You’ll just have to trust me, I guess, that this chicken-chile-tomatillo soup is better than my photography of it. My dear friend Vida used to make it all the time when we lived in Wyoming together (I’m sure it’s still part of her regular winter dinner repertoire there). Vida and I attended college together in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the recipe comes from the cookbook of a beloved Santa Fe institution, Cafe Pasqual's.

I’ve made the soup once or twice since moving to New Orleans in 1999, but the dusty, over-dried New Mexico chiles available in supermarkets here aren’t so inspiring, and I find that it’s the dried chiles simmered and softened in chicken stock that make this soup sublime. I found some nice, freshly dried ones at Central Market in Austin last weekend and got busy in the kitchen immediately. Next up: molé.

Chicken-Tomatillo Soup

From Café Pasqual’s Cookbook: Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe

1 ½ Tablespoons olive oil

½ red onion, finely minced

6 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 celery stalks, including leaves, cut into ¼-inch slices

3 dried red New Mexico chiles, rinsed, stemmed, seeded, and chopped into small pieces

2 teaspoons dried cumin

1 Tablespoon paprika

8 cups chicken stock

20 tomatillos, husks removed, cut into quarters

5 Tablespoons (3 ounces) tomato paste*

2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

About ¾ pound fresh mild green chiles (such as poblanos or anaheims), roasted, stemmed, peeled, seeded, and cut into long, thin strips to measure 1 cup

1 whole bone-in chicken breast, weighing about ¾ pound

Salt and freshly ground black pepper**

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, celery, and dried chiles; sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in the cumin and paprika. When the spices are incorporated, add the stock, tomatillos, tomato paste, corn, sugar, and green chiles, and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken breast and simmer until the breast is cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the chicken breast from the stock. Continue to simmer the stock while the breast cools until it can be handled (I usually wait about 30 minutes). Bone and skin the cooled breast, and then shred the meat. Add the chicken to the soup to heat through.

Ladle the soup into individual bowls and garnish with cilantro. We like to eat this soup with corn tortilla chips crumbled into it, and also ripe avocado when we can find one.

*I forgot to get this at the store and substituted half tomato sauce, half catsup. It worked.

**I used half smoked sea salt, our current favorite kitchen toy, also purchased at Central Market.