Mexico City Style Chicken & Rice Soup

I ordered the this soup at a Tex Mex joint in Houston and totally fell in love. Determined to recreate it in my teeny NYC kitchen and think I got pretty close. This is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I will likely be making this a lot, especially if the winter stays this cold. 

Before...

Soup Base Ingredients

Garnish Ingredients

and After!

You can improvise and add/change up many of the ingredients here. Next time I think I'll try to add daikon to the soup. 

Mexico City Style Chicken & Rice Soup

Ingredients for Chicken Broth: 
Chicken (I like to use a mix of drumsticks and thighs with bones but no skin)
Carrots  
Celery 
Corn
Onion (I prefer yellow/Spanish onion for cooking)
Thyme
optional: Saffron

Ingredients for toppings/garnish: 
Tomatoes
Onion (I prefer red onion for garnish)
Avocado
Jalapeño
Corn - cook briefly in chicken soup, remove and cut off kernels
Cilantro
Rice - cook in rice cooker with slightly less water
Optional: lime

Directions:
1. Boil water and drop in chicken pieces. Cook for 1 hour. In the meantime, drop in whole corn, let cook, remove and cool. Cut off kernels to be used for garnish later.
2. Cut carrots, onion and celery into large chunks. Add carrots, onion, celery, thyme and dash of pepper into the pot. Cook for at least another hour. 
3. While the broth is cooking, prepare the toppings/garnish: chop the tomatoes, red onion and jalapeño into small pieces. Finely chop the cilantro. De-seed and cube/slice/chop avocado (do this last as avocado oxidizes).
2. When the broth looks ready, scoop out the chicken and carrot. De-bond and hand shred chicken meat into small pieces.
3. Pour the remaining soup through a sieve to retain the clear broth. Add chicken and carrots back in and reboil. Flavor with salt and pepper.
4. Scoop out a bowl of hot broth with chicken and carrots. Serve with toppings/garnish on the side.

Guacamole

If you need to feed a bunch of party people, there is nothing better than guac & chips. I made this for my friend’s Mexican themed party and was told that it was “so awesome” and “the best.” Yes, they were drunk, but I’ll take it.

Before...

and After!

You don’t need any special tools but a few tricks to note:

• Avocado oxidizes (turns brown once it’s cut), so guacamole is best made and consumed on the same day. If you must store it overnight, keep the container air tight and refrigerate.

• Use ripe avocados. They are not always readily available at stores, so you can buy 1-2 days early and store in room temperature in a brown paper bag.

• Make sure you de-seed the tomatoes. Otherwise, the dip gets runny.

• The below recipe is not spicy at all. Feel free to double or triple the chilies if you want a kick.

Guacamole (courtesy of Dos Caminos)

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Avocados, preferably California Haas – 2 large

Tomato, Roma/plum – 1 small

Onion, White/Red – ¼, for 2 teaspoons chopped

Chilies, Jalapeno/Serrano – 1-2, for 2 teaspoons chopped

Lime – 1, for 2 teaspoons of lime juice

Cilantro – 2 tablespoons chopped

Directions:

1. Chop up everything: finely chop the onion, chilies and cilantro. Remove chili seeds if you don’t like spicy. De-seed the tomatoes and chop. Do avocado last because it oxidizes: peel, de-seed, and cut up in small cubes.

2. In medium size bowl, use the back of a spoon to mash up half the onion, chilies and cilantro with a dash of salt. This will help release the oil and flavor.

3. Add avocados and mash. Mix in the remaining onion, chilies and cilantro. Lastly, gently fold in tomatoes and add lime juice. Season with salt and serve with tortilla chips.