the while thing over gently with a large spatula or fish slice and cook the other side. Slice and eat!