Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Burrrr.... the weather has been just frigged! All over the U.S. The cold and snow is beating us down. Not surprisingly I have been on a soup kick. Not only does soup satisfy that need for warm and toasty, there is a never ending plethora of soups to choose from and make. I think I could live on soup!

So in preparing for my ever growing blog I have been revisiting some of my older recipes. I have been like a little kid. "Oh! I remember that!" "My grandma gave me that recipe!" "Ohhh... so and so is gone now." "Ewwww... why did I keep that? Yuck!" lol... It's been a real trip down memory lane.

There is a certain appeal to revisiting recipes. Some of them are funny. Some of them the products used in them are no longer made. (Yes David, I am getting that old.) Aside - David is my son.

This recipe is one of those older recipes. The original as written calls for Cumin of which I am not a big fan. At some point I have scratched it out and written Cayenne. It also calls for 1 can of corn... no other direction. Ha! Is that a small or large can? I have no idea! So today's recipe is my beefed up version. My husband and I were literally licking the bowl. I had to hide it so that we could have some for supper tomorrow evening. I can't cook on Tuesdays at least for now. I am teaching an ASL class and there is barely enough time to go from work to class. Supper then has to be left overs or bought out. I say tomorrows supper is SPICY CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP!

• Preheat oven to 425F
• 2 - 3 medium sized chicken breasts, thawed and chopped into bite sized pieces
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 TBS canola oil, halved
• 1/2 cup uncooked, browned rice (do not use minute or instant rice)
• 2 cups corn
• 1 jar (15.5 ounces) chunky salsa
• 1 TBS dried cilantro
• 2 TBS lime juice
• 6 - 8 corn tortillas 
• sour cream

1. Defrost 2 or 3 medium sized chicken breasts and cut in to small bite sized pieces. Set aside.
2. In a small skillet, warm 1/2 TBS canola oil. When oil is hot add rice, and brown. Browning,or popping as my husband calls it, speeds up the cook time of rice. When it is nice and golden take it off the heat and scrape into a medium sized soup pan.
3. Reusing your warm skillet. Place in your previously cut chicken in the pan including the juice from defrosting. Cook chicken until it starts to brown slightly. 
4. While chicken is cooking in a medium sized soup pan combine rice, broth, cayenne pepper, salsa  and corn on low heat. IF you feel the need to salt please only add a dash. Seriously this soup is salty enough on it's own.
5. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked add it to the soup mixture. Turn up the heat to medium high and bring the soup to a boil. Once it boils turn it down to low, cook covered for 25 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
6. While soup is cooking use this time to make your little tortilla strips. On a cutting board layer 6 - 8 corn tortillas and cut in half. Set half aside for the moment. Using a very sharp knife cut little strips approximately 1/4 inch wide. So the same with the other half of the tortillas. You will have approximately 2 cups of strips. Put your strips on a non-stick cookie pan into a 425F preheated oven on the middle rack for 8 - 10 min. Watch them closely. You will want to turn them slightly when they begin to brown. When they are crispy they are done.
7. One last thing... add your cilantro and lime juice. If you thought your soup was too spicy before just wait and see what this does. It makes your soup MEMORABLE! and Oh so yummy!
8. Top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a few crispy tortillas.

This soups goes well with garlic bread too. And of course we ended up eating all the crisps so it was a good idea that I added the garlic bread!

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey