Chicken Tortilla Soup with Rice

After a successful fiesta shower... we had leftovers!

Leftover chicken fajita meat with onions and peppers, left over avocados, cilantro and Mexican rice.  What to do? I created my own soup! It turned out delish.  Here’s what I did.

Chicken tortilla soup with rice

2 cups fajita meat (chicken)

2 cups cooked and prepared Mexican rice

2 small cloves garlic minced

1/4 jalapeño pepped seeded and diced

2 bags frozen onion and red and green peppers fire roasted (Trader Joe’s)

2 Tbs olive oil

8 cups chicken stock

2 Tbs tomato paste

Salt to taste

1 tsp cumin

1 packet taco seasoning

Garnish with:

Cilantro

Lime

Crushed tortilla chips

Sour cream 

guacamole (find my recipe in a previous post)

In a soup pot, heat the oil, minced garlic and jalapeño  until heated, add the cooked fajita meat and two bags of veggies.  Stir til heated. Add chicken stock, tomato paste, cumin and salt (if needed) and bring to simmer. Once simmered, add taco seasoning.  Heat as desired and return to low heat to serve.  Place in bowls, crunch tortillas atop, add a dollop of guacamole, sour cream and add cilantro to garnish. Finish with juice from one lime wedge!

It’s family and neighbor approved.

Enjoy!

This Summer's favorite recipe!

So, I'd been searching for a molcajete bowl now for a while.  Made of lava rock, tripod legs... you know, the ones they use in the fancy restaurants where they make the guacamole tableside...

Finally found it at Crate & Barrel Outlet this summer so I immersed myself in the "how to" of seasoning it.  First cleaning it then grinding white rice and water in to a paste... over and over until no lava  residue  is found. Then adding sea salt and coriander and grinding that to a pulp numerous times cleaning out each time in between. Then finally adding coriander, lime juice and cilantro to try to get the bowl seasoned. Then adding coriander, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and sea salt...grinding and grinding.. it was finally ready to make my first batch. 

 (Not to mention how good the kitchen smelled after all of that)

I searched recipes online... scoured Pinterest...and then rememberd I'd once taken notes while at a restaurant where they made it fresh tableside.. So, I referred to those notes and created a little mix of my own. After many attempts and many thumbs up... here's the recipe!

Restaurant style tableside Guacamole recipe:

To the molcajete 

Add

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup cut fresh cilantro leaves (no stems as they can make it stringy and bitter)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Grind them in to the bowl until seamingly absorbed... in to a paste

Add 

Juice from 1 lime

Stir to make a juice paste.

Add

2 fresh avocados and mash with the  pestle 

Mash

 (if you are doing it right... this is the messy part)

When they are mashed, 

Add

1/4  chopped jalapeño ( no seeds)- more if you prefer

Two tablespoons chopped tomato

2 tablespoons chopped onion (I use Vidalia onion)

 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 

Stir with a fork to combine.

  Ready to serve.  

This is where you taste your recipe ... add a pinch more ground sea salt to taste... serve with chips! 

Hope you love it as much as our family does! 

You may add what you like or omit what you like... 

super flexible recipe... 

but, I know You'll love it!

 Leave me a comment below if you like.  I'd love to hear what you think! 

  Thanks for stopping by! 

Martha

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