This ancho chile soup is a breathtaking bowl of authentic Mexican-inspired magnificence. The broth, made from charred ancho chiles and vegetables, is simple to make yet complex in taste with incredible depth of flavor and a noticeable but not overwhelming ancho heat. The chile-spiked broth is balanced with crumbled salty cheese, creamy avocado, and sour cream and makes an incredibly satisfying soup.โAngie Zoobkoff
Ancho Chile Soup
Ingredients
For the ancho chile broth
- 3 dried ancho chiles (about 25 grams)
- Boiling water
- 4 medium plum tomatoes, cored
- 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1 small white onion, halved and unpeeled
For the fried tortilla strips
- 1/2 cup mild vegetable oil
- 8 corn tortillas, cut into strips
For the fried pasilla chiles (optional)
- 8 small dried pasilla chiles (aka chile negro)
For the ancho chile soup
- 1/4 cup mild vegetable oil
- 8 cups vegetable broth or chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound queso fresco, crumbled
- 8 sprigs fresh cilantro, finely chopped, plus more to garnish
- 1/2 cup crema or sour cream
- 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and thinly sliced
Instructions
Make the ancho chile paste
- Heat a 6-quart (5.7-liter) Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high. Cook the ancho chiles, flipping once, until lightly toasted and more pliable, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Transfer the ancho chiles to a bowl and add enough boiling water to cover. Let the ancho chiles soak, weighting them if necessary with something to keep them submerged, until softened, about 30 minutes.
- Drain the ancho chiles, reserving the soaking liquid. Remove and discard the stems and seeds and toss the ancho chiles in a blender.
- Return the Dutch oven to medium-high heat and add the whole cored tomatoes, whole garlic cloves, and onion halves. Cook, turning with tongs as needed, until each ingredient is blackened all over, about 10 minutes for the garlic and 15 to 20 minutes for the onion and tomatoes. As each ingredients is done, transfer it to the blender.
- Purรฉe the ancho chiles, tomatoes, garlic, and onion until smooth. (Itโs okay, go ahead and keep the skins on the tomatoes and garlic. Youโll strain the sauce later.) If the purรฉe seems incredibly thick, you can add a little of the reserved chile soaking liquid, a spoonful at a time, to thin it slightly. Pour the purรฉe through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
Fry the tortilla strips
- While the ancho chiles soak, place a wok or deep saucepan over medium-high heat, add the oil, and heat until hot but not smoking. Add a handful of tortilla strips, being careful not to crowd the pot. Fry the tortilla strips, turning as necessary, until crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the crisped tortillas to a plate lined with paper towels or a brown paper bag. Repeat with the remaining tortilla strips.
Fry the pasilla chiles (optional)
- Return the wok or pan with the oil from the tortilla strips to medium-high heat. Fry the pasilla chiles, flipping once, until puffed and crisp, about 5 minutes total. Watch the pasilla chiles carefully as they go from toasted to scorched in seconds and since theyโre already dark in color itโs easy to burn them. Transfer the fried pasilla chiles to a brown paper bag to drain.
Make the ancho chile soup
- Clean the Dutch oven or pot from the ancho chile paste and place over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat until hot but not smoking. Add the reserved ancho chile purรฉe and cook, stirring constantly, until reduced slightly, about 6 minutes. Add the broth or stock as well as salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat. Divide the queso fresco and cilantro among the bowls and then ladle the ancho chile soup on top. Crumble 1 fried pasilla chile over each bowl of soup and garnish with cilantro, a dollop of crema or sour cream, sliced avocado, and tortilla strips.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testersโ Reviews
Wow! This ancho chile soup turned out to be much more than just the sum of its parts! The ancho chili soup broth is thin and light with just a touch of heatโmild ancho chiles bring more sweet than heat in this case. Combined with the salty pop from the cheese hiding at the bottom of the bowl, the crisp tortilla strips on top, the smokiness from the fried pasilla peppers, the creamy texture from the avocado and sour cream, and the herbal notes from the cilantro, it all came together to build a surprisingly complex and satisfying bowl of delicious Southwest flavor.
This ancho chile soup turned out to be a well-balanced broth base for a weeknight pozole or chickpea soup. The soup itself resembles the method for making a chile sauce for tamales but the addition of tomato and stock easily takes it to soup realm.
How about using canned fire-roasted tomatoes in place of fresh as they are not good in the middle of winter? Muir Glenn makes a good product that I have used in many of Rick Baylessโs recipes like enchilada sauce. How many ounces would equal 2 tomatoes? THX.
lowandslow, you definitely could use a 14.5-ounce can of Muir Glenn if you were making this recipe, which calls for 4 plum tomatoes. However you ask about 2 tomatoes, so if youโre planning to make half the recipe, which would call for 2 plum tomatoes, then use half the can of Muir Glenn. Kindly let us know how it goes!
Mexican soups/stews are wonderful.
Anyone feel up to tackling menudo?
Hah. Weโve got another Mexican-inspired soup publishing today, bkhuna. Itโs a chicken posole. Perhaps youโll be interested in that as wellโฆ
Si !