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Build a Better… Tortilla Soup with tips from chef Dona Savitsky

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Whether you’re talking a classic Sopa de Tortilla or a citrus-kissed Sopa de Lima with fresh lime, Mexican soups often taste better at a restaurant than they do at home. The broths seem more flavorful, the garnishes fresher and more enticing.

Now chef and restaurateur Dona Savitsky, who owns both Oakland’s Doña Tomas and Berkeley’s Tacubaya, is sharing the secrets to her classic tortilla soup, a recipe, she says, that was perfected on a trip to Oaxaca, where she met a trio of women who made an amazing version of the classic.

The recipe relies on a few key factors: Dried chiles are toasted on the stove for a few minutes to amp up their flavors, then rehydrated in warm water before pureeing them with roasted tomatoes and garlic. Those extra steps add complex flavor to the broth.

At Tacubaya, that chicken broth is made from scratch, but busy home cooks can substitute a good-quality stock from the grocery store. And the shredded chicken Savitsky uses comes from the Tacubaya rotisserie — the Berkeley restaurant just started offering full rotisserie dinners to go, by the way, available after 4 p.m. — but feel free to use leftover roasted chicken or a rotisserie chicken from your favorite market.

Busy week ahead? Make the soup ahead of time and stash it in the fridge for up to three days. Then simply reheat it and serve it with baby spinach, fresh avocado, Oaxaca cheese and crumbled tortilla chips to garnish.

Here’s how it’s done.

Tacubaya’s Sopa de Tortilla (Tortilla Soup)

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 guajillo chiles

1 ancho chile

1 cup warm water

3 heirloom or vine-ripened tomatoes, or 6 Roma tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1½ quarts chicken broth

2 tablespoons canola oil

½ white onion, cut into 1/3-inch dice

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

Kosher salt to taste

Garnish:

¼ pound baby spinach

1/3 pound Oaxaca queso, shredded

2 avocados, diced

2 cups loosely crushed tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Place a dry skillet over medium heat. Add the guajillo and ancho chiles and toast for 2 to 3 minutes, pressing them into the pan and turning occasionally with tongs to prevent burning, until the skins begin to brown and the chiles become soft and flexible and give off their spicy aroma. While the chiles are still hot, remove the stems and seeds and submerge the peppers in a bowl of hot water for about 30 minutes to rehydrate.
2. Drain the chiles and transfer them to a blender. Add 1 cup warm water and purée until smooth. Leave this purée in the blender.
3. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Place the tomatoes and garlic in a small metal or cast-iron baking pan. Roast them for about 45 minutes, until the tomato skins begin to blacken and split. The juice will bleed from the tomatoes and caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the blender with the chiles and purée on high speed for 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Place the broth in a large saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Set the baking pan on the stove top over high heat. Add a few ladles of the simmering chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the caramelized tomato bits. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, then pour this mixture back into the chicken broth.
6. Place a separate soup pot over high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté for 4 to 5 minutes, until translucent.
7. Add the tomato and chile purée, decrease the heat to medium, and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to prevent scorching. The consistency should be that of thick marinara sauce.
8. Pass the broth through a fine-mesh strainer directly into the soup pot and gently summer for 20 minutes so the flavors come together. Add the shredded chicken and simmer for about 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt if necessary. (The soup can be refrigerated in a covered container for  up to 3 days at this point. Reheat before proceeding.)
9. To serve, divide the spinach, cheese and avocado between 6 bowls and ladle the hot soup over each. Top with the tortilla chips and serve immediately.

— Courtesy Dona Tomas, Tacubaya, Berkeley