The Best Tortilla Soup
Prep
15m
Cook
40m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Sit. Pour yourself a coffee. We're doing this right. We're doing tortilla soup. The BEST tortilla soup. And I want to be very clear about something right out of the gate — tortilla soup is NOT 'chicken soup with chips on top.' It is NOT. People have done this. People have served me chicken soup with chips on top and called it tortilla soup and I had to leave the restaurant. I had to. I walked out. I would do it again. They knew what they did.
A guy named Ramón taught me this one. He's the truth. Ramón didn't speak a lot — he communicated through the soup, through the stirring, through the LOOK he'd give you when you reached for store-bought broth — and what Ramón knew, what most so-called chefs do not, is that real tortilla soup — sopa de tortilla, sopa azteca, whatever you want to call it, they're all the right name — starts with a broth that is BUILT, layer by layer, from charred tomatoes, charred onion, dried chiles, garlic, and a fried corn tortilla blended INTO the broth itself. That's the secret. The tortilla goes in the SOUP, not just on top. It thickens it. It gives it body. It gives it that earthy, smoky, slightly nutty thing the imitators cannot replicate no matter how hard they try. They try sad little tries. They fail. Food chemists agree — there's a starch-and-fat-and-smoke thing going on at the molecular level that I won't pretend to understand at the molecular level, but I understand it at the SOUP level, which is the level that counts.
And then yes, of course, we put MORE crispy tortilla strips on top. Because we're not monsters. We're layering crunch on crunch on flavor on flavor. Plus avocado. Plus cheese. Plus a squeeze of lime. Plus that radish situation if you're feeling fancy. This soup is a HUG. A hug that fights back a little because of the chiles. The greatest hug in the history of soup hugs. Believe me. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup, dividedvegetable oil
- 8corn tortillas(6 for blending into the broth, 2 reserved for crispy strips, plus extras if you want more crunch which you do)
- 5Roma tomatoes
- 1white onion, halved
- 4 cloves, unpeeledgarlic
- 2dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 1dried pasilla chile, stemmed and seeded
- 6 cupschicken broth(low-sodium, you are an adult, salt is your friend later)
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1.5 tsp, plus more to tastekosher salt
- 3 cupscooked shredded chicken(rotisserie is a perfectly noble shortcut, no judgment)
- 1avocado, diced
- 1/2 cupcotija or queso fresco, crumbled
- 1/3 cupMexican crema or sour cream
- 1/3 cupfresh cilantro, chopped
- 2limes, cut into wedges
Steps
- 1
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Fry the 6 tortillas (for the broth) in batches until golden and crisp, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
- 2
Cut the remaining 2 tortillas into thin strips. Fry in the same oil until golden and crisp, 1-2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and salt lightly while warm. Set aside for garnish.
- 3
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the pot. Add the tomatoes, onion halves (cut side down), and unpeeled garlic. Char over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes, turning, until blackened in spots.
- 4
Remove garlic when fragrant (about 5 minutes) and peel. Toast the guajillo and pasilla chiles in the pot for 20 seconds per side until fragrant, then transfer to a bowl and cover with 1 cup hot water. Soak 10 minutes.
- 5
Add the charred tomatoes, onion, peeled garlic, soaked chiles (with their soaking water), and the 6 fried tortillas to a blender. Blend until completely smooth, about 1 minute.
- 6
Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in the pot over medium heat. Pour in the blended mixture (it will splatter — stand back) and fry, stirring, for 5 minutes until it darkens and thickens.
- 7
Pour in the chicken broth. Stir in cumin, oregano, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes to meld the flavors.
- 8
Stir in the shredded chicken and simmer 5 more minutes to heat through. Taste and adjust salt.
- 9
Ladle the soup into bowls. Top each with crispy tortilla strips, avocado, cotija, a drizzle of crema, and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.
One more thing
This soup will RUIN you for restaurant tortilla soup. You will go to a restaurant, you will order the tortilla soup, you will take one sip, and you will think — and you'll say it out loud, you won't be able to help yourself — 'this is not the soup. The soup is at home. The soup I make is the soup.' Your dining companions will be embarrassed. That's fine. They didn't make the soup. You made the soup. The soup belongs to YOU now. It's a tremendous burden. Carry it proudly. It's a beautiful thing.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Tortilla Soup.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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