Fire Roasted Soup

This soup should wear a caution sign saying, "Eat with caution, flavors might explode in your mouth and could cause an overindulgence in it's deliciousness." The idea originated from a Rachel Ray recipe, but I can't make anything without putting my own twist on it. I just know how I like things and you can always do the same thing too!

The key ingredient (and this is NOT optional) is the ancho chili. I used two for this recipe and it was the base of the soup. Now these are quite hard to find. The way I found them...three grocery stores later, was packaged in a bag in the Hispanic section of the spice aisle. I do not know if you have a section like this in your store but I am in north Cuba so you can bet I have that section. You may also find them in the produce section near the other peppers. The ones I bought were Badia brand. Now here is a little background on the pepper itself. Ancho chili is a dried poblano pepper. They are bright green when fresh but turn almost black when dried this particular way. They are woody and a bit sweet so they are mild as well. They must be reconstituted but it's simple.


Fire Roasted Ancho Chili Soup

Ingredients

* corn tortillas sliced
* 2 large ancho chilies, seeded and stemmed
* 1 quart chicken stock
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 ears corn on the cob, husked, kernels removed or 1 cup frozen kernels, defrosted
* 1/2 large red onion, chopped
* 1 jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced (wear gloves!!!)
* 1 red chili pepper, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 (14-ounce) can fire roasted diced (try to find these, it adds a ton of flavor!)
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1/2 left over rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded or just poach some chicken in chicken broth and shred
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 to 2 cups water
* 1/2 lime
* 2 ripe Hass avocados, halved
* Sour cream, for garnish
* Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Directions

Add the ancho chilies and the chicken stock to a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chilies are tender. Remove from the heat to cool.

While the anchos simmer, heat a medium soup pot with vegetable oil over high heat. Add the corn and saute until charred at the edges, 2 to 3 minutes.

Reduce the heat a little, add the onions, jalapeno, red chile pepper and garlic. Season with cumin, smoked paprika and cinnamon. Saute for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes.

Puree the anchos and the stock in a food processor, then add it to the soup pot. Stir in the honey and the shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Thin the soup with 1 or 2 cups of water and simmer over low heat to combine flavors, about 5 minutes.

Zest and juice 1/2 lime and add to the soup pot. Seed and dice the avocados and add to a small bowl. Dress with the juice of the remaining lime.

Pile some corn tortillas into each soup bowl. Top with diced avocado and ladle the soup over the avocado. Garnish with sour cream and whole or chopped cilantro leaves.

Thank me later! :)