Gordon Ramsay’s tortilla soup is a smooth Mexican soup of charred tomatoes, garlic, onion and guajillo chiles, blended with corn tortillas and chicken stock and topped with fried tortilla strips. It makes about six bowls and takes about 3¼ hours with his homemade stock, though most of that is the stock simmering on its own.
He posted this recipe on gordonramsay.com with a video in 2021, saying “even Aarón Sánchez would approve”. The stock does double duty, because the chicken breasts poach in it first and then get shredded for the quesadillas on the side.
Get real color on the vegetables, blackened in spots, since that charring is where the soup’s smoky flavor comes from. Leave the garlic in its skin while it chars and peel it once it has cooled. What you end up with is a smooth, orange-red soup under a tangle of tortilla strips, white queso fresco and green cilantro, with a squeeze of lime over everything.
Gordon Ramsay’s Tortilla Soup with Chicken Quesadillas
Course: SoupsCuisine: MexicanDifficulty: Medium6
30
minutes2
45
minutes490
Roasted-bone chicken stock, a charred tomato and guajillo soup thickened with tortillas, fried strips and cheesy chicken quesadillas, from gordonramsay.com. It makes about 6 bowls.
Ingredients
- For the chicken stock:
2 pounds raw chicken bones (backs, necks, feet)
1 yellow onion, quartered, root intact
2 large carrots, washed and cut into 2-inch chunks
4 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 cups water
- For the soup:
5 roma tomatoes
5 garlic cloves, peels on
1 small white onion (or half a large one), peeled and quartered with the root left on each quarter
2 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large pieces (3 for more heat)
3 (6-inch) corn tortillas, torn into pieces
6 to 8 cups of the chicken stock above, divided
kosher salt
- For the crispy tortilla strips:
6 corn tortillas, cut into ½-inch strips
vegetable oil, for frying
kosher salt
- For the chicken quesadillas:
the shredded chicken breasts from the stock
good-quality corn tortillas
½ cup shredded Oaxaca cheese
½ cup shredded cheddar or low-moisture mozzarella
chopped spicy pickled vegetables (optional)
crumbled queso fresco
1 ripe avocado, diced
cilantro leaves
hot sauce of your choice
lime wedges
Directions
- Roast: Heat the oven to 450°F (232°C). Roast the chicken bones, onion, carrots and garlic for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the bones are caramelized.
- Stock: Put the roasted bones and vegetables in a large pot with the oregano and cumin. Pour in the 12 cups of water, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
- Poach: Add the chicken breasts to the simmering stock and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until they reach 165°F (74°C). Lift them out, shred them once they’re cool enough to handle, and keep them covered in the fridge.
- Simmer: Let the stock simmer for at least 1 hour, skimming off anything that rises to the surface, then strain it.
- Char: Heat the broiler to high, or set a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Char the tomatoes, garlic and onion well, and toast the dried chiles lightly without burning them, then peel the garlic.
- Blend: Put the charred vegetables and chiles in a blender with 2 cups of the stock and the torn tortillas, and blend until smooth.
- Soup: Pour the mixture into a large pot and add 4 to 6 more cups of stock, depending on how thick you like it, since it thickens a little as it cooks. Season with salt, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Strips: While the soup simmers, heat about ½ inch of oil in a high-sided skillet over medium heat for about 1 minute. Fry the tortilla strips in 3 batches, stirring now and then, until golden and crisp, then drain them on paper towels and salt them well.
- Quesadillas: Warm a tortilla in a large skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds, then flip it. Put a good handful of the cheeses in the middle, leaving a little under ½ inch (1 cm) clear at the edge, and add chicken and chopped pickles, if using, to one side. After 30 seconds, fold it in half and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, turning once or twice, until the cheese melts, then repeat and cut into triangles if you like.
- Serve: Taste the soup for seasoning. Ladle it into bowls, top with queso fresco, avocado and cilantro, add hot sauce if you like and a good squeeze of lime, then pile on the tortilla strips and serve the quesadillas alongside.
Notes
- The recipe gives no serving count, so 6 bowls is my own estimate from the 8 to 10 cups of soup.
- Avocado is in the serving step but missing from the recipe's ingredient list, so it's added here.
- Strained and chilled, the stock lasts 5 days, or 3 months frozen, so it can be made well ahead.
- Oaxaca is a mild, stringy Mexican melting cheese, usually sold near the queso fresco.
- Keep the frying pan in sight the whole time, and have a lid nearby in case the oil spits.
FAQs
Can I make it faster with store-bought stock?
Yes, though it’s my own shortcut rather than the recipe’s. Use a low-sodium chicken stock and poach the 2 chicken breasts in it for the same 10 to 15 minutes, then carry on from the charring step.
You’ll lose some of the color and depth that the roasted bones give, but the soup is ready in about an hour. A store-bought rotisserie chicken also works for the quesadillas, since they only need shredded meat.
How do I make the spicy pickles?
The recipe’s pickles are jalapeños en escabeche, and it makes a big batch: 1 pound each of jalapeños and carrots, half a white onion, 6 garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon of neutral oil. The liquid is 2 cups each of distilled white vinegar and water, with 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon each of black peppercorns, kosher salt and Mexican oregano, and ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds.
Soften the vegetables with the salt for about 5 minutes, add the spices for 5 to 10 more, then simmer them in the vinegar and water until the jalapeños turn army green. Let them cool before they go into jars, and I’d keep them in the fridge and use them within a month.
What are guajillo chiles, and can I swap them?
They’re dried Mexican chiles with a fairly mild heat, sold whole in bags in the Mexican aisle. The recipe uses 2, or 3 if you want the soup spicier, with the stems and seeds taken out.
If you can’t find them, I’d use dried ancho chiles, which is my own swap. Whichever you use, toast them only lightly, because burnt chiles turn bitter and that bitterness carries through the whole pot.
Why are tortillas blended into the soup?
They thicken it, so the soup turns smooth and slightly creamy without any cream or flour. Three torn corn tortillas go into the blender with the charred vegetables and the first 2 cups of stock.
That’s also why the recipe lets you choose how much more stock goes in, since the soup keeps thickening as it simmers. If it’s too thick by the end, a splash more stock loosens it.
How is it different from his spicy Mexican soup?
Quite a lot, since the two are separate recipes and this one is the bigger project. His spicy Mexican soup from Ultimate Home Cooking is a chunky bean soup with chipotle and Lancashire cheese, ready in under an hour.
This tortilla soup is smooth, built on roasted-bone stock and charred guajillo chiles, and it comes with quesadillas. So I’d cook the bean soup on a weeknight and save this one for a weekend, since the stock alone needs about 2 hours.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.