When it comes to making soup, it’s time to shizz or get off the pot. Warm weather is just around the corner, so pretty soon we’ll be in full-blown salad season and delicious soups like the one I’m about to show you will be but a distant, faded memory.

Okay, scratch that. This crap is so good you’ll probably make it this summer and then sit there at your dining table, torn between your aversion to pitting out and your overwhelming desire to inhale the contents of the bowl before you.
I had a soup like this once at Pesos in Seattle and ever since then I’ve been dying to try recreating it. I actually like MY version better. Take THAT, Pesos, with your snobby waitresses and douchey clientele (anyone who’s been there before knows what I’m talking about here).
Wiggs’s Awesome Chicken, Avocado, and Lime Soup
The ingreeds:
- 1 large onion
- 2 tablespoons of garlic paste
- Roughly 1.5 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast…wait, maybe it was a half breast. All I know is it weighed about half a pound.
- Canned, diced tomatoes (or you could dice your own friggin tomatoes, but why would you subject yourself to such misery), drained
- Lime juice to taste – I ended up using like 1/3 cup, but I think most people would want about half that
- 1/2 tablespoon of cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
- Dash of cayenne, if you like that sort of thing
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tortillas (or, if you’re me, two pieces of light Flatout flatbread)
- 1-2 avocados depending on how many people you’re serving
- 3ish green onions (mine were like mutant onions and I only used two…so use your best judgement)
- Fresh cilantro, chopped, if you have any
First, thinly slice the onion. Throw the onion, garlic, and olive oil into the soup pot over medium heat. Add a little bit of salt and pepper.
While that’s cooking, preheat your oven to 400 degress and julienne the tortillas. What the eff does julienne mean, you ask? It just means that you cut them in long, thin strips. The easiest way to do this is to lay one on top of the other and roll them into a spiral. Then slice the spiral. It seriously takes, like, 45 seconds. So don’t whine about it.

Spread the strips evenly over a cookie sheet and stick it in the oven for about 6 minutes. Keep a close eye on them or you’ll accidentally leave them in for 10 minutes and have to throw their charred remains away while your fiance isn’t paying attention, because he yells at you when you waste food.

Once the tortillas are in the oven, cut the disgusting, raw chicken into small pieces. Consider asking your fiance to do it for you, but realize that he’ll see the burnt tortillas in the trash and make a fuss. Instead of touching the cold, dead, slimy meat, grab a pair of tongs and use them to hold the chicken in place while you cut it, gagging the whole time.

At this point, the onions should be soft and delicious-looking. Don’t let them get too brown…although that would probably taste delicious too. Throw in the chicken and tomatoes. Let the meat cook a little bit, then pour in the chicken broth and spices. Bring everything to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer.
While that’s happening, slice your green onions and cut your avocado into pieces. Toss the avocado in a bit of lime juice so that it doesn’t turn brown.

When the chicken is cooked through (about 6-8 minutes), add the lime juice a bit at a time, tasting frequently, until the broth is tart but not sour. Adjust the seasoning.
Let each person load up the soup with tortilla strips, green onions, and avocados. Also, fresh cilantro would have been amazing…but I didn’t have any. Bummer.

This serves four people for an entree, or six people for a side dish. Or…if you’re me and Dave, you’ll each eat half of the soup and call it a day. Each serving (if dividing the recipe by four) has about 285 dee-friggin-licious calories.


15 comments
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April 16, 2009 at 6:06 pm
runsarah
That looks amazing! I may have to try it with my fake soy chicken breasts!
April 16, 2009 at 6:37 pm
jennk
I’m definitely going to try this, replacing the chicken with seasoned white beans. I wonder how this would be chilled? What am I saying, my husband hates chilled soups, and I am not so into them myself, but still I wonder. Regardless, the base is lighter than the heavy cream infused, super hearty vegetable jumbles we’ve been eating lately, so I can totally see making this all summer.
April 16, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Wiggs
The beans would be great! I don’t know how it would be chilled…I think chilled meat soups are disgusting, but without the chicken it’s got a lot of similarities to gazpacho. You should try it and then report back!
April 16, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Anna
nice! if i ate meat i would totally make this. i like the bean idea, though.
April 16, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Susan
Looks tasty! I can’t chop tomatoes nicely to save my life.
April 16, 2009 at 9:49 pm
whitneyinchicago
I love tortilla soup and anything with avocado is a winner in my book.
April 16, 2009 at 11:01 pm
mags
i just found your blog through meghann’s! i live in chicago, grew up a swimmer/water polo player, went to college in california, and am getting married in july! so funny! such a small world! love your blog!
April 17, 2009 at 1:12 am
Wiggs
Wow! SO much in common. Congrats on your wedding! Are you getting married here in Chicago?
April 20, 2009 at 4:23 am
Liz Lemon
i am chewing on my sweatshirt and drooling. and even though raw chicken is about as fun as ill-fitting underwear on a humid summer afternoon, i am NOT going to replace the poultry with beans. rather, i am going to stay true to this fine, original recipe. cheers, w. the b.
April 20, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Andrea [bella eats]
This is like Chicken Tortilla Soup! One of my favorites. I love how the cool avocado cuts the heat of the spicy broth. I’ve been planning to make my version for awhile now but you beat me to it!
April 20, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Wiggs
Haha, is it tortilla soup? That’s hilarious – I was just trying to mimic the soup I had (with called Chicken Avocado Lime Soup). This is like the time I baked “sugar cookies with chunks of chocolate” and ended up with chocolate chip cookies.
April 21, 2009 at 11:34 pm
That’s a CROCK! » What’s For Dinner?
[...] did a full out post of this with many more pictures here. Thanks for coming over for dinner! Do you want to be a guest at our table? Simply send me an email [...]
April 22, 2009 at 6:02 pm
The Cinnamon Quill » Blog Archive » Wiggs Makes Dinner! And then feeds the world…
[...] recent creation, ‘Chicken, Avocado, and Lime Soup’, grabbed my interest, and included a baked element, so it was immediately added to the dinner [...]
June 14, 2009 at 4:19 pm
desiree
Sounds fabulous! and the pics are great too!
September 4, 2009 at 11:19 am
paula
This is just like the tortilla soup that I enjoyed at cozy mel’s in Naperville (?) a few years ago. It’s been my favorite soup ever since. And like your soup, it doesn’t have a cheese base like a lot of tortilla soups. Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to try it.