A Great Copycat Recipe for Chuys Tortilla Soup
Chys is a highly popular Tex-Mex restaurant chain that’s renowned for its many fantastic recipes, including things like tortilla soup. This recipe includes many healthy ingredients but tends to be a bit high in sodium, which may be concerning for many people. Thankfully, you can learn how to make Chuys tortilla soup recipe at home for a good price! We’ll outline the simple preparation method for this process, as well a few simple ways you can make the Chuys tortilla soup recipe healthier and tastier.
Nutritional Value of Chuys Tortilla Soup Recipe
Examining the nutritional value of a typical cup of tortilla soup shows some mixed things. While the calories are decent at just 121 per cup, the sodium is fairly high at 267 milligrams or 12% of your daily intake. The fiber is strong, at 2.5 grams or 9% of your daily intake. Protein is also quite strong, at 8.02 grams. Note that these values may change at Chuys based on various minor tweaks.
As far as vitamins, you’ll get a decent amount of calcium (50 milligrams or 4% of your daily intake), iron (0.99 milligrams or 6% of your daily intake), and trace amounts of vitamin A (11 micrograms) and vitamin C (4.6 milligrams). The high-fat content (3.01 grams) is a little high, too. Thankfully, our suggestions will reduce fat without robbing your Chuys tortilla soup recipe of taste.
Ingredients for This Recipe
You’ll probably need to go to your favorite supermarket to find the niche ingredients for making this recipe. You may have several of them in your pantry, though, so make sure that you read through this list to find out precisely what you’ll need before you start cooking:
- One-half onion
- Two celery stalks
- Two carrots
- Three garlic cloves
- Two jalapenos
- Eight cups of chicken broth
- One cup of frozen corn
- One teaspoon of cumin
- Two teaspoons of salt
- Two cubes of chicken bouillon
- One can of tomatoes with green chili
- Two cups of cooked chicken
- One lime
This recipe also includes a garnish that tops your soup with avocado, cheddar cheese, one-half cup of green onions, cilantro, and tortilla chips. Later, we’ll give you delicious recipes for both homemade bouillon cubes and tortilla strips that will make this soup much healthier.
Preparing Your Fantastic Soup
Creating Chuys tortilla soup recipe isn’t a complex process! Once you have your ingredients together, it follows a basic soup preparation method that just about anybody should be able to handle. That’s what makes it such a great thing to learn: you can easily prepare this meal for yourself and your family and look like an even better chef! Follow these steps to eat like you’re at Chuys right in your family’s dining room:
- Melt your butter in a stockpot on medium heat until it bubbles softly on the pan surface
- Saute your onions, celery, jalapenos, and carrots until the onions are translucent
- Add your garlic during the last minute of the saute time to add their taste to the mix
- Pour in your chicken broth, tomatoes, corn, cumin, salt, and pepper to the pot
- Boil this mix on the stove for about 15-20 minutes or until all the veggies are soft
- Add the cooked chicken and lime juice to the mix and stir gently to blend them fully
- Garnish with your cheese, onions, cilantro, avocados, and tortilla strips
- Serve in medium-sized bowls while warm and store leftovers in the fridge
- Eat leftovers in at least three days or freeze to store for several weeks
Preparing and cooking this soup should take no more than 30-45 minutes or so, depending on your preparation steps. For example, chopping the veggies ahead of time will make it much easier to cook and cut down significantly on your time. However, following our improvement steps may add a little to the preparation time because you’ll have to follow those recipes first.
That said, we strongly recommend following our tips to improve your recipe. First, they’ll help reduce the fat in your recipe and make it more palpable for the average eater. Even better, these slight adjustments don’t affect the taste that much and leave you with a rich and delicious soup. So, let’s just dive right into these tips to see what to expect!
Tips for Making This Recipe Better
Long-time readers know we love providing some tips to improve each of their recipes. For Chuys tortilla soup recipe, we will teach you how to make bouillon and tortilla chips that you can use with this and many other recipes. Doing so cuts back on unhealthy, processed alternatives. Note: you can also use healthier salt or less salt to cut back on the sheer sodium present in this recipe.
Make Your Own Bouillon
Making homemade bouillon is reasonably simple and adds not only to your soup’s taste but helps provide a healthier overall texture. Follow these steps to get great results:
- Mix five ounces of leaks, seven ounces of fennel bulb and carrots, and 3.4 ounces of celery in a food processor
- Add 3.5 ounces of celery root, one ounce of tomatoes, 3.5 ounces of shallots, and three garlic cloves to the mix and blending
- Pour in 4.5 ounces of sea salt and pulse before adding 1.5 ounces of parsley and two ounces of cilantro and pulsing
- Spoon the bouillon into ice cube trays and freeze for later use
Note that we adjusted this recipe by cutting the salt normally required in half. Doing so helps give your bouillon cubes a healthier and less salty taste. It also minimizes excess sodium and provides you with a rich and healthy bouillon alternative.
Make Healthy Homemade Tortilla Chips
The tortilla strips in Chuys tortilla soup recipe are critical to its taste but easily the least healthy part of the meal. However, you can eliminate these deep-fried chips from your diet and bake homemade tortilla chips that taste just as good. Don’t believe us? Try this recipe to become a true believer:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees before baking your chips
- Brush six tortillas with vegetable soil and cut into strips
- Place the tortillas on a baking sheet and cook for five minutes
- Flip the tortilla strips and cook for another five minutes
- Put directly on your soup or store in an airtight container
Note that you can flavor your chips in several ways, including adding light amounts of salt and seasoning salt before baking. This step gives them more flavor but adds to their sodium content. Make sure you follow whatever guidelines make the most sense for you.
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