Avani’s Mexican Tortilla Soup with bitter chocolate and chipotle peppers

I saw Rachel Ray make this recipe on her show. But since I never write things down, I didn’t note down this one. Today I am making my own version with some bitter chocolate. We made some chicken stock last night and am using that for this soup.


Chicken stock: Got a rotisserie chicken breast last night to make some sandwiches. We shredded up the meat and used the bone and skin to make the stock. In a cold pot (I think this is important), put the chicken bones, skin, carrots, bay leaf, peppercorns and a couple cloves of garlic. Pour about 6 cups of water and let it simmer on slow heat. I happened to have carrots on hand but celery, onion etc will be wonderful. Let the stock simmer for a couple of hours, let it cool, strain and its ready to use.

The soup

2 small shallots or a quarter of a red onion

1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded

2 small or 1 large chipotle peppers

2 large cloves of garlic

Olive oil

1 cup black beans

1 cup corn

1 cup shredded chicken

½ cup mushrooms

½ cup green peppers

Chicken stock

Bitter chocolate

Brown sugar

Cumin powder

Tomato paste

Fresh avocado


In a saucepan, take about 2 cups of stock, and add 1 tablespoon of finely chopped bitter chocolate, same amount of brown sugar and pieces of deseeded chipotle pepper. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes while we make the soup base. We will later strain this into the soup.

In a soup pan, heat some olive oil and add finely chopped garlic, jalapeno pepper and onion. Let the onions sauté, add 1 teaspoon of cumin powder as the onions turn brown. Stir in the mushrooms and peppers, after they have softened a bit, add the beans and corn. Stir for a couple of minutes followed by the shredded chicken. Follow the chicken with 1 heaping tablespoon and no more of tomato paste. We don’t want the tomato to overcome the “mole” taste from the chipotle and bitter chocolate. By this time, things will be sticking to the bottom of the pan….thats a good thing . Now, strain the simmering stock with chocolate and peppers in. Add 3 more cups of chicken stock. Season with salt and let it boil one last time so all the flavors come together.

Meanwhile cut the tortillas in thin strips, drizzle some olive oil and crisp up in the oven for a few minutes at 350C. In a serving bowl, put the crisp tortilla chips, and small cubes of avocado (optional) and top off with the soup.