Chicken Tortilla Soup - Skirt in the Kitchen

~ Skirt in the Kitchen ~

Mix seasoning of cumin, lemon pepper, finely ground ancho pepper, garlic salt, and just a little bit of kosher salt.

Place on chicken after a light coat of olive oil, seasoning on all sides of 2 large chicken breasts or 3 medium in size. Bake covered in a 350 degree oven for approximately an hour, give or take. Turn halfway through baking time to keep moist on both sides of each. When out of the oven, keep covered so it doesn’t dry out before ready to shred.

Chop 1/2 of a green apple, 1 seeded jalapeno, and 1/2 of a red onion.

Sauté in olive oil until very dark but add the green apple halfway though cooking. Add more oil if needed and sauté the remainder of the onion, the rest of the apple, 2 added and chopped mini sweet peppers, and 2 cloves chopped garlic but do not brown this batch that is added, just cook until tender along with the first batch still in the skillet left cooking.

From the very beginning, sauté with 2 or 3 whole chili peppers included in the skillet, stirring occasionally with vegetables.

This is how it should look and be after the second batch has been added.

Quickly squeeze and add the juice of 1 whole lime, stir; then 32 ounces of chicken broth, 1 small can tomato paste, 1 can hot or mild Ro*tel tomatoes that are diced with green chilies. Stir in 1 can black refried beans (or puree 1 can whole drained and un-rinsed black beans) which will help with the consistency of the liquid, thickening the soup broth as well as adding flavor and nutrition. Add the shredded chicken plus the broth from it when it was baked.

Stir to melt in a good pinch of Demerara sugar, light-brown raw sugar. Add more of the mixed spice-seasonings left over from the chicken. Keep a little of it out for sprinkling over strips of cut tortillas baked in the oven set at 450 degrees with very little time of browning.