Jalapeno Chicken Soup

My husband got sick with a cold this past weekend. Needless to say, he and I have been eating a lot of soup over the past few days. Particularly chicken soup. Not that there's anything wrong with soup in general, but when it comes to chicken soup there's only so much I can take.

So what do you do to make your chicken soup less boring, and different? You dig out the jalapenos from the vegetable crisper, cut them up, and throw them in the soup along with a little lime juice, cilantro, and corn and voila, instant chicken soup makeover and, it has become Mexican! This soup cooks up very quickly, and not only is it better than ordinary chicken soup, it is also better for your cold (the added heat from the jalapenos will help clear out one's sinuses). The argument for this soup to be called Mexican is fairly slim - granted - but I'll take any excuse to have a Margarita with dinner. How do you like that?

So, here's the soup recipe:

Jalapeno Chicken Soup

You will need:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups red or white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (don't deseed - it's really not that much hotter with the seeds)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
5 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups of frozen corn, thawed (you can substitute hominy if you prefer)
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves

Serves 4.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, saute until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeno, saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Add chicken, black pepper, and broth and bring the whole thing up to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer, cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add the corn, cover and let simmer another 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice just before serving. Serve hot with a couple of cilantro leaves. Enjoy!

Note: this soup is fantastic served with tortilla chips, which is exactly how we ate it for dinner tonight. Feel free to add noodles, or any other veggies you want...go ahead, play with it, make it your own :)