Chicken Soup with Lime, Avocado, and Cilantro

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This soup recipe is not only delicious, but also easy and inexpensive to prepare. In addition, it is a hit with every member of my family.



The recipe is from Budget Bytes, a great website resource for recipes. It is an especially handy site if you like to see recipes broken down by the cost of ingredients.

As you know, I am having the ultimate adventure trying to figure out how to buy groceries in England with metric measurements and cooking here with a stove that confuses me completely!!

Here is how I adapted the recipe…

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil  - I am in a temporary apartment still, with no measuring equipment, I just pour two "glugs" of olive oil in the pan.
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 2 stalks celery 
• 1 medium jalapeño  - just called fresh green chills here
• 4 cloves garlic 
• ¾ lb. chicken breast - I buy one package of 500g
• 6 cups chicken broth - Again, no measuring utensils, so I estimated here and bought 3 containers of stock - each container was 500 ml
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/chiles - I have yet to find anything like Rotel here - so I just buy one can diced tomatoes - 400g
• 1 tsp oregano - I don't have all my spices stocked up yet, so I didn't use any of this.
• ½ Tbsp cumin - a pinch
• 1 medium lime 
• ½ bunch cilantro - called coriander here
• 1 medium avocado 

Instructions

1. Dice the onion, celery, and jalapeno (scrape the seeds out of the jalapeno before dicing). Mince the garlic. Cook the onion, celery, jalapeno, and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Add the chicken breast, chicken broth, canned tomatoes with chiles, oregano, and cumin to the pot. Bring the whole pot up to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to low, place a lid on top, and let simmer for one hour.
3. After simmering for an hour with a lid on, carefully remove the chicken breast from the pot and use two forks to shred the meat. Return the meat to the pot. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the soup. Get as much juice as possible from the lime by using a spoon to scrape the inside of the lime.
4. Rinse the cilantro and then roughly chop the leaves. Add to the pot, give it a quick stir, and serve. Dice the avocado and add a few chunks to each bowl.

I highly recommend this recipe!