It’s chicken tortilla soup without the tortillas–because soup doesn’t need gluten (or dairy) to have amazing flavor.

Let’s get into it:

Ingredients:

• 1T olive oil
• 6 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1T cumin
• 1T freshly cracked black pepper
• 2t salt (I ended up adding an extra teaspoon at the end. Do what tastes right to you)
• 2t garlic powder
• 1t coriander
• 6 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 cartons of chicken bone broth (get the low-sodium kind)
• 3 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob (keep the cobs)
• 15 oz can of white beans, drained and rinsed
• 5 medium-sized tomatillos
• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 1 bunch of cilantro (stems only. Keep the leaves for garnish)
• Pulled or shredded chicken (I used 3 chicken breasts that were cooked in the crockpot a few days ago. Alternatively: rotisserie chicken! Make your life easy!)
• Garnishes:
  • Cilantro leaves
  • Sliced radishes
  • Avocado
  • More corn? Yes. We love corn.
  • Jalapeños? Yep, if spice is your thing.
  • Limes? For sure.
  • Crema? If you like that.
  • FRIED TORTILLA STRIPS?? Now you’re just making tortilla soup.
• A 450°F oven, a rimmed baking sheet, and a blender

*************************************************************************************Peel the leaves off the tomatillos and give them a quick wash. Place them on the baking sheet and toss with a little olive oil (just enough so that there’s oil on the whole tomatillo and it won’t stick to the sheet). Roast them for about 15 minutes, or until they’re very dark brown/black in spots. Don’t worry about turning them. Set aside.

Crank a burner up to high and get a large, heavy-bottomed pot onto the stove. Add the olive oil and celery, and let the celery cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the onions and spices (cumin–coriander) and let cook 3-5 minutes until the onions are soft. Get the sliced garlic in there. Once you can smell the garlic, add the chicken broth to the pot and simmer on low. Go ahead and add half of the beans and all of the corn kernels at this point.

Into your blender, scrape the corn cobs with a spoon or butter knife to release the “milk”. Add the tomatillos and any juices from the baking sheet, the rest of the beans, the tomatoes, and the cilantro stems, and blend until very smooth. Add this slurry into your soup.

Almost done!

Get your chicken in the soup and give it a taste. If it’s delicious, you’re done! (If not, add some more spices.) Time to garnish: pile your soup with sliced radishes, cilantro leaves, avocado, and really anything else you think would be great. This makes enough soup to feed eight adults, but it’s even better after sitting in the fridge for a while, so get excited for leftovers.

Enjoy!