Mexican Lime Soup with Chicken
There’s pretty much no better time for an outdoor happy hour than Cinco de Mayo, which just so happens to be one week from today. Almost everywhere, the weather is perfect. “It’s San Diego weather!” proclaim too many people, myself included. Making me wonder why we don’t all live in San Diego? Temperatures hovering around 70F, humidity-free air, no pesky gnats or mosquitos…life is good. And life is even better with some chips, a little salsa and a margarita in hand.
I’ll give you a quick and easy recipe for completely inauthentic, by the pitcher margaritas that disappear as quickly as you make them, but I will also share a recipe for Mexican Lime Soup with Chicken. I found this soup on Pinterest and it appears to be adapted from an old Williams Sonoma Catalog. That caught my eye because I always “consider the source” when reading a recipe and Williams Sonoma has never let me down. This soup is flavorful, yet mild–think of it as the Mexican counterpart to a Jewish Grandmother’s Chicken Noodle Soup. I first made it when my youngest was getting over a stomach bug and it was a hit all around.
Prepare the soup before you make that first pitcher of margaritas and you’ll be forever grateful that you have something to feed the family when your Cinco de Mayo happy hour is winding down. Buen Provecho!
Mexican Lime Soup with Chicken
- 3 or 4 limes
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper, plus more to taste
- 1 Tbls olive oil
- 1 large white onion, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 oz diced green chilies, canned
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 4 cups water
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 avocado, peeled and cut into a medium dice
- Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- Cut 1 lime into 4 to 6 wedges; set aside for serving. Juice as many of the remaining limes as needed to measure 1/4 cup.
- Season the chicken breasts on both sides with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
- In a large soup pot, sauté the onion in olive oil until translucent, about 4 minutes.
- Add the garlic and diced chilies and cook for another minute or two.
- Add the cumin, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and stir for an additional minute.
- Add the chicken, broth, water, and lime juice to the onion mixture.
- Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover partially and simmer until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 40 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the soup and shred.
- Gently stir the shredded chicken back into the soup. Taste the soup and season with additional salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve topped with diced avocado, shredded cheese and additional limes. Enjoy!
- 1 can of limeade frozen concentrate
- tequila, your favorite but nothing as good as Patron
- 1 can of Sprite
- 1 bottle of Corona beer
- Pour the can of frozen limeade into a pitcher.
- Refill the limeade container with tequila and add to the pitcher.
- Pour in the can of Sprite and the bottle of beer.
- Stir and serve.