Amazing Chicken Tortilla Soup

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• cooked chicken (leftover roasted or rotisserie)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) can rotel tomatoes & chilies
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 inches piece velveeta cheese, cubed
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 8 corn tortillas
• oil
• sour cream (optional)

Recipe

• 1 put chicken, skin bones and all, into a pot with 2 quarts of lightly salted water, and bring to boil. important: the skin and bones make the broth taste great. that's where the flavor is. this wont work using skinless, boneless chicken breasts.
• 2 reduce heat and simmer until chicken is starting to loosen from the bones and broth looks. well. like broth. (about 20 minutes).
• 3 carefully, remove chicken from broth making sure to get any little bones that may be on the bottom of the pot. set chicken aside to let cool.
• 4 add onion, rotel, cumin, garlic, chili powder, and black pepper to the pot. add 1/2 tsp crushed pepper for medium heat, less if you like it mild, or more if you like it spicy. i use 1 teaspoons.
• 5 stir, and let simmer until chicken is cool enough to handle.
• 6 tear off chicken meat and place back into pot discarding skin and bones.
• 7 cut off about a 2 inch section from a log of velveeta cheese, then cut into cubes.
• 8 add cheese, and cilantro to soup and stir over low heat until cheese is melted into the soup. let simmer stirring often.
• 9 stack corn tortillas and slice into thin shreds with a sharp knife. cook tortilla shreds in a small amount of hot oil until crisp. drain on paper towels.
• 10 to serve, ladle soup into individual bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream (optional) and the tortilla strips.