chicken tortilla soup

Now I know I'm not breaking any ground here, but this post is in praise of soup.  I wanted to high-five my Sunday-self for making chicken tortilla soup, since it meant that on this rainy day when we got home pretty late and I was balking at the idea of cooking, it only took a few minutes to heat up a delicious dinner.  But I can't take much credit, because, as is so often the case, the Pioneer Woman is behind this success too (recipe here).

I took pictures of very random steps of the cooking process, since I was also climbing on ladders and stringing Christmas lights around our apartment at the same time.  So here's the chicken loaded up with tons of spices before going in the soup:

The tortillas in their pre-chip form:

After which they were fried in a skillet and loaded with sea salt:

And the soup itself (though without the cheese, avocado, and tortillas on top):

I told you these pictures were weird.  The Pioneer Woman has much prettier ones on her post, plus the real instructions.  I'm actually completely unhelpful...except maybe as an advocate for your next soup?