caldo tlalpeño

Caldo tlalpeño is one of the first soups I learned to make on my own.  To me, it is a soup somewhat similar to menudo or pozole.  The meat in this case is chicken, and the chile used to flavor the broth is typically chipotle.

It's been a while since I've made caldo tlalpeño, probably not since college.  I was excited to revisit it.  To begin, I made my broth from the bones of a couple of roast chickens.  I prepared the salsa to add to the broth to further flavor the soup.

Normally, chipotle is used in the salsa but I decided to use chile morita, which is a smaller and spicier version of the chipotle.  It still contains that deep smoky flavor which will go well the chicken.  I rehydrated the chile morita in some of the boiling chicken broth for about 20 minutes.

To complete the salsa I placed the chile in a blender along with garlic, cumin, bay leaves, oregano, salt and pepper.

To complete the soup I added diced potato, carrot and boiled for a few minutes.  I later tossed in some cooked garbanzo beans, before adding the salsa to the soup.  I let it all boil together before serving. i garnished the caldo tlalpeño with diced onion, cilantro and pieces of avocado which provide a texture contrast and a needed cool creaminess.  tostadas can be broken up into the soup and of course no caldo is complete without a few squirts of lime.

Making caldo tlalpeño brought back so many memories of trying out new recipes on my own in high school.  It feels good to revisit that.