Fiesta Chicken Soup

In honor of Cinco de Mayo in a few days, I thought it was appropriate to cook something a little Mexican-inspired.  I was thinking tortilla soup but didn't really want to make or buy tortilla chips. Instead, I present what I'm calling Fiesta Chicken Soup.  I'm going to confess that I was a tad bit hungover while making this soup on account of Dube's Seafood Fest 2010 the night before. I openly admit that there are some inconsitencies between the pictures I'm presenting and the actually reality of this soup. I will also admit that I nicked two of my fingers while chopping veggies, not bad enough to bleed, but bad enough to notice, especially since I rarely nick a finger when chopping veggies. It was a tough morning.

For this soup you will need, a pound or so of chicken; garlic (not pictured, inconsistency #1); one large onion; hot peppers of your chosing, I used one serrano pepper (inconsistency #2, there are two pictured); some corn; half a pint of cherry tomatoes; one bell pepper; two avocadoes; a can of black beans, two cans of diced tomatoes with jalapeno peppers; broth of your choosing, cilantro (inconsistency #3, I'm pretty sure parsley is pictured, but I did actually use cilantro); and salt, pepper and cumin to taste (inconsistency #4, chili powder is also pictured, though no one other than Brian knows that the little red spice jar has chili powder in it and not some other spice).

First, boil the chicken in enough broth to cover, to prepare it for being shredded.

Then start chopping veggies. First I minced three garlic cloves.

Next, I diced one large onion. This was a vidalia onion but any large onion will do. Set the garlic and onion aside in a bowl together.

Now, the peppers. I started with dicing the bell pepper.  I especially liked this bell pepper because it was both green and red at the same time. Though it only looks orange in the picture. It was not orange in real life.

Next, mince the serrano pepper.  I did not remove the seeds because I wanted the soup to be hot. If you don't like hot food, probably omit the serrano or use a milder pepper. Set the peppers aside in a bowl together.

Onto the tomatoes. I sliced them in half and set aside. You could probably leave these out since there will be plenty of tomato-goodness from the canned tomatoes, but I had these in the house already and wanted to use them.

Lastly, the avocados. I sliced them into squares in their skin, popped them out of their skin and set aside.

By now your chicken should be cooked. Remove it from the broth, but do not discard the broth.

Ask one of your hungover friends to shred the chicken for you. Hopefully your hungover friends are as pleasant as my hungover friends were and are willing to help (thanks Cort!).

Take the bagel bites out of the oven that you had to make for said hungover friends as payment for shredding the chicken. I said my friends were nice enough to help, obviously helping came with a price. Happily, I was hungry too, bagel bites are delicious and I never mind feeding my friends.

Now, back to the soup. Heat a bit of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Then add the garlic and onion.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions soften.

Next, add the peppers and cook for another 3 minutes or so.

After rinsing and draining, add the black beans,

the canned diced tomatoes,

the fresh, sliced tomatoes,

the chicken broth, both the broth reserved from cooking the chicken and additional broth, 8 cups total,

and the shredded chicken. Increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the corn.  I used a cup of frozen corn, but canned or fresh would work as well. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Give the broth a taste and figure out what else it needs. Mine was pretty spicy on account of the serrano pepper and jalapenoes in the diced tomatoes. But I added about a tablespoon of ground cumin, pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper.  I also shredded about a 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro and threw that in. Let it simmer another 10 minutes.

Aboutg 5 minutes before serving, throw in the avocado.

Put in your favorite bowl and set aside for a few minutes to cool. Enjoy once its cooled off enough to not burn your tongue, since burnt tongue + spicy soup = an unhappy eater.  This would be good topped with a little cheddar cheese and more cilantro.

Now, what to do while your soup cools? If you're like me, you were headed to Turner Field with the adorable puppy for their semi-annual Bark in the Park. It would be a shame if Harley didn't look a little special for this big day out. It was way too hot for the tuxedo, but the perfect temperature for a spiked mohawk.  For those why haven't spiked a mohawk lately, its not that easy, especially on a squirming dog.  Start with making the dog sit in your lap, and get the cheapest can of hairspray you can find. Spray the mohawk with wild abandon, after all, this needs to last all day.

Using your hands, there is no better tool for this, continue pulling the mohawk fur straight up and holding until the hairspray dries.

Then take your dog to the ball park, where he will receive many a compliment from people who have never seen a dog with a mohawk and calmly sit at your feet during the game.