How to Make Tortilla Soup

How to Make Tortilla Soup Cook on Sunday, eat till Thursday, I’m Allie and you’re watching Economy Bites. So I’m from Texas, but one of the things that I’ve really missed is good authentic Tex-Mex food. So I made up my own recipe for tortilla soup which is a Tex-Mex classic, amazing delicious soup. The first thing we need half a cup of onion, now I have these nice little pinch bowls. Now I’m going to cut my jalapeno and my garlic into the pinch bowls. I’m going to use two cloves of garlic, for the record this big guy is a bulb, this little guys are cloves. Don’t do that at home, you see it’s very important to be careful. First thing we’re going to do is take off the stem, cut it in half like this. Here’s a quick lesson about the jalapeno. The spiciness of the jalapeno actually comes from the spine and from the seeds. So if you want like the tart taste of a chili but you really don’t like a ton of spice, just knock out some of those seeds there, you’re going to want to cut out the spine. That is spicy. I like spiciness so I’m going to keep some of the seeds. The first time I learned about the jalapeno is my dad daring my little brother to eat one. And Matt, he was like, maybe six in the grocery store. It’s really mean. Wash your hands because if you accidentally touch your eye, you’re going to be in a world of pain. Turn on high heat and today we’re going to use some peanut oil, we’re going to get it real hot and then we’re going our onions. Let it get kind of translucent before we add our garlic and our jalapeno. It’s just not something you can really get outside of Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio which if you’ve never visited -- you really should because Texas is chili special place. That’s my little plug for Texas. This soup is also really good because it’s hearty, so one big bowl of it with the garnish is really like a full meal. The next step is going to be adding chicken broth and some diced tomatoes. These are tomatoes mixed with mild grain chilies. You can’t find those normal diced tomatoes are good not stewed. Four cups of chicken broth. So now, put the most important part, our spices. Any mix of these Mexican spices is really going to be fine. If you don’t want to go out and buy them all, I would say the real bases spices that you’re going to need are cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, chili powder, and cumin -- these are the main four, along of course the salt and pepper. But if you want to go a little further bringing in a little more ground white pepper, we’re just going to use a tiny little pinch if you use any, paprika, onion powder, some coriander would be good. Really anything you have that’s smoky and spicy and this recipe is a testament to the fact that you really, while you’re cooking, you have to taste as you go along, because especially when you’re pouring in things that are spicy and kind of salty and smoky, you really want to make sure that it’s to your likings. It’s good, I’m going to add a little more cumin for the smoke and a little more chili powder for that heat in the back of your throat. This is a the best soup for cold. It will drain everything out off your veins. Taste as you go. A little bit at a time, in that way you don’t put in ever too much. You’re going to bring it to a full boil and then I’m going to cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes. So while that’s cooking, I’m going to show you how to make some fresh tortilla strips. It’s a lot cheaper to buy corn tortillas. It’s made with more natural ingredients. You know what’s in there. Before I start cooking, I’m going to ready a plate with some paper towels. So the paper towels soak up the excess oil. We’re going to use peanut oil again, put this on high heat. You wanted to coat the pan and have a little extra. Then you want it to get on top and bottom of the strip. Let that get really hot before you pour our strips in. You can see really quickly, they start to turn brighter color. You see, right in the edges, when it started to turn brown, that’s when you want to flip it. Trick is to try and get them right before they start to toast too much. The first batch is always tough, but then as you get the timing down -- salt them up. I’m going to make a few more of these while the soup is boiling. There’s some other great garnishes for this too -- avocado, cheese and cilantro. The taste from cilantro comes from the stalk, so when you’re chopping up cilantro to use, you don’t want to pick off leaves you want to actually cut and use the stalk. I’m going to use one of my Burger King’s Star Trek Memorabilia cups. I’m going to slice down till I hit the pit, if I hit there, then I’m just going to run my knife around the pit here, give it a slice and half here and run my knife around the rim -- beautiful. What you’re looking for is a cup and a half of shredded cooked chicken. So either you can buy this stuff at the grocery store that comes in that little package, or if you have some boneless skinless chicken breast. Cook them in the oven, put it on a low heat and we’re just going to give it five more minutes or so. Lime, very important -- so we get a slice down a little bit. I’m going to toss on some of my homemade chips, some shredded cheese in there, it’s going to melt, a little cilantro. Okay so, this is a single serving of soup, there’s nothing more delicious in the world than cheese and avocado and Tex-Mex. It turns out great every time no matter what you put in that. The best thing to do with your extra soup, put it in a Tupperware, plastic bags, put it in the freezer. And then when you’re ready to eat it, leave it out for about 20 minutes till it gets a little soppy again. Pour it back in the pot, stir it around, medium heat for a few minutes. It lasts really well. Why go to a crappy New York-Mexican restaurant when you can have delicious Tex-Mex at home? Save your money for margaritas.