Caldo Tlapeño (A Mexican Chicken and Rice Soup)
"I am not sure if I spelled Tlapeño correctly, and I am not exactly sure what it means. However, I do know that Caldo means broth. This is a simple recipe for a dish that you will probably never find on the menu at any diner in Mexico, but my companion always ordered it and it was always served."
- Ready In:
- 1hr 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
15-20
ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (I usually but a whole fryer, cut up)
- 4 cups cooked rice
- 4 carrots, small dice
- 2 lbs monterey jack cheese, cubed into 1/2, inch pieces
- water
- diced avocado (I generally cut a 1/4, inch grid in the fruit while it is still in its skin, and scoop out to serve)
- chipotle chili
- chicken bouillon (optional)
directions
- In a water filled, large pot (five quarts or larger) and in advance of all other preparations, boil the chicken.
- After the chicken is cooked thoroughly, remove the chicken from the broth.
- After letting the chicken cool, remove skin and pull all the meat from the bones. Skim the chicken fat off of the chicken broth that you created when you boiled your chicken. **I usually do all of the above the night before, and I refrigerate the chicken meat and hold the chicken broth in reserve.
- Pick or dice the chicken meat into pieces that are no larger than half the spoon the soup will be eaten with. Heat broth and add the diced carrots. Bring the broth to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer and cook carrots for 15 minutes. Increase heat to Medium-Low and add prepared rice and chicken.
- In each bowl, and before serving add 8-12 cubes of cheese, ¼ of an avocado. After the chicken and rice are reheated, ladle the broth, chicken, carrot and rice mixture over the avocado and cheese.
- Stir the soup and garnish/season with a chipotle pepper before serving.
- **In the broth, it seems a little chipotle goes a long way. This soup is usually served with bread sticks, and I have seen it eaten with warmed tortillas.
- **If needed, cubes of chicken bouillon (prepared according to package instructions) can be added to stretch the broth if too much broth is absorbed by the rice.
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Reviews
-
This was delicious--thank you for sharing! It was exactly what I was looking for and the avocado took it over the top.
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<p>At 19 years of age, I was the only child of any of my father's friends who was regularly invited to their gatherings. I was a fish out of water, but it felt good to be included. One New Year's Day everyone gathered for a day of football and food. I noticed two things that day. The women went on and on about how good the different dishes of food were that were brought into the party that day, and I noticed that all the food was cooked by men. It was at that party that I realized it was ok for men to cook. Within a month I was regularly taping cooking programs. (There was no food network way back then. In fact MTV played noting but music videos back then.) Too many years of being single left me with no one to cook for, that is until relatively recently. I am so glad to have had someone to cook for again. I now use RecipeZaar recipes to teach my teen-aged son how to cook.</p>
