Chicken Tortilla Soup

We love Mexican food at our house.

Love, love, love it. If it's my turn to choose where we go out to eat, I will almost always choose Mexican.

Burritos
Chips and salsa
Guacamole
Empanadas
Enchiladas

I love all of these things.

I also love Chicken Tortilla Soup. It's fresh and light and instead of chowing down on cheese dip and chips before horking down a burrito, enchilada, refried beans and rice, I'll often order a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup - just to keep the calories somewhere below 3,000 for the night.

And, because I love the light, Mexican flavor that comes through in it.

My sister first made this for me on a recent visit to her house, and I promptly came home and made a quadruple batch for my family. I now have 6 freezer bags full of it in our freezer, and we'll pull one out every couple of weeks.

This soup is absolutely delicious.

And, because it is so incredibly easy to make - you just dump a whole bunch of ingredients into a soup pot and simmer, I skipped over taking pics.

I do, however, want to share with you one little secret that helps me tremendously when I'm making soups and stews.

Soup base.

Typically, soup and stew recipes call for cans/cartons of chicken/beef broth. Because I often double or triple soup recipes, that's a whole lotta cans of broth.

And:

1. I don't have the pantry space to store umpteen cans.
2. Opening that many cans with my ancient can opener is a killer on the hands.
3. Cans take up a ton of space in the trash can.

Mainly, I just don't have the pantry space to store them, especially if I'm tripling or quadrupling a recipe for freezing.

SO, I use soup base.

You can find it right next to the chicken bouillon cubes and canned stock in the grocery store.

One teaspoon soup base + one cup of water = one cup of stock.

The small container above, about the size of one can of stock, makes 72 cups of stock! So, I never buy chicken stock (and I don't make it homemade - not in this season of life). Anytime I need chicken or beef stock, I pull out my small container of soup base, and mix together what I need for a recipe.

It's delicious. I think it tastes better than stock, and if I want to add more flavor without adding more water, I can add a bit extra to bump up the flavor. I love that.

I used my trusty container of soup base to make two large stock pots full of this Chicken Tortilla Soup. I roasted chicken in the oven, but you could use a store-bought rotisserie chicken and shred it. That would make this recipe about the easiest soup you've ever made.

You can eat it as is, or just top it with cheese - if you're not big on putting tortilla chips in your soup.

But, I gotta tell you, the tortilla chips give it this delicious flavor and crunch as you make your way through the bowl. Try it. At least once!

I hope you enjoy this delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe as much as we do.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 pounds chicken, cooked and cubed or shredded
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (15 ounce) can beef broth (or 2 cups)
2 (15 ounce) cans chicken broth (or 4 cups)
1 tablespoon Worchestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 tablespoon chili powder (adjust to taste)
1 can Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chilis
1 (15 ounce) can corn, drained
I (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
Mexican blend cheese, shredded
Tortilla chips
sour cream, optional

In large pot, saute onions in olive oil for 10 minutes or until soft. Pour remaining ingredients in the pot. Mix and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Serve with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream, if desired.