Thursday, September 6, 2012

Chicken Tortilla Soup






Hopefully you are lucky enough to have some leftovers from the beer butt chicken! If you do, this is a snap to make this soup. If you added wood chips while grilling the chicken, the soup will have a wonderful smoky flavor to it.
  
Start by pulling the meat off the bones. Set the meat aside and place the bones in large pot and cover with water. Add a spoon or so of chopped garlic. Let the bones simmer for an hour to two hours. 

Carefully remove the bones from the broth, set aside. Strain any small bits of bone out of the broth by pouring into another pot through a sieve. Discard anything collected in the sieve. 

Pick any remaining meat off the bones and return the meat to the pot with the broth. Discard the bones.

Turn the broth back on to a low simmer. 

Chop up the chicken meat that was picked off the bones earlier and add this to the soup.




Add one can of Ro-Tel tomatoes, one can of chick peas (drained) and a little more chopped garlic. Also add 1 to 2 teaspoons of Cajun spice or just some salt and black pepper if you don't want your soup too spicy. I use a brand called Slap Ya Mama that I got in New Orleans but any will work.

Let the soup simmer until everything is heated through and the flavors start to blend, 30 minutes or so.

Ladle into soup bowls and enjoy!

If you like, you can garnish with chopped fresh green onion, 2 or 3 crunched up tortilla chips, a sprinkle of cheddar cheese or a small spoonful of light sour cream.

 

Beer Butt Chicken





Beer Butt Chicken  :)

Very easy and really good.

One whole chicken (be sure to remove giblets if they are included).
One 12-oz can of beer, whatever is cheap
One bottle of Zatarain's Crab Boil liquid (you can get this at Safeway or Walmart)
Garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste

Rinse chicken and pat dry, set aside.
Open beer. If you have an old-fashioned "church key" opener you can punch some extra holes in the top. This allows more flavor into the chicken.
Carefully pour the crab boil liquid into the beer. It's kinda spicy so don't get it on your fingers then rub your eyes. Ouch!
Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder on chicken and a little inside the cavity.
Carefully place the chicken over the beer can. Set the chicken carefully on the grill so it is "sitting up". Prop the legs out front to make it a little more stable.

If you have a charcoal grill or a smoking pan on your gas grill, add some water-soaked wood chips to the charcoal before you place the chicken on the grill. The smoke flavor really adds to it!

Grill over indirect heat until the juices run clear from the chicken when poked. Depending on your grill this can be an hour or so.

When the chicken is done, carefully remove WITH the been can in place to a plate. Be sure not to spill the beer, it's very hot at this point. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes or so, when carefully remove the beer can from the chicken. Set the full beer can aside to cool. Place the chicken on a platter and dig in!