One of my favorite soups…I crave it! Seems like quite a few ingredients and it takes about 2 hours, but it is WELL worth the wait… Trust me! This is a family favorite and pleases everyone! – 😀
Gentle: soup
Serve with: grated cheese and sour cream
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Yield: 1 large pot full
Ingredients:
3 chicken quarters – you can use a small whole chicken or any other part in an equivalent
Water: enough to fill a large pot 3/4 full
6 Wide Carrots – Sliced ​​crosswise
4 celery stalks – sliced ​​crosswise
3 onions – coarsely chopped
5 whole garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
4 lime leaves
~8 Peppercorns – Whole
~ 8 Coriander seeds – *Optional
~2 tablespoons sea salt
2 Whole Tomatoes – Chopped
1 serrano chile – finely chopped
3/4 beer – 3/4 of a whole beer
1/2 tsp Hot Sauce – Use as much as you like.
10 oz Tomato Sauce – Not pasta sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Grated cheese – Tex-Mex or cheddar
Tortilla Chips – To float on top of the soup
Sour Cream – As a garnish
Instructions:
1. Fill the pot 3/4 full with cold water with sea salt, peppercorns, coriander seeds, bay leaves and 2 lime leaves.
2. Rinse the chicken pieces and put them in water over medium heat. You can use frozen chicken for this if you like.
3. Wash and chop the carrots, celery and onion very coarsely. Keep the garlic cloves whole, just remove the skin. Add to pot.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Lightly boil or simmer for about 1.5 hours or until chicken is tender and falling off the bone.
* Take a piece of chicken out of the pot and make sure that the juices of the chicken run clear when you cut it close to the bone.
* Advice: Some brown scum may rise to the top of the pot, so take a large spoon and skim the brown scum off the top and discard. These are the “impurities”. You may have to do this several times before the soup boils.
5. Once the chicken is “falling off the bone”, remove all the chicken from the pot and allow it to cool. Once cool, shred the chicken by removing the bones and separating each piece. Set aside to add to each individual bowl.
6. While you wait for the chicken to cool, find the garlic in the pot and crush it with the edge of a wooden spoon into the soup.
7. Small dice 2 whole ripe tomatoes. Dice 1 serrano pepper (I can’t get fresh serrano peppers where I live in Canada, so I use canned serrano peppers). Add to soup while continuing to simmer.
* Advice: Place the rest of the can of serrano peppers in a Ziploc freezer bag and freeze for later use.
8. Add the beer, ground cumin, chili powder, another 2 lime leaves, and the hot sauce to the soup and continue to simmer.
9. Once the chicken is shredded to serve, take the cornstarch into a small bowl and add the same amount of cold water. Take a whisk to mix thoroughly, then add to the soup.
* Advice: The cornstarch will thicken the soup and will only reach its thickening power when the soup boils. If you boil it too much, the cornstarch will lose its thickening power. So as soon as the soup boils for about 1 minute after adding the cornstarch mixture (a gruel), turn it down or off.
10. To make individual serving bowls, add a generous amount of shredded chicken, then add desired amount of soup. Garnish the top of the soup with tortilla chips/corn chips (the more the merrier), shredded cheese, and sour cream.
11. Serve and enjoy! I know you’ll do it!
I hope you enjoy this soup recipe as much as we do!
Eat delicious!
