Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson (Caldo Tlalpeno)

Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson (Caldo Tlalpeno)
Recipe Number: 1261
Contributor: Anonymous
Rating: 10.00 based on 1 votes
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Serves: never enough
Calories Per Serving: who care
Preparation Time: just right
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 quart chicken broth

1 pinch dried Mexican leaf oregano (or regular oregano)

1 cup cooked rice (non-sticky)

1 cup cooked garbanzo beans, preferably dried for nuttier flavor

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and chopped

2 chipotle ?adobo? or ?adobado? chilies (canned),minced (try the ?EMBASA? brand of chipotles from Safeway for $1.99)

1(4-6oz) Monterey Jack or Havarti cheese, cubed or try some crumbled white ?Ranchero? style Mexican cheese

4 sprigs cilantro, optional

Cooking Instructions:

PROCEDURE:
Place the chicken breasts in a pot with the broth. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and poach for 12 minutes gently. Remove from the pot and cut into strips 1 1/2 inches long or cut into cubes. Return the chicken to the broth and add the oregano, rice, garbanzo beans, avocado, and chipotle. Divide the cheese among 4 deep soup bowls. Quickly heat the soup again to a quick boil, and then ladle it into the bowls. Garnish with a cilantro sprig. Serve with fresh hot tortillas. This dish may be made a day ahead, but don't add the avocado until reheating the soup for serving. The chipotle flavor will intensify overnight and the dish may seem hotter. For more intense flavor, add some of the adobo sauce from the peppers to the soup just before serving and stir to blend it in.

Serving Suggestions:

Great on a cold winter night with fresh hot tortillas. Easy to make and often better the second day after flavors meld. Works great in a crockpot too. To thicken the soup up, add more chicken, garbanzo beas, and rice.

Additional Comments:

In 1843, the famed mountain man Kit Carson purchased a large adobe house (built in 1825) in Taos, New Mexico as a wedding present for his young bride, Maria Josefa Jaramillo. The house was to be Josefa and Kit's permanent home until their deaths in 1868. Maria apparently prepared this recipe for Carson and guests to their home on a number of occasions.

NOTE ON THE CHIPOTLE CHILIES: Chipotle peppers are red Jalapenos that have been slowly dried and smoked over a pecan wood fire. They are highly prized for their flavor and are surprisingly earthy and complex in taste. Chile Chipotle adobado (or ?adobo?) is the same type of chile, but after the chilies have been smoked, they are then baked (oven roasted) in a thick chili sauce. Typically these are canned. The chipotle adobo adds a smoky and earthy taste to the soup that can?t be substituted for with liquid smoke or other types of chilies. Try the ?Embassa? or ?Herrdez? brands of canned chipotle adobo chilies available in the Mexican food section of your local Safeway or Albertson?s. One can provides enough chipotles for several batches for this stew. Extras can be frozen, but they will loose a bit of their peppery bite. You can use them to make a quesadilla as an appetizer if you don?t want to freeze them or use them in a mole sauce.