Found this wonderful soup recipe on the LDS Living (Magazine) site. They do a contest every year for the best soup recipe and this year's winner is this tasty soup by Wendy Stock from New Mexico. I made the recipe as she wrote it and have put my ideas in as well.
Chicken Poblano Soup
The advance prep ingredients:
1 Roasted Chicken (I used 3 boneless, skinless breasts)
3 Poblano peppers, veined, seeded, and diced
2 cups cooked rice (I put a little chicken bouillon in with the water in my rice cooker)
Roasting the chiles in the oven on Broil-Hi (top rack about 4-6 inches from the top element). Turn the chiles over to ensure a good blistering on all sides. After roasting, pull the foil around to completely enclose and let sit for about an hour. This sweats the skins loose. I cut around the tops and pulled out the seed pod and veins. Then I hold the chile under cold running water and remove the blackened skins. Now they are ready for dicing. You can also roast them on a BBQ or gas stove burner. Just check the internet for how to roast chile peppers. These chiles are very mild. I will probably add in some green chiles for some more hot in the future. I like Hatch chiles too. The Orange Patch in Mesa gets them in once a year, already roasted and ready to skin. They freeze well and are wonderful.
I had chicken breasts, so I put them in the oven for 45 minutes covered and then took the foil off for 30 minutes so they would brown a little. Left-over Lipton chicken (I make that for dinner on Sundays often) would work well here, or even chicken bottled in the pantry. I'm going to try a rotisserie chicken next time.
The rice is in the rice cooker, and I assembled the rest of the ingredients. (not all pictured) Once the chicken, chiles and rice were done, the rest went pretty fast.
In a large saucepan, or a medium stock pot combine:
1/4 C. Olive Oil
1/2 t. Cumin
1/2 t. Thyme
1 T. Chicken Bouillon
salt and pepper to taste
Mix well.
Add:
1/2 Bunch Cilantro (pull off the leaves and discard the stems). Chop as fine as you like.
2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
1 Medium Onion (diced)
2 C. Carrots (diced or chopped) About 2 carrots depending on size.
The diced poblano chiles
Place pan over medium heat.
Stir often and cook until onions begin to carmelize and the carrots are tender.
(I had to add a tiny bit of water to allow the veggies to steam a little and not burn)
Next add:
3 Quarts Chicken Broth (or Chicken Stock)
1/4 C. Butter (1/2 a stick)
1/4 C. Flour
I mixed the flour with a little of the chicken broth so it wouldn't lump. You could also use cornstarch in place of the flour.
Stir all together.
With two forks pull the chicken into bite-size pieces and add to the soup.
Last, stir in:
2 C. Cooked Rice
1 sm. Bag Frozen Corn
The little tortilla strips available at most stores now would be good garnish. I will most likely use at least 1 more quart of chicken stock for a more brothy soup. So good. Grumpy and I had this last night and it was fabulous.
