What a weekend… quite different from the norm I must say thanks to my not so good friend Irene!
Did you catch my post-Irene video from yesterday?
And with over half of the Richmond area still without power, guess who has some new roomies?! 
Oh yes, you guessed it —> Fanatic Mom & Dad have moved on in!
They are still without power going on two days now, but should find out more today. Until then, we are just one big happy Fam at Casa de Fanatic 
My fridge is also stuffed to the gills. Things I’ve learned this week: Fanatic Mom has A LOT of condiments haha. Kidding Mom. Kind of.
Good thing we were able to rescue most of the food from her fridge/freezer after the storm though!
Plus a total win for me, because it meant I had double the ingredients to use for dinner last night.
Andddd I sure was craving me some Mexican food. Not over-cheesed, over-sauced “Mexican” food. But hearty, homecooked Mexican food. A la Diana Kennedy —> remember this lil’ obsession?
Time for a little fun in the kitchen!
Mexican Chicken Soup for a Crowd
Serves 7-8
I started off with a quick throw-together chicken broth since I didn’t have any on hand. Plus this is super easy and tastes way better than that outta the box stuff anyways 
Water, celery tops, red onion, salt and black pepper. Enough to cover the 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts that were thrown in once the water came to a boil.
The meat was poached for 15 minutes (my chicken was partially frozen) until done. Then shredded using the two-fork method and set aside.
I removed the celery tops and onions from the chicken cooking liquid and threw in a slew of vegetables:
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 1 stalk celery, sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 cup frozen corn
Fanatic Mom, best sous chef around!
I brought the mixture to a boil, covered and turned down to a simmer while I got the rest of the soup ready.
Dried chilis. My first true love? But really.
If you’ve never cooked with dried chilis before, they lend the most amazing flavor to a meal and are seriously nothing to be intimidated by!
When have I ever steered you wrong?
I let the dried chilis (2 guallijo and 1 pasilla) rest in enough super hot water to cover for about 5-10 minutes. This got them nice and soft and ready to be incorporated into the tomato sauce…
Which featured Pomi chopped tomatoes. Of course my favorite! Only ingredient: tomatoes. What’s not to love?
After chopping off the stems & removing some of the seeds from the soaked chilis, I used an immersion blender to combine half a box of the tomatoes with the chilis until a smooth sauce formed.
Check out the depth of color on this! Gorgeous dawling, just gorgeous
Then into the pot of simmering veggies the sauce went…
Fanatic Mom may have a career as a sous chef… ya think?
I still can’t get over what a beautiful color this soup was, so rich and earthy!
Then the cooked & shredded chicken went into the pot…
And a can of drained, rinsed black beans.
Check out everything going on in there, mmmm mmmmm good!!!
I let the soup simmer, covered, for another 15 minutes then added the final touches…
Freshly diced jalapeno plus seeds.
And fresh chopped cilantro & sliced lime to serve!
After a storm filled, somewhat stressful weekend, this Mexican chicken soup was just what the doctor ordered!
And if you know me well enough, you know that I tend to like to “play with fire”… so you know some extra chopped jalapeno and seeds topped my bowl!
Gotta love a lil’ kick
What a great meal to share with others too. That comforting feel of a homemade chicken soup but with just a lil’ twist!
Makes you realize that losing power is just a minor inconvenience to deal with after a storm like Irene, and can even bring people together 
Today I am sending prayers to those who lost alot more than just their electricity… 
Here’s a link to some pictures from our local area.
Source: Richmond Times Dispatch
As well as some from up and down the East Coast.
Just goes to show that Mother Nature is nothing to mess with and every day is a blessing!
Tell me, are you a “soup person”? If so, what’s your favorite type of soup?
cookinfanatic
cookinfanatic
cookinfanatic
cookinfanatic
