Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup

Brian and Jack were away on a college trip to Boston recently so I cheated a bit and got a rotisserie chicken for Meghan and me for dinner...the next day I decided I would try to make Chicken Tortilla soup, one of my favorite soups, using what was left of the chicken. We had barely put a dent in the chicken, so I had about 1 lb of chicken to use in the soup...here is what I did.

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken, 1 lb of the meat and the bones to make the broth
2 onions, one quartered, one chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2-3 T hot peppers(I had a mixture of jalepeno and banana chopped in my freezer)
4 garlic cloves, minced
Juice of 1-2 limes
1 16 ounce can diced tomatoes
1-2 T cumin
1-2 T chili powder
salt and pepper
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 cup frozen corn
fresh corn tortillas

Remove all chicken from carcass and set aside. Put carcass, 6-8 cups water, 1 quartered onion, the celery and the hot peppers in a pot, add salt and pepper and simmer 1-1 1/2 hours. Strain broth and discard bones. You should have 6-8 cups broth.

Sauté one chopped onion in 1T vegetable oil in pot until translucent, add 2/3 of the minced garlic. Add 1 t cumin and the red pepper flakes, cook 2 minutes. Add broth, canned tomatoes, 1/2 the lime juice. Simmer 20 minutes.

Add remaining garlic to the remaining lime juice and pour over diced chicken. Let marinate while broth is simmering.

Purée broth in batches in blender and return to pan. In a separate pan, sauté chopped fresh tomatoes with 1-2 T chili powder, 1/2-1 T cumin, the drained and rinsed beans and the corn. When liquid is almost evaporated, add chicken with marinade. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add this mixture to the broth. Season with chili powder and cumin to personal preference.

To make tortilla strips, cut fresh corn tortillas in strips and fry in 1 inch of oil, drain on paper towels and add salt.
Serve with sour cream, tortilla strips, avocado, fresh cilantro etc. If not really motivated, use store bought tortilla chips...
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