I had some great homemade chicken broth, all jellied up and good, and poached chicken and I had a craving for some chicken tortilla soup. When I say chicken tortilla soup, it has to include lime juice and avocados (and chicken of course!). Much else is negotiable. I started here with this recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup from Emeril but made a few changes. I didn’t want it too spicy so skipped his whole Cajun seasoning thing. Also, I had some low fat tortilla chips and saw no reason to use 2 cups (!!!) of vegetable oil for frying corn tortillas up. If you do have corn tortillas you want to crisp, spray with a bit of oil and bake them. Sheesh.Even when I fry corn tortillas up for tacos, I do not use 2 cups of oil!  (If you do use 2 cups of oil, make sure you strain it and save it for another use.)

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2-3 cloves chopped garlic (about 2 tsp)
• 1 Tbs chopped jalapeno pepper (I had some in the freezer)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 Tbs tomato paste (freeze leftovers in spoonfuls on wax paper)
• 6 cups homemade chicken stock
• 2 cups cooked diced or shredded chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 1 avocado, peeled and chopped
• sour cream at the table