This soup will wow your ever-livin’ pants off, guaranteed. My friend Kumi made a chicken tortilla soup for dinner Friday night so delicious that I wanted to enjoy it again immediately. So I attempted to recreate her recipe with a few tweaks of my own. She rattled off some of the ingredients to me after dinner as a reminder—her soup had chicken, diced zucchini and carrot, corn, tomatoes, onion, and garlic, and she served it with cilantro, diced avocado, and sliced jalapenos for garnish.

To her recipe I added just a few other ingredients that sounded good to me: black beans, lime, and jack cheese.

To start, I diced the onion, carrot, and zucchini. I sautéed the onion and carrot until tender, added the garlic and cooked until fragrant. Next I added chicken broth, black beans, and whole peeled tomatoes, chopped in half. I brought the broth mixture to a boil, added zucchini, corn, and several chicken breasts, and simmered on low about 20 minutes until the chicken was thoroughly cooked and the zucchini was tender.

Note the very patient kitty keeping me company while I worked:

Ernie. Cat with nose finely attuned to good smells from the kitchen.

Next I toasted a few tortillas, removed the chicken breasts from the pot, and shredded the chicken and set it aside.

Top with the cheese of your choice and you’ve got a winner on your hands. I didn’t measure anything as I chopped, but this potentially makes a big stockpot full of soup so you’ll have plenty of leftovers.