Diane's Sopa Mexicana

I'm not sure how many who follow my blog know that I spent a semester in college studying in Costa Rica. Stacey and I went together (10 years ago!! Where did the time go??) and we lived with a family; they cooked us breakfast and dinner every day, and the food was always fabulous. Well... except for the plantain and cheese pie. Imagine mashed banana and chewy cheese... in a pie... for dinner. That one wasn't so fabulous. But pretty much everything else was!

One of the dinners our "mother" made was what she called "Mexican soup". She topped this chicken-based soup with white cheese, corn chips, and avocado. It was one of my favorites! Upon returning home I discovered that, sure enough, Mexican restaurants here often serve a very similar chicken soup.

[I can't really find a natural segue to the next paragraph, but I promise I'll tie it together.]

We've recently started buying whole chickens instead of just chicken breasts for meals; we find it's actually quite a bit cheaper and if we're careful we can get 2 meals (plus some lunch) from each chicken. I've also been putting the bones in my crock pot once we've cleaned as much meat off as possible and letting them go for 24 hours with some veggies until I have a lovely chicken broth. Each week I've been making a different soup for my lunches with the broth (plus freezing some of the extra broth for use in sauces and for cooking rice or steaming veggies).

Besides the fact that bone broth has a lot of great health benefits (homemade, of course), it makes quite a warm and satisfying lunch on these colder winter days. My go-to soup is just chicken broth with some veggies (carrots, celery, onion) and rice. Easy peasy! But I was getting a little bored (and hungry) so I started looking for some other ideas. I did a kale and white bean soup one week, which was fabulous, then I did an old favorite potato, chickpea, spinach soup last week (which I ended up being able to share with my friend Cassie while she was snowed in here! Perfect!)

For some reason this week I decided I wanted to do a soup with rice and beans in it and I just started throwing things in a pot instead of searching for a recipe as I usually do. Though I rarely follow recipes as they're written, I even more rarely attempt to cook something without at least a guide, so I'm not quite sure what bug bit me, but once all was said and done, and without really intending to, I ended up with a soup that was very reminiscent of my "Costa Rican Mexican soup".  I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd share the "recipe" for you to give it a try (and as a means for me keep track of it!).

Lovely photo courtesy of Wynn Anne's Meanderings

Diane's Sopa Mexicana

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of chicken broth (I know this is a frustrating measurement if you're using boxed or canned broth, sorry! But, hey, if you need tips for making your own bone broth I'll be happy to share some!)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, juices included
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt (my broth had no salt at all, so adjust as necessary. I also have the luxury of being allowed to eat as much salt as I desire and I tend to like things salty.)
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. coriander
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rice (I used about 3/4 cup and it turned out quite a bit thicker than I intended. Still yummy, but I would use less next time.)
• 1 can of beans, drained (I used pinto, but I think Great Northern or even black beans would be yummy)
• 1/2 cup leftover chicken (not necessary if you don't have any)
• Tortilla chips
• Avocado

[As I said above, I rarely follow a recipe as it's written, so I apologize for all my addenda to my list, but I'm always thinking about alternatives and adjustments]

Directions:

1. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, salt, cumin, chili powder, and coriander to a large pot. Bring to a boil.
2. Add rice and lower temperature. Simmer until rice is tender (35 minutes in my case. I used brown rice). [Side note: you could throw in leftover cooked rice and skip this step!]
3. Add drained beans and chicken and cook until heated through.
4. Serve topped with crushed tortilla chips and diced avocado! The avocado is a MUST!

As I said, I added a little too much rice, and it was already quite thick in the above picture, but, as you can imagine, the rice soaked up even more of the broth and now I have more of a stew (or chili as Drew called it), but it is still just as yummy and tasty! Enjoy!