Chicken Tortilla Soup

Quick Look_______________

This recipe comes from George Hu. If you have a recipe you'd like to share, let me know and I'll post it. click here for the recipe

• Prep time: 
• Cook time: ~1 hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Labor Intensity: 2-3 people
• 30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

• 2 large cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 rotisserie chickens
• 5-6 large carrots
• 5 medium potatoes
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 1 small can hominy (Mexican white corn, available at Safeway in Hispanic foods aisle)
• small can chopped green chili (available same place as hominy, make sure to get green CHILI PEPPERS, NOT pickled jalapenos). The chili peppers come in mild or spicy—just use whatever you prefer.
• 2 large onions
• 1 bunch celery
• 1 large can whole tomatoes from Costco (this is the LARGE can, like the kind that Que Bueno nacho cheese comes in. If it’s affordable, it’s better to used canned stewed tomatoes instead of the whole tomatoes, but whole tomatoes are much cheaper and taste good too).
• 2 small cans whole black beans (available same grocery aisle as hominy and chili peppers)
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon (you can also use 2 cans chicken broth, but bouillon is cheaper)
• 1 bag unflavored tortilla chips
• 3-4 ripe avocados
• 1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
• Optional Ingredients:
• 1 small container sour cream

Directions_______________

-Ask a helper to put on gloves and tear the meat away from the bones of both chickens. Discard the skin (too much saturated fat and your soup will be too oily).
-Chop the carrots, onions, potatoes and celery into soup-size pieces and place in a large stock pot.
-Empty the can of chili pepper and the bag of corn into the pot.
-Open the can of hominy and the cans of black beans. Drain both, then empty them into the pot.
-If the meat is off the chicken, put the meat into the pot too. Discard the bones (you can save the bones for chicken soup later, but you don’t want to put them in your pot right now unless you want to pick all of them out before you eat—too annoying)
-If you are using canned chicken broth, put it in now. Otherwise, fill the pot with water until it just covers all the stuff you have in the pot.
-Turn the heat on HIGH and cover.
-Open the can of tomatoes, but leave part of the lid attached. Drain the liquid from the can INTO your pot (the extra tomato flavor is nice).
-Cut the tomatoes into soup-size chunks and put them in the pot.
-The liquid in the pot should be hot now. Take a small amount of the liquid into a bowl and dissolve the bouillon into the liquid, one cube at a time. Then put it into the pot.
-Stir in the cans of condensed soup.
-Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer until you are ready to eat (I recommend boiling for at least 45 minutes)

Serve the soup with the following as garnish:
-Tortilla chips (each person crumbles a few on top of their bowl of soup)
-Sour cream
-Chopped avodcados
-chopped cilantro