Tortilla Bean Soup

I changed the name of this soup.  I took out the "and".

Pretty inspired hey?

I know.  I'm a genius.  Right?

What an experience shopping for this soup was!!!

I spent 20 minutes in the bean aisle at the grocery store.  20.  That's weird right?  I mean, who spends THAT.  MUCH.  TIME. looking for beans?  And part of that time was snooping on the Internet because I couldn't find stuff. 

Like, what the heck are Pinto Beans?  And what the heck do you do when you can find a can that says "Pinto Beans" on the label?  Ugh.  I had to Google.  Turns out - Romano beans are the same as Pinto Beans. 

And what are "Ranch Style Beans"???  I ended up substituting Chili Style Beans. 

And WHAT in the fork is HOMINY????  Of course, my grocery store doesn't CARRY hominy.  But it gave me an excellent excuse to go over to the Latin grocery on Argyll to check it out.  What a treat!  It's an incredibly cool little store - they even make hot sandwiches!  Everything is imported from Mexico - snacks, chips, chocolates, spices, ingredients - and on and on.  I had a GREAT time snooping around!  And I even found the hominy I was looking for.

Just so you know - hominy is like a poufed up corn kernel.  It's not bad, but it's not that great either.

On to the soup.

There are a couple of things that didn't make it to this picture - the taco seasoning and the onion.

Instead of just plain water, I ended up using half chicken broth and half water - just for some extra flavour. 

Cook the chicken (I only used three chicken breasts) on high heat in the broth (this took about 1/2 an hour for me) and then shred into bite size pieces.

And it was here that I stopped taking pictures - but I have a perfectly reasonable excuse.

I realised I forgot about the onion and took it out to start chopping it up. 

It was at this point that point that the knife slipped and I ended up with a cut about 1/2 an inch long and - I'm just guessing here - 1/8 of an inch deep across the pad of my thumb.

It bled like crazy. 

I felt super-barfy.

And super-stupid.

Just as I was about to go to the clinic to see if I needed a couple of stitches - it finally stopped bleeding.  Mostly.

I still haven't made a decision about the clinic.

While I was "applying pressure to the wound", I opened all the cans of beans, tomatoes, and hominy, gave everything a little rinse and threw it back in the pot.  I also added some more water, because it looked like it could use it.

I heated it through for about 40 minutes and dished it up.

Here's what I thought.

It was actually pretty good, and had a nice spicy kick, although I would make a few changes.

First of all - I would put the onion in with the chicken at the beginning.  The onion wasn't really cooked.  I would also use FOUR chicken breasts.  Then, I would just leave out the hominy.  Also, I would throw in a small container of sour cream to make it a little creamy.

Would I make this soup again?  Not as the recipe is written - but it wasn't horrible.

This is the Cane Girl - signing off.

Tortilla Bean Soup
(This is the original recipe)
6 cups water
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
1 (15 ounce) can ranch-style beans
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15 ounce) can hominy
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix

1. Combine the chicken and water in a large pot over high heat.
2. Cook for 30 minutes to one hour, until chicken is cooked.
3. Remove chicken from pot and cut into bite-size pieces.
4. Return chicken to the pot.
5. Add the onion, beans, hominy, tomatoes, and seasoning mixes.
6. Mix well, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Source:  Allrecipes