Sopa de lima (Yucatecan lime soup)

Name: Sopa de lima (Yucatecan lime soup)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 35 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1.2 kg bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks; 2.5 l cold water; 1 white onion, halved; 1 head garlic, unpeeled; 5 cm cinnamon stick (ideally Mexican canela, the softer, sweeter Ceylon cinnamon); 4 allspice berries; 2 whole cloves; ½ tsp black peppercorns; 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano; 2 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste; 1 tbsp neutral oil; ½ white onion, thinly sliced; 1 green bell pepper (about 150 g), thinly sliced (in Yucatán, the small, sweet chile dulce); 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 2 ripe tomatoes (about 300 g), chopped; 4 limas agrias (Yucatecan bitter limes), or 4 limes and 1/4 grapefruit (see Tips); 6 corn tortillas (made with corn only), ideally a day old; 250 ml neutral oil, for frying; 3 tbsp chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves; 1 habanero chile, very finely chopped (optional)

Yucatán's clear chicken soup: charred onion and garlic, a whisper of cinnamon, allspice and clove, shredded chicken, crisp tortilla strips and the bitter perfume of the local lime.

By the Soupmap Culinary Team

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 1 hr 35 min
Total: 1 hr 50 min
Effort: Takes some care
Serves: 6

Broth richness 3/10

Spice 3/10

Comfort 6/10

Ratings by the Soupmap Culinary Team, not readers.

Gluten-free Dairy-free

Photo: AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sopa de lima is the signature soup of Yucatán, the peninsula in Mexico's southeast: a clear, golden chicken broth, sharp with citrus, poured over shredded chicken and crisp fried tortilla strips. The name means lime soup, but the lima here isn't the everyday Mexican lime (limón). It's lima agria, a small, fragrant local lime with a bitter edge. Its juice makes the broth bright, and its peel makes it smell wonderful.

Two things give this version its character. The onion and garlic are charred in a dry pan before they go into the pot, which adds a sweet, smoky depth. And a little cinnamon, allspice and clove, spices that run all through Yucatecan cooking, add warmth in the background without making the soup taste like dessert.

The mistake to avoid is boiling the citrus. Cooked lime juice tastes flat, and peel left to simmer turns the whole pot bitter. Add the juice off the heat at the very end, slip a slice into each bowl, and add the tortilla strips only when you're ready to eat, so they still crunch.

Method

Make the broth

Put the chicken in a large pot (at least 5 l) with the cold water and set it over medium heat. Bring it slowly to a simmer, 15–20 minutes, skimming off the grey foam as it rises.
Meanwhile, heat a dry heavy frying pan or comal (a flat griddle) over medium-high heat. Add the onion halves, cut side down, and the whole garlic head, and cook, turning the garlic now and then, until blackened in patches and softened, 8–10 minutes; halve the garlic crosswise. Turn the heat down to medium-low and toast the cinnamon, allspice, cloves and peppercorns in the same pan until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the charred onion and garlic, toasted spices, oregano and 2 tsp salt to the pot. Turn the heat down so the broth barely simmers, set the lid ajar and cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through, 35–40 minutes; the thickest part of a thigh should read at least 74 °C (165 °F).
Lift out the chicken. When it's cool enough to handle, pull the meat into thin shreds, discarding the skin, and return the bones to the pot. Cover and refrigerate the meat, and simmer the bones for 30 minutes more.

Build the soup

While the bones simmer, heat the 1 tbsp oil in a second large pot over medium heat. Add the sliced onion, green pepper and garlic and cook, stirring, until soft, 5–6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until they collapse into a loose sauce, about 5 minutes.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve into the pot with the vegetables and discard the solids; you should have about 2 l. Skim off most of the fat, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes so the vegetables flavour the broth. Add the shredded chicken and let it warm through for a few minutes.

