Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe belongs to my husband's favorite perky little temptress, Rachael Ray. Although much lacking in cleavage, she makes up for it by offering us this delectable soup, but then ruins it all by calling it Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup. I just can't quite deal with that recipe title, so I shortened it a bit...hope that's okay. It seems to me there are two things that gives this soup its distinctly Southwest flavor.

These peppers are the first... but be careful. They are potent little buggers. First time I made this recipe I went a little crazy with them and it was almost too spicy for me. If you like things with a bit of a kick, but not enough to cause steam to come out of your ears, about 2 of the peppers would be all you'd want to put in.

Second thing is roasting some veggies before they go in the soup. I don't have an indoor grill thingy so I just used a big skillet. I love love love roasted red peppers. I had a hard time not eating them before throwing them in the pot.

The recipe says to put the tortilla chips in the entire pot of soup, but I thought that would lead to yucky leftovers so we just put the amount of chips we wanted in our bowls. Three out of four family members approved, even the picky girl child. Although she avoided the zucchinis for all she was worth. Boy child wouldn't even try it.

Don't forget: I still have a giveaway going on through Saturday, so if you haven't entered you still have time. You know you want to!