Tortilla Soup

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Tortilla Soup | Dara O’Brien

By Dara O’Brien
Creative Director, Lake Isle Press

You might not categorize Tortilla Soup as a complicated dish along the line of, say, Cassoulet, Beef Wellington, or soup dumplings. Those dishes take a commitment — even the easy versions have more steps than a quadrille.

But my preparation for this Sopa de Tortilla recipe by Jose Garces from his Lake Isle Press book “The Latin Road Home” clocked in at over two hours. More if you count the unattended time while the chicken poached, and the garlic roasted. Was it worth it? Yes.

In addition to savoring the deep flavor of the final result, I had a lot of fun making this soup. I enjoyed watching its transformation from individual ingredients to a lumpy mixture and then a smooth base. I got a kick out of preparing tortilla chips for the first time and seeing how they dissolved into the whirl of the immersion blender.

This recipe takes its time. All the veggies are roasted individually, and the tortilla chips are deep-fried before they are combined and cooked a little longer. As Jose wrote, charring, roasting, or toasting the onions, tomatoes, and garlic provides a means of “concentrating and subtly transforming their flavors and aromas.”

I was game to try, but I took two shortcuts, substituting Ro-Tel Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes instead of charring fresh beefsteak tomatoes and using gochujang rather than making chile paste from dried chiles and water. I roasted the garlic, charred the onion, and deep-fried corn tortillas into chips. I had two bone-in chicken breasts in my freezer, so I defrosted and poached them instead of using boneless thighs; rather than tossing the water I added extra veggies scraps from my freezer and made chicken stock.

Ultimately, this recipe offers its share of opening acts before the main event of cooking the soup. And the garnishes — shredded chicken, avocado, queso, crema (which I didn’t use), and chopped cilantro — provide a few encores. It’s a process, yes, but a satisfying one.

Sometimes, getting lost in a project, even for just a little while, yields results far greater than the task itself. The chance to immerse yourself in details, focus your energy, and lose track of time, if but for an hour or two, is restorative. I didn’t plan on this recipe providing that experience, but it did. Along with some tasty leftovers.


Sopa de Tortilla Recipe
(Tortilla Soup)

Click here for printable recipe.

Keeping chile pastes and roasted garlic on hand makes Mexican dishes an easier proposition in general. For this soup, you can poach the chicken and make the chips in advance to help speed the prep along — or you can make the entire soup up to three days ahead of time, leaving just the garnish (including the crispy tortilla strips) to be prepped right before serving. Packaged chips can really mar the soup’s flavor and texture; if you must use something from a bag, use a high-quality, minimally processed, unsalted chip. Mexican crema and queso fresco are both sold at Latin groceries.

Roasted Garlic
A versatile and easy method for roasting garlic is to cook it gently in oil, similar to the manner in which you would confit a protein or dense vegetable. Not only does the garlic cook evenly, but it can be stored for up to two weeks, submerged in its cooking oil. Also, the oil is extremely useful in marinades and is great for dressing vegetables before roasting or grilling.

1 cup peeled garlic cloves
2 cups vegetable oil

Makes about ¾ cup

  • Preheat the oven to 325°F.

  • Combine the garlic and oil in a shallow baking dish made of glass or other nonreactive material. The garlic cloves must be completely submerged, or they will not cook evenly. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the garlic is very tender and lightly caramelized, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  • Take the baking dish out of the oven and allow the garlic and oil to cool to room temperature before transferring them to a sealed container. Keep refrigerated until needed, up to 2 weeks.

INGREDIENTS

Poached Chicken
1 Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
1 fresh bay leaf
Kosher salt
1½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Soup
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp (4 to 6 cloves) Roasted Garlic
1 Spanish onion, halved, charred, and chopped
3 beefsteak tomatoes (about 1½ lb), charred and chopped
1¼ cup tomato paste
¼ cup pasilla Chile Paste
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo, with sauce
2 qts Chicken Stock
8 to 10 tortillas home-fried into chips, preferably stale
Kosher salt

Crispy Tortilla Strips
1½ qts vegetable oil, for frying
4 to 6 small (about 6-inch) corn tortillas
Kosher salt

To Serve
¼ cup Mexican crema
¼ lb grated queso fresco (½ cup)
2 avocados, diced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges

Serves 4

PREPARATION

To poach the chicken, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the onion, bay leaf, and 3 to 4 tablespoons salt. Add the chicken and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until just cooked through. Lift the chicken out of the water, drain it, and allow it to cool. Shred it by hand into bite-size pieces. (Discard the cooking water.)

To make the soup, heat the oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, and tomatoes and cook until softened, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the tomato paste, chile paste, and chipotle chile with sauce and cook for 10 minutes more. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

To make the tortilla strips, heat the oil to 375°F in a stockpot, using a candy or deep-fry thermometer to monitor the temperature. Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to slice the tortillas into strips about ¼-inch wide. Fry the strips briefly, 30 to 60 seconds, just to crisp them. Use a slotted spoon to carefully transfer the strips from the oil to the baking sheet to drain.

Stir the tortilla chips into the soup and cook for another 5 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and use a handheld immersion blender to purée the soup until it is very smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and season to taste with salt. (At this point, the soup can be cooled and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.)

To serve, rewarm the soup over medium heat, stirring often. Garnish each serving with crema, cheese, avocado, shredded chicken, cilantro, lime wedges, and tortilla strips, or pass the garnishes at the table.

Recipe from “The Latin Road Home” by Jose Garces, Lake Isle Press, 2012

Dara O'BrienComment