Cooking Cheap

I should post more. Here’s a recipe in progress. It won’t break new ground in the foodie universe. It’s an exercise in using ingredients at hand (already paid for). I defrosted a container of my home made chicken broth/stock yesterday, and I should use it for something, soon. I’ve also got 20 or so old tortillas near they sell-by date (different from the use-by date that isn’t printed on the package). I’ve also got a bit of oil in a small skillet from when I last fried tortillas even more days ago. Would Tortilla Soup be possible?

Not according to the many Mexican cookbooks I own. I’m not saying they are wrong, but I don’t want to source all the other ingredients – that costs money. Inspecting the pantry, I have a can of Diced Tomatoes with Jalapeños. It’s a generic store brand and it is 1 year past the Best-By date on the top of the can. Perfect! I took out 1 bone in chicken thigh that I put in the freezer a coupe of days ago to defrost. Said thigh came from a whole supermarket chicken on sale that I cut up and froze just because it was on sale.

Serves 2 people.

Brown and cook the chicken thigh in the soup pot (10 minutes or so) in a little oil. Remove from pot. Add 1/2 small onion, chopped. You may need more oil. Add a finely diced carrot and one stalk of celery to sauté along with the onions. When the veg is soft (10 minutes) then add one clove of smashed garlic.

Add the 14.5oz can of tomatoes (with Jalapeños) to the pot. Bring to low simmer and add the chicken stock (around 4-6 cups for me) to the pot, bring to simmer. Taste and then add some seasonings. Chili power and ground cumin, probably with a light hand on both. I used a cup of leftover Enchilada sauce and that was all the seasoning I needed. Obviously, you have to taste it to know that. I put the stick blender to it to make a smoother sauce. Simmer slowly for a while (30 min? or more if you need to reduce it).

Meanwhile shred the cooked chicken thigh, discarding skin, bone, and other ugly bits you don’t want to eat. Don’t put the chicken in the fridge or the soup since the tastes will go off (IMO). Cut two tortillas into thin strips and fry in the oil until crispy. Drain on a paper towel.

In your soup bowl, put some fried tortilla strips, a portion of the shredded chicken and fill the bowl with your soup. If you’ve got some other garnishing veg in the fridge like green onion, radish, parsley, cilantro, chives well this might their moment. I didn’t bother garnishing.

According to the cook books, this is served with crusty bread.

Now for my judgment: Damn, that’s tasty!

Frankly, the shredded chicken chicken didn’t add much, so it could be left out. This recipe goes into my file of do this again. I’m always making chicken stock for the freezer and this a good way to used large amounts. Would it be better if I had blackened ripe tomatoes and re-hydrated dried chiles and used the best and freshest spices and herbs? Probably.

You can only get perfect tomatoes at one time of the year. You’ll also spend a lot more money than that can of tomatoes with jalapeños cost me. What I created was a fine knockoff that you can make at home, on the cheap. Clearly you can fancy it up. Enchilada sauce build the hard way from dried chilies is superior to my Tex-Mex chili powder sauce. I that because I’ve done both, many times. I also how long it takes, what it costs and when good enough is good enough. This recipe for Tortilla Soup is good enough.

The enchilada sauce recipe (aka chili gravy): Make a light colored roux of 1 TBL lard and 1 TBL flour. Then add 1 TBL of pure chili powder, let it toast up for a few seconds and then add chicken or beef broth slowly, whisking it some. Just simple gravy making. Add a pinch or two of oregano, possibly another 1/2 to 1 TBL of chile, maybe a tsp of ground cumin. The smallest pinch of ground cloves you can get. You can thin it out with more stock or water as needed or simmer to reduce if you added to much. You can use all water instead of broth but it’s going to be different. I only use lard because I think it adds body and the right flavor and once you buy the box or tub of lard, you might well find uses for it.