Chicken Tortilla Soup

Now that fall has arrived, it seemed like a good idea to make soup.  Here is one that packs a lot of flavor.  It is really not hard to make, but requires some time (about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish) and quite a few ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBL olive oil
• 1 chopped large onion
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 20 roasted garlic cloves
• 1 medium chopped jalapeno pepper
• 1 chopped bell pepper (I used red)
• 2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cans hominy
• 2 (32 oz) containers of chicken broth
• 2 chipotle chiles
• 2 TBL chipotle sauce
• 2 (14 oz) can's diced tomatles
• 1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato paste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 cup masa harina

First, roast about 6 heads of garlic.  To do this just cut off the tops of the heads, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt.  Wrap them in aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.  To remove cloves just squeeze them out.

Next saute onion, garlic, jalapeno and green pepper with olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven until soft.

Next, add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Wait about 15 minutes and rove the chicken and shred.  I used two forks for this task. 

Return shredded chicken to the pot and simmer for about an hour.

I think the key to this soup is the masa.  It really gives the soup the tortilla flavor while acting as a thickening agent.  This recipe also makes a lot of soup.  I am going to be freezing most of it.

Soft Pretzels

I used Alton Brown's recipe for this one.  These guy's turned out great.  Just make sure you eat them all the day they are made.  Not so great the next day.

On a side note, I want to thank Fresh Market in Brookfield for the pretzel salt.  I checked the shelves of almost every grocery store in town and came up empty.  I asked my wife to stop by Fresh Market on the way home from work.  Although they do not sell it, someone the bakery was kind of enough to give her some at no charge.  Thank you Fresh Market and I hope you caught the chipmunk that was running around your store, in the nuts section according to my wife.

Croque Monsieur Pizza

Hey it works on sandwiches, so why not pizza?  I made this pizza using a bechamel sauce for the base and topped it with gruyere cheese, Canadian bacon, and roasted garlic oil.  Overall it had great flavor, but it was extremely rich.  I would eat it again, but maybe add some pineapple to it to cut the richness.

Mashed Potato Pizza

I took a stab at making a mash potato pizza.  I used Grover for the crust.  My toppings consisted of well mashed potatoes and cheese.  I used a bit of milk and some of the roasted garlic oil I had on hand to make the mashed potatoes and I used provolone for the cheese.  Overall, it was not a bad pie, but I don't know that I would make it again.  I seemed like it was missing something.

Roasted Garlic Oil

Here is a simple but delicious one.  I took a bunch of garlic cloves (see above) and slowly cooked them in olive oil.  In a half hour the garlic become sweet and the oil take on that wonderful flavor.  I cooled the oil, filtered it through some paper towels and saved the oil.  Oh yeah,  my wife and I ate the garlic and had terrific smelling breath for 24 hours.

Soft Serve Find

In August I went to Georgia for a wedding.  After the wedding, I went to the Braves game and found this gem at Turner Field.  This stuff was awesome.  I didn't even care that the Braves lost (at least not too much), I got ice cream!  This ranks up there with some of the best soft serve I have had to date.  I wonder if Mayfield sells this stuff anywhere else.

Update time

Okay it's been way too long.  Here are some of the things I have been up to.