Fry the tortilla strips

While the soup simmers, cut the tortillas in half, then into strips about 5 mm wide. Heat the oil in a small, deep frying pan over medium-high heat until a strip dropped in sizzles at once (about 180 °C). Fry the strips in batches, stirring, until golden and crisp, 1–2 minutes, then lift them onto paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Finish and serve

Squeeze 3 of the limas (or, for the substitute, 3 limes and the grapefruit quarter); you should have about 100 ml juice. Thinly slice the remaining lima or lime.
Take the soup off the heat. Stir in two-thirds of the juice, taste, and add more until the broth is bright and tangy but still tastes of chicken. Adjust the salt.
Ladle into bowls, float a slice of lima in each and top with a handful of tortilla strips and some coriander. Serve straight away, with the habanero on the side for anyone who wants heat.

Swaps

Cooking for coeliac disease or an allergy? Check every label: the notes below say which ones matter.

Gluten-free

Already gluten-free as written, as long as the tortillas are made with corn only: some "corn" tortillas are part wheat flour, so check the label.
Fry the strips in fresh oil, not oil that has already fried anything breaded or floured. If you use the shortcut broth, choose a stock labelled gluten-free.

Plant-based

Not vegan: chicken is both the broth and the filling. For a vegan soup in the same style, char the onion, garlic and spices as in step 2, simmer them in 2 l vegetable stock (labelled gluten-free if you need it) for 30 minutes, then carry on from step 5, adding 300 g oyster mushrooms, torn and seared in a hot pan until golden, instead of the chicken.
It's a charred-vegetable lime soup rather than sopa de lima: lighter and less savoury, so season it a little more boldly. The tortilla strips, lime and coriander are already vegan.

High-protein

More chicken: poach 400 g boneless, skinless chicken breast in the strained broth in step 6 until it reaches 74 °C (165 °F) in the thickest part, 12–15 minutes, then shred it in with the rest: about 15 g more protein per bowl.
An egg: half a hard-boiled egg in each bowl adds about 3 g, a whole one about 6 g. It isn't traditional, but it sits well with the lime.

Tips

The lime substitute. Lima agria is hard to find outside Yucatán. Use about 3 parts lime juice to 1 part grapefruit juice, and for the bitter perfume of the peel, drop a 5 cm strip of grapefruit zest (no white pith) into the simmering soup for 2 minutes before you take it off the heat, then lift it out.
Juice off the heat, peel only briefly. Lime juice loses its fresh aroma when it boils, and citrus peel left to simmer makes the broth bitter. That's why the slices go into the bowls, not the pot.
Char boldly. You want the onion and garlic properly blackened in patches, not just browned, because that's where the soup's smoky sweetness comes from. Stop before they turn to ash.
Go easy on the spices. They should be a warm background you can barely name. If you can clearly taste cinnamon, there's too much.
Keep the strips crisp. Day-old tortillas fry crisper and soak up less oil. Keep the strips separate and add them at the last moment.

Make ahead and storage

Make the soup up to the end of step 6 (without the chicken or citrus) a day or two ahead. Cool it quickly, refrigerate it within 2 hours and keep it for up to 3 days, or freeze it for 3 months; keep the shredded chicken separately in the fridge.
The tortilla strips keep in an airtight container for 2 days.
Add citrus only to the soup you're about to serve: it fades and turns bitter as it stands.

Variations

Baked tortilla strips: toss the strips with 1 tbsp oil, spread them on a tray and bake at 200 °C (400 °F), turning once, until crisp and golden, 8–10 minutes.
Shortcut broth: poach 600 g bone-in chicken thighs in 2 l good low-salt chicken stock (check the label if you need it gluten-free) with the charred onion, garlic and spices for 35–40 minutes, until cooked through. Shred the meat and carry on from step 5, skipping the bone simmer. Lighter, but still good.
More heat: drop a whole habanero into the broth for the last 10 minutes of simmering, and lift it out before it splits.

Reviews & cooks' tips

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