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SOPA AZTECA (TORTILLA SOUP)

Modified from: Chef Rick Bayless at the Topolobampo Mexican Restaurant in Chicago.

Makes 4 large servings.

Ingredients:

1 med. Tomato, halved
2 lg. Garlic Cloves, unpeeled
½ cup Vegetable Oil, divided
4 dried Ancho or Pasilla Chilies,* stemmed, seeded and cut into small pieces
4 cups Chicken Stock, soup base mix or low-salt broth, divided in halves
1 med. Onion, chopped
2 skinless boneless Chicken Breast halves, cut into small dices (See below)
Salt to taste (Carefull! Chicken Stock/soup base may already have enough)
6 6-inch Corn Tortillas, cut into ¼-inch wide strips
1 cup grated Monterey Jack Cheese - (I used Queso Blanco.)
1 Avocado, diced (This is probably too much. I used only half this much)
½ cup Sour Cream
6 Lime wedges (4 are enough)

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tomatoes, cut side down, and garlic in baking pan. Drizzle or squirt with a little oil. Roast until tomato skin blisters and garlic is tender, about 20 minutes. Cool and peel garlic.

     Heat 6 Tbs. Oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add chilies and fry for a few seconds. Transfer to paper towels and drain; reserve oil in pan. Place half the chilies in a small bowl and add boiling water to cover: let stand until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain chilies and transfer to a blender or food processor. Add roasted garlic, tomato and 2 cups chicken stock; puree.

     Heat remaining oil in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until golden. Mix in chili puree and remaining 2 cups stock. Simmer soup for 20 minutes, then add diced chicken and heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

     Heat reserved oil in skillet and fry tortilla strips in batches until crisp, about 1 minute. Drain on paper towels. Ladle hot soup into bowls and garnish with cheese, avocado, sour cream, tortilla strips and remaining fried peppers. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

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*Dr. Evil's Mods: How many cooks are there in Mexico? There are about that many different recipes for tortilla soup, so feel free.

     *For 4 recipes, I used only 7 dried Ancho and 2 Pasilla Chilies. Pasillas are the hottest of the two. I feared I would end up with a soup too hot for most taste buds. Rather than fry the dried chilies, all were hydrated with boiling water, then destemmed, seeded and chopped into small pieces - and fried as above. One-third of the chilies were put into the oven at 200 degrees to dry out. The loose outer skins were discarded. They were then chopped fine to be used as a garnish for the soup at the time of serving. The 2/3 remaining chilies were drained of oil and pureed with garlic and tomatoes as per recipe.

     I used 8 to 10 frozen Italian Plum tomatoes from our garden instead of fresh. Fresh ones at this time of year (April), aren’t very good for cooking. Already skinned, they were cut in half as per recipe and seeds removed. Then misted with olive oil before baking with garlic.

     I used 8 cups of chicken soup base made with Orrington Farms brand chicken flavored soup base. No additional salt was added.  I used 2 1/4 lbs. of chicken breasts, cut into smallish cubes.

     This is a GREAT soup.

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