Sopa de Fideo – Authentic Mexican Noodle Soup

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to make it.  I loved her story about her family and the soup too.  I have always wanted to try fideos.  I saw this place in Texas on "Triple D" make a fried noodle dish of it and I have wanted to try it ever since then.  I decided not to try and go on a hunt for Mexican fideos locally here and just followed the recipe using vermicelli pasta.  I found angel hair (a.k.a Capelli d'angelo) in nests (I could have just cut them) but didn't know that was the correct thingy until I got home and looked it up.  Anyway, I thought if I liked the soup, I would get that next time.  I compared the vermicelli to my spaghettini when I got home and was thinner...

I used about a pound and a half of organic Roma tomatoes and 3 cloves of garlic.  I used two chipotle peppers too.  I buy these in the can, then divide them up in baggies of two and freeze them.  I learned to do this after I put a whole can in a dip once as an appy when I had company...do not do this!  It was not eaten and went in the garbage.

I sauteed the onions and garlic as directed.

I added the tomatoes and chipotles.

When they were softened I used a hand blender with them adding a half cup water and teaspoon of kosher salt.

I see why she said to put it in a blender - as they splashed on me and my stove and made a bit of pain (the hot soup splashing me) and bit of mess, but I got it done.  (Hers looked much creamier than mine too, as I gave up after a while!)  I had a taste after blended and it was definitely spicy.  Good spicy, not "bad dip in the garbage spicy"...

Next I went about browning the noodles.  I tried to cut these with a knife but couldn't so ended up breaking them.  I had to grab small batches and try and break them about two inches apart.  I certainly wasn't exact and a little sloppy at it (not on purpose).

The noodle browning reminded me of years and years ago of doing it for "Rice a Roni".  That was one of the first things I cooked in my early years, that with Shake n Bake chicken.  Gourmet meal back then - I think I would like it again now, now that I think about it (except it's not likely to happen because of all the crap in both of those boxes!).  I didn't leave the pan and stayed and stirred until they were done.  BUT, let me just say, those noodles jumped from the pan everywhere as I stirred!  I think I would try to make sure they were uniformly cut to an inch next time.  I had varying lengths and those suckers flew everywhere!!!

I added them into the soup (she left her soup simmering, I had mine off the heat while browning).  I had the heat at medium and added 2 cups of Kirkland Organic No Salt chicken broth.

I stirred, brought to boil and simmered it on medium for 5 minutes.  Though the recipe didn't call for pepper, I added a good cracking of it at this point.  Then I set the timer for 15 minutes, covered it and lowered the temp to a low simmer.  Apparently, the browning and all the next intervals are to make sure the pasta does not expand and steal the broth...which was good enough reason for me and it is the main reason I never use pasta in soups...(I'll see tomorrow for sure though, won't I?)

At 15 minutes, I added 2 cups of water, stirred, covered it and let it simmer some more, setting the timer once again for 15 minutes.

When the alarm rang, I added 1 cup of broth, stirred and set the timer for 20 minutes.

When it was time, I added the chicken and the last cup of water.  I used most of a Costco rotisserie chicken, large dice.  I set the timer for 15 more minutes.  The recipe said 10 but I did that because of the chicken being added too.

Done!

I cracked a little more kosher salt after tasting and I garnished with some fresh chopped cilantro.  I think cilantro is my favorite herb...

I enjoyed this very much.  It is unlike any tomato soup I have ever had.  For such simple ingredients, it was bursting with flavor!  I was thinking while I ate it, that some fresh, diced avocado on it would have been nice too - like little pops of creaminess, maybe.

Besides this being a totally "messy" dish to make (I'll probably find vermicelli shards around my kitchen forever - both from breaking them and browning them), I think I can refine the process for next time.  For sure I'll put those tomatoes in a blender for starters and I'll probably buy those angel hair "nests" and break them into proper size pieces and do it over a bowl as opposed to a cutting board!  Anyway, it was Fantástico!!!

4/26/16 Update:

I made this again tonight.  My co-worker saw this recipe and actually bought me some fideo noodles while in the USA so that made my job a whole lot easier!

I also put all the tomatoes, onion, garlic & chipotle peppers in the blender and wow, that was so much better than what I did last time.  Other than that, I did everything else the same.  It was as good as last time, though much easier and less messy!