Hairy Bikers' tortilla soup recipe

This is a delicious chicken soup. The tortillas are like super-croutons and the lime gives it real zing.

Ingredients

• 1 corn-fed chicken, jointed
• 3l water
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• I head of garlic, topped and tailed
• Stick of celery
• Sprig of thyme
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 6 whole peppercorns
• Salt to taste
• 12 tortillas
• Sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 500g plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Salt and black pepper
• Lime wedges

Method

1. Put the chicken in the water and chuck in the quartered onion, garlic, celery, thyme, oregano, peppercorns and salt. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for an hour or two.
2. Meanwhile, cut the tortillas into 1cm strips and shallow fry in the sunflower oil until crispy. Set aside.
3. In a tablespoon of oil, sweat the chopped onion and garlic till transparent.
4. After the chicken has been simmering for an hour or so, allow it to cool then strip the meat from the carcass and strain the broth, discarding the stewed-out veg and bones. Take a third of the meat and put it in a processor together with the tomatoes, the fried onion and garlic and a slurp of the stock. Process till smooth.
5. Add the puree to the broth and simmer for half an hour to allow the flavours to concentrate.
6. In a bowl, put a handful of the chicken meat, a handful of the crispy tortilla and top it ip with the thickened broth, Squeeze some lime juice into the soup and garnish with the wedge.