The Rolling Dinner - Part 3 - Tortilla Soup

The final recipe in this "Rolling Dinner" series is the easiest by far. We are merely bringing together items made from scratch by you and adding a few other ingredients for flavor and flare. You can choose to substitute any items that you would personally like in a tortilla soup. Let me know what you come up with. I'll be excited to hear where your creativity takes you.

My creation above is much fancier than I would normally do for myself on a Wednesday night. I'd usually do this for a dinner guest. Because you are such an awesome dinner guest I pulled out all the stops and will even show you how I put together the dish. However, I would not normally reveal to a dinner guest that I pulled the soup base from my freezer.....

Tortilla Soup:

Servings: 2
Total cooking time: 20 minutes
Active cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
20 oz frozen Italian Chicken Noodle Soup broth
1/2 cup Spanish Rice
1/4 cup grated medium cheddar cheese (or whatever you like)
4 oz cooked chicken sliced into strips
1 Avacado
2 Tablespoons sour cream
14 Tortilla chips

Tools:
1 Small saucepan
1 Ladle
1 Knife
1 Cutting board
1 Cheese grater

Method:
Put 20oz of frozen Italian Chicken Noodle Soup broth in saucepan. Over medium heat, thaw and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile in two soup bowls, place 1/4 cup Spanish Rice in the bottom center of the bowl.
Place sliced chicken and avocado slices alternately around the mound of Spanish Rice.

Sprinkle one third of the grated cheese around and on top of the chicken and avocado slices.

Dollop one tablespoon of sour cream on the top of each mound. Place six tortilla chips around the edges of each bowl, tips up. Crumble one tortilla chip on the top of each mound.

Once the Italian Chicken Noodle Soup broth comes to a boil, gently pour one or two ladle fulls around the bowl being careful not to disturb your rice mound or chips.

Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Split remaining cheese between the two bowls and sprinkle on top.

Upon finishing this task, I realized that a nice sprinkling of rough chopped cilantro would have really put on the finishing touch. Oh well. C'est la vie.

This dish is great for a quick dinner or lunch. If you don't want all the presentation, just add the Spanish Rice and cooked chicken to the Italian Chicken Noodle Soup broth while it is defrosting in the sauce pan. Bring it all to temp and throw in the avocado, grated cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips when it is served. Either way it is good.

Thank you for joining me for this "Rolling Dinner" series. If you have any comments or suggestions, I'd be glad to hear.

Next up is Buttermilk Pancakes!

The Rolling Dinner - Part 2 1/2 - Spanish Rice

The thing that I love about cooking is that there are very few hard and fast rules. I love feeling my way through a recipe. Of course there are mistakes to be made that way, but I've found some very delicious ideas when I let my tummy do the talking.

This is probably what I am liking about this blog so far. I'm learning as I go and feeling my way through the process. There don't seem to be many hard and fast rules. I'm sure I'll make some mistakes. One so far was thinking that I could do this rolling dinner post in a 3 part series.

Try as I may, the posts just become too long if I include the Spanish Rice recipe with a second recipe. So this is part 2 1/2 of my 3 part series. ;)

As I mentioned last time, I've sought out recipes to cook from scratch what I had previously made from a box. This recipe is also adapted from Simply Recipes. Feel your way through the recipe. If there is a spice that you'd like to include, toss it in with the liquid and tell me about it.

Spanish Rice:
Adapted from Simply Recipes

Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Active cooking time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6 - 8

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Cup White Rice
1/2 White or sweet onion - diced
1 Clove of garlic - minced
2 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Pinch of oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 large pinch of salt (non-iodized or Kosher)
1/2 can diced tomatoes (no salt added) or 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes

Tools:
1 medium saute` pan and lid
1 small sauce pan
1 spatula
1 knife
1 cutting board

Method:
In medium saute` pan heat oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add rice, stirring occasionally until it is slightly toasted.

Add the diced onion and garlic and stir occasionally until soft.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan bring chicken stock, oregano, cumin, salt, and 1/2 diced tomatoes to a boil.
Pour the broth mix into the rice mix slowly, being careful not to splash yourself with the mixture. It should boil immediately.
Turn down the burner to low, maintaining a simmer and cover. It should take approximately 20 minutes, or until rice is tender.

Note: I have made this recipe with brown rice too. It is very good, but you have to adjust the liquid amount for the type of rice you use.

We will be using the left overs for the Tortilla Soup!