Chicken Tortilla Soup

What is white, squishable, and comes in a can?  Hominy, so if you make this recipe, don’t bother googling what hominy is, you’ll find in the bean section.  I like to think of hominy as the albino version of the black bean, or the bean who didn’t get his tan on last summer.  At least I think it’s a bean; if its not, I’m sure my expert-chef brother-in-law Tony will correct me in the comments section.  When Hannah, Alyx, and I first found this recipe online, we had no idea what hominy was, and we didn’t think that a Wyoming Walmart would actually have it.  Turns out it must be pretty common since Walmart even carried a generic version of it, saving us 17 cents.  I am sure that the last sentence makes Hannah, Alyx, and I seem very competent; but don’t worry we will finish college. 

        Making the soup went off without a hitch, probably because instead of cooking, I was pre-gaming. Now I don’t mean pre-gaming in the traditional sense, but rather snacking on all the ingredients before we put them into the soup.  I ate a good chuck of the French bread, as well as a good proportion of the black beans, cheese, and tortilla chips.  This is one of the reasons that I never wanted to start cooking, because when I cook its highly likely that I will eat through all the ingredients before they make it into the finished product.  By the time the soup was done, I could barely finish a bowl.  But the bowl that I did have was pretty darn good.  This is definitely a recipe to try. 

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth

1 1/4 cups water

1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked

1 cup white hominy

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

crushed tortilla chips

sliced avocado

shredded Monterey Jack cheese

chopped green onions

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, hominy, chilies, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.