Chicken, corn tortillas, avocados, lime. These are ingredients that simply love each other. Pretty much anything you make with them is bound to be good. The following soup is a relatively easy version of “Sopa de Lima” or “Lime Soup”, a specialty of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. It’s a chicken soup flavored with fiery habanero, cinnamon, clove, and tangy limes. The limes that are used in the Yucatan are a slightly different variety than what is easily available here, but standard Persian limes will work fine. The soup is tangy from limes, smoothed with the buttery richness of avocados, and enjoys a little crunch from fried tortilla strips added for garnish. It’s reminiscent of both pozole and tortilla soup, but with somewhat different spices and a strong hit of lime.

1 to 1 1/2 cups canola or corn oil for frying

6 corn tortillas

1 1/4 cup chopped white onion

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 habanero chile, seeded and minced

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves

1 pound tomatoes (2 large), cored, peeled, and chopped (or 1 cup of canned crushed tomatoes)

2 quarts of chicken stock (homemade is best)

1 teaspoon of dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano if you have it)

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

1 1/2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken thighs (or breasts if you prefer, we like the stronger taste of thighs), trimmed of excess fat, and cut in half crosswise

1/3 cup lime juice (from 2 to 4 limes, depending on the size)

1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped (stems included) for garnish

2 avocados, pitted, peeled, and roughly chopped for garnish

1 Heat oven to 350°F. Place tortillas in a single layer on a baking sheet and heat in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, flipping over after the first 5 minutes. (This will help dry out the tortillas a bit before frying.) Remove from oven. Cut the tortillas into 1/4-inch wide strips. 2 Pour oil into a large, thick-bottomed pot to 1/4-inch deep, about