Tortilla Soup

Tortilla soup is a simple dish to make especially when you have leftover chicken that you need to use up.

Ingredients:

Chicken stock
Tomato sauce
Onion 
Garlic 
Chicken, shredded
Dried chiles
Limes
Corn Tortillas

This is a Mexican recipe that I've used for a long time from Rick Bayless' book called Authentic Mexican.

Start by melting some lard in a pan. You can use oil if you don't have lard, but it won't have the same richness of flavor. Even bacon grease works well.

Add one sliced onion to the pan.

Sautee the onions until caramelized.

Remove the onions from the pan when they are caramelized. Add another spoonful of the lard and allow to melt.

Next add in the tomato sauce and cook it for about five minutes, stirring constantly until it has developed a nice dark color. This will give the soup a richer flavor.

Add the onions into the tomato sauce and puree in a blender or processor.

If at all possible, make the chicken stock yourself from a carcass or some bones or whatever you have. Practically anything is better than the stuff in the store. This is really just a chicken soup above all. Around 8 - 10 cups of stock is enough.

Pour the stock into a deep pan and add in the tomato puree. Slice the dried chile into narrow strips and add as much as you like for spiciness. At this time you can add in leftover shredded chicken, though I like to keep it a brothy consistency, not stew-like.

Here is the final product with some fried corn tortilla slices added. This goes good with beer and lime.