Chuy's Tortilla Soup a la Costco
I am out-of-control obsessed with Chuy's tortilla soup, so now I'm trying to make my own at home. It smells AMAZING!!!
How is this going down? I started by dumping a lot of this into a big soup pot:
* half of a Costco rotisserie chicken (We ate the other half for a dinner; this is the rest, picked off the bone. I also pulled it all part into reasonable bites. The bits of dark meat add so much flavor to the white! And PUH-LEEZE - DO NOT use diced chicken in a can; use a freshly roasted chicken. You don't have to cook it yourself; thank you, Costco! :-))
* four cups of mixed veggies (I always have a big frozen bag from Costco; you can't beat pre-chopped veggies always on hand that won't spoil.)
* one 8 oz bag of steamed Peggy’s Premium Edamame (far left - before I popped them all out of the shells; this is another great Costco item - you get 12 servings of this size in individual microwave steam bags for ~$7. No, Chuy's version doesn't have edamame, but I'm using these in place of the avocado, b/c they're both green, slightly creamy, & I already had this in the freezer!)
* eight cups of water (plus four more I added about half an hour into simmering, b/c it was getting too salty reducing down)
* eight [gianormous] teaspoons of Better than Bouillon organic chicken base (1 tsp + 8 oz of water = chicken stock; my mom turned me onto this stuff - SO MUCH BETTER than any other store-bought stock I've ever tasted! It's quality & lasts for ages; you can also easily add more base (like I did ;-)) for a more intense flavor. Also buy at Costco: in the grocery, an 8 oz jar is the same price as the 16 oz jar at Costco)
From this point, I also added some onion powder (b/c I have no actual onion; if you do, sauté & use it!), garlic powder (b/c I love it), three shakes of cayenne, and maybe 12-15? shakes of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. [OK, so I know this isn't sounding very "Mexican" with the garlic & creole, but
1) it's getting just enough heat for my spice-baby-self; you can always add more to suit your personal taste.
2) I hate peppers, (but if you don't, please add away!)
3) Chuy's tortilla soup is purely chicken-based: NO tomato paste or salsa. If you want it tomatoey (& I *do* LOOOOVE tomatoes! Just not for this copy-cat attempt) add a can or two of diced tomatoes, tomatoes with peppers & Mexican spices, or a jar of salsa. I'm sure it would be great.]
I simmered all this, tasting often (which is how I knew to add more water when it was getting too salty) for an hour or so. The actual minutes don't really matter. Just know the longer the ingredients sit together, the better it will taste. :-)
To serve, I will add some halved grape tomatoes (see! getting my fresh tomatoes in, instead of cooking them down :-)) and freshly shredded white Mexican cheese (queso fresco). Something about that cheese melting in the soup just makes it... Chuy's also adds tortilla chip strips on top and serves with a fresh tortilla on the side (like a bread accompaniment), but we're out of chips, and I *do* have fresh whole wheat tortillas from the tortillaria inside our grocery (heaven!!!), so I'll just serve with those.
Mmmmmmmmmmm... Time to eat!!!
How is this going down? I started by dumping a lot of this into a big soup pot:
* half of a Costco rotisserie chicken (We ate the other half for a dinner; this is the rest, picked off the bone. I also pulled it all part into reasonable bites. The bits of dark meat add so much flavor to the white! And PUH-LEEZE - DO NOT use diced chicken in a can; use a freshly roasted chicken. You don't have to cook it yourself; thank you, Costco! :-))
* four cups of mixed veggies (I always have a big frozen bag from Costco; you can't beat pre-chopped veggies always on hand that won't spoil.)
* one 8 oz bag of steamed Peggy’s Premium Edamame (far left - before I popped them all out of the shells; this is another great Costco item - you get 12 servings of this size in individual microwave steam bags for ~$7. No, Chuy's version doesn't have edamame, but I'm using these in place of the avocado, b/c they're both green, slightly creamy, & I already had this in the freezer!)
* eight cups of water (plus four more I added about half an hour into simmering, b/c it was getting too salty reducing down)
* eight [gianormous] teaspoons of Better than Bouillon organic chicken base (1 tsp + 8 oz of water = chicken stock; my mom turned me onto this stuff - SO MUCH BETTER than any other store-bought stock I've ever tasted! It's quality & lasts for ages; you can also easily add more base (like I did ;-)) for a more intense flavor. Also buy at Costco: in the grocery, an 8 oz jar is the same price as the 16 oz jar at Costco)
From this point, I also added some onion powder (b/c I have no actual onion; if you do, sauté & use it!), garlic powder (b/c I love it), three shakes of cayenne, and maybe 12-15? shakes of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. [OK, so I know this isn't sounding very "Mexican" with the garlic & creole, but
1) it's getting just enough heat for my spice-baby-self; you can always add more to suit your personal taste.
2) I hate peppers, (but if you don't, please add away!)
3) Chuy's tortilla soup is purely chicken-based: NO tomato paste or salsa. If you want it tomatoey (& I *do* LOOOOVE tomatoes! Just not for this copy-cat attempt) add a can or two of diced tomatoes, tomatoes with peppers & Mexican spices, or a jar of salsa. I'm sure it would be great.]
I simmered all this, tasting often (which is how I knew to add more water when it was getting too salty) for an hour or so. The actual minutes don't really matter. Just know the longer the ingredients sit together, the better it will taste. :-)
To serve, I will add some halved grape tomatoes (see! getting my fresh tomatoes in, instead of cooking them down :-)) and freshly shredded white Mexican cheese (queso fresco). Something about that cheese melting in the soup just makes it... Chuy's also adds tortilla chip strips on top and serves with a fresh tortilla on the side (like a bread accompaniment), but we're out of chips, and I *do* have fresh whole wheat tortillas from the tortillaria inside our grocery (heaven!!!), so I'll just serve with those.
Mmmmmmmmmmm... Time to eat!!!
I am thinking someone is having a love affair with Costco.
ReplyDeleteI loooove better than boullioin's beef paste for veggie soup! I found a tasty chicken tortilla soup recipe on allrecipes.com that we love and its actually for the slow cooker to make it even easier, though we've cooked it in large quantities in a pot when we made it for church community dinner. When we did it for that, we made corn bread instead of tortilla chips and that was super yummy!
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious!! I have tried to make a copycat version of Carrabbas Sicilian Chicken Soup (one of hubby's favorites) and, while it's good, it's missing an ingredient that I can't put my finger on. Luckily we're planning to eat there tomorrow night which will give us another chance to see what we can figure out! :)
ReplyDeleteJackie - I am SO HAPPY to be back to easy access! Costco & Trader Joe's were the only two places I shopped for several years.
ReplyDeleteAmy - I definitely want to try their beef base, too!
Tracey - I'd also be curious to know! :-)