soup cans for a good cause

I was going to write about the can sculpture/soup tasting contest my team participated in at work, but our visual designer John O’Nelio did such a good job I’ll let him tell the tale. FYI: all of the cans will be donated to Harvesters. Check out his post: pod-squad challenge.

I made a mexican chicken lime soup with baked tortilla chips for our team’s soup entry. It was delicious but extraordinarily hot! Everyone was sniffling and red-lipped but kept going back for more. We didn’t win with the sculpture or the soup, but we were deemed “most liked.” Whoopee.

Mexican Chicken Lime soup - warning, it’s HOT!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• Juice of 2 limes
• Salt and pepper
• 1 hass avocado, thinly sliced lengthwise into 12 pieces
• Crushed tortilla chips (recipe follows below)

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, lower the heat to medium and cook until the onion begins to brown, about 7 minutes. Increase the heat to high, push the vegetables to the side of the pan, add the chicken and cook, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce, then stir in the chicken broth. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, skimming any foam. Stir in the cilantro and lime juice; season with salt and pepper.
2. Top with crushed tortilla chips.

Baked Tortilla Chips

Ingredients

• 1 package corn tortillas (18 tortillas yield 72 chips)
• 2 limes
• course sea salt
• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheets lightly with cooking spray.
2. Cut each tortilla into fourths with a pizza cutter. Place in one layer on cookie sheet.
3. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime and sprinkle sea salt over chips. Turn over and repeat with other lime half.
4. Bake for 7 minutes, turn chips and rotate pans in the oven. Bake an additional 8 minutes.
5. Allow to cool on cooling racks.
6. Store in air tight container.