Tortilla Soup

What is Tortilla Soup, Anyway?

Spiced, but not necessarily spicy, tortilla soup is simple, flavorful Mexican chicken soup traditionally flavored with tomatoes, garlic, onions, and chilies. While our version may not qualify as the most authentic tortilla soup recipe ever, we know for sure it’s the most weeknight friendly. Our recipe combines major flavor and minimal effort thanks to these 3 superstar ingredients that deserve a place on your grocery list every time:

1. A can of fire-roasted tomatoes. Keyword here is “roasted”! It adds a lot of depth to our soup base.
2. A can of enchilada sauce. This underrated pantry staple adds more of that rich smoky, roasty flavor—lots of complexity, zero effort.
3. A store-bought rotisserie chicken. A huge time-saver that lends yet another layer of fire-and-smoke flavor to the tortilla soup.

Ingredients

1 Rotisserie chicken
1 (15 oz) can Fire roasted tomatoes, diced
1 (10 oz) can Red enchilada sauce
1 Small onion, chopped
1 Zucchini, chopped
1 (4 oz) can Green chilies
4 Cloves garlic, minced
4 cups Chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz) can Creamed or sweet corn
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Chili powder
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
3Bay leaves

Garnish
Cilantro, chopped
Fresh lime juice
Sour cream
Cheese, shredded
Corn chips, crushed
Avocado

1. While rotisserie chicken is still warm, pick all meat of the bones. Place chicken meat in a large soup pot. Discard bones, or save if you like to make homemade stock. Place all ingredients from roasted tomatoes through bay leaves in the same pot as the chicken. Turn heat to high.
2. As soon as soup begins to boil, turn to medium-low heat and continue to cook until onions as translucent and zucchini is tender. About 30 minutes.
3. Serve soup with chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice, sour cream, cheese, avocado and corn chips.

How To Make Tortilla Soup:

This might not be the most authentic version of tortillas soup, but we love easy. A few minutes of prep, and a quick simmer on the stove is all that this forgiving meal requires. Enlisting some help—the job of pulling chicken apart is ideal for tiny hands—turns prep time into quality time.

• Remove all the meat from the chicken (and don’t forget to save the bones for stock!)
• Chop the onion, garlic and zucchini.
• Toss everything into a big pot along with the canned tomatoes, chilies and spices.
• Put your feet up and snack on tortilla chips while the soup simmers. (optional, but recommended).

Super satisfying, healthy, quick and inexpensive—what more can we ask for in a weeknight dinner? If you're looking for a vegetarian tortillas soup, go ahead and skip the chicken. The flavor will be just as delicious.