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Renee

Chicken Verde Soup

This chicken verde has the delicious crispness of tomatillos and fresh vegetables and a tiny kick in the after taste, without being overwhelmingly spicy or weighing you down like a heavy meal. Feel free to serve over freshly cooked rice, atop egg noodles, or even crumple up your favorite tortilla chips over the top.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings: 16
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Mexican
Calories: 343
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Soup
  • 12 Fresh Chicken Thighs skin on
  • 1 tbs Garlic
  • 1 jar Cantina Style Salsa Verde
  • 2 cubes Chicken bullion
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup Onion diced
  • 1 cup cup Celery diced
  • 6 quarts water or chicken broth
Optional Vegetables
  • 12 ounces Frozen Corn
  • 12 ounces Frozen Okra
Toppings
  • 1/3 cup Radish sliced thin
  • 1 cup Cabbage angel hair shredded
  • 1/2 cup Green Onions sliced thin
  • 1 jar Sour Cream Cacique Crema Mexicana Agria
  • 3 Limes
  • 1 cup Cilantro
  • 10 ounce Tortilla Chips (optional) Crushed

Equipment

  • 1 Glass Baking Dish 8.25″D x 13.75″W x 2.25″H
  • 1 Stock Pot With Handles & Glass Lid 8-Quart
  • 1 serving tongs 9 Inch
  • 2 Cutting Boards 1 for meat, one for veggies
  • 1 kitchen knife Set
  • 1 spatula
  • 1 Soup Ladle
  • 1 roll extra large aluminum foil

Method
 

Cook the Chicken
  1. Line baking dish with foil and spray with cooking oil to keep meat from adhering to the metal. Dust with a teaspoon of salt and arrange chicken the same way it is in the package, skin side up. You will want skin on chicken for the extra flavor it imparts and to keep your chicken from drying out.
  2. Dust top of chicken with 1 teaspoon of salt to make the skin crispy, which adds additional flavor.
  3. Place in a cold oven and turn on to 450f. (If oven is preheated, chicken will burn. Reduce oven to 425f and cooking time to 45 minutes if preheating oven.) Bake for an hour  or until done, while prepping soup base.
Make your Stock
  1. In your stock pan spray the bottom with cooking spray and dust with a teaspoon of salt. Sautee onion, celery, and garlic until onions begin to caramelize, or turn brown on the edge.
  2. Add in 6 pints of water and 2 tablespoons of bullion, or 4 pints of chicken stock. Bring to a boil.
  3. While waiting for pot to come to a boil, wash green onions and cilantro and gently dry them. Gently slice green onions, set aside. Mince cilantro, set aside. Slice limes into wedges, set aside. 
  4. Add both bags of frozen vegetables to soup base and gently break apart. Bring vegetables to a simmer.
Prep the Chicken
  1. While waiting for pot to come to a simmer, check on chicken. It is done when skin is brown and crispy and broth is completely golden and clear.
  2. Pull out of oven and pull one piece out, if you can easily break the meat from the bones, its perfect. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.
  3. If your family is like mine and is completely squeamish about seeing bones and skin in their food, gently deskin and debone the chicken using tongs and chop up meat, feel free to dump the freshly chopped chicken in the simmering pot as you go or all at once.
    If you are like me and dont mind picking around your chicken bones as you eat, slice thighs in half along one side of the bone and simply dump in to soup. Stir pan gently until all ingredients are well mixed.
  4. Dump in the chicken broth from the baked chicken into your soup too. (Save bones and skin in a zippered bag for stock later).
Finish the Soup
  1. Add in half to a whole jar of salsa verde. (Stir and taste. Add in more if desired.)
  2. At this point also add remaining salt and more bullion to your preference. Reduce heat to lowest setting.
  3. Ladle immediately into bowls over rice or pasta (if desired) and top with shredded cabbage, sliced green onions, creme fresh, cilantro, and pepper as desired. Squeeze a fresh lime wedge over the dish and serve.  (Optionally dust with crushed tortilla chips.)
  4. Store remainder in the fridge directly in the pan or divide into lunch containers, top with fresh ingredients, and freeze for quick hot meals later.

Notes

Tips:
  • Feel free to substitute the water and bullion for equal amounts of chicken stock.
  • And feel free to substitute the cooking spray with butter, lard, or coconut oil.
  • The salsa Verde can be substituted with fresh tomatillos and jalapeno peppers blended to a sauce, or any other Verde sauce. I find our family likes the bright fresh flavor of this salsa over other Verde options. And fresh tomatillos are hard to find in our area.
  • Consider also topping it with Creme Fresh when serving for a bit of extra creaminess. 
You can, of course, prepare all these ingredients fresh if you have a local fresh market or grow your own. Simply use the amounts listed in this recipe. For keto version simply leave off corn. For those wanting carbs, serve over freshly steamed rice or egg noodle pasta.
(Cook and prep time is about an hour and a half if using fresh frozen ingredients. Adjust prep time accordingly if prepping the ingredients from fresh picked. As is the recipe was cooking the entire time I was prepping it.)