Soup season is upon us. And this recipe for Chacales Soup loaded with roasted, dried, and cracked corn kernels that stay chewy and almost meaty — is a comfort food option to serve during the winter and early spring months. It’s also a great meatless soup to add during Lent, too.
Recipe and photo by Chef Hank Shaw. Reprinted with permission from Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
8 oz. chacales or other cracked corn
Salt
3 T. lard, bacon fat, or vegetable oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. dried Mexican oregano
1 28-oz. can whole, peeled tomatoes
½ c. chopped cilantro
½ lb. melty cheese (Asadero, Chihuahua, Mozzarella, “Mexican blend”), grated
2 limes, cut in wedges
Lime wedges, hot sauce, tortillas, for serving
Soak the corn in water overnight if you can. Boil the corn in plenty of water until it’s chewy, but pleasantly so, about 1 hour. Add salt late in the cooking process, about 45 minutes in.
When the corn is mostly ready, fry the onions in the lard or bacon fat over medium heat until transparent and a little brown on the edges. Add the garlic and cook another minute more.
Usually, the water level in the boiling corn has reduced enough to be a nice soup consistency. You want it milky looking and covering the corn by about 1 inch. If there’s too much water, drain some. If not enough, add some. Scrape the onions and garlic into this pot and continue to simmer.
Hand-crush the peeled tomatoes into the pot. Add the tomato juice from the can if you’d like. Stir in the oregano. Let all this cook for 10 minutes and add salt if needed.
Stir in the cilantro and bring the soup to a rolling boil. Ladle it out very hot into bowls and add the grated cheese on top, for everyone to stir in. Serve with lime wedges and hot sauce on the side; in Mexico, you also usually see chacales served with corn or flour tortillas. (Meat can be added, too.)
Author’s Note: If you want to make your own chacales, it’s not terribly difficult. In Mexico, it is always starchy corn, never sweet. But in New Mexico, I’ve seen sweet corn done this way: You roast, steam or smoke ears of corn, in the husks, until they are nicely cooked. Strip the husks off and then dry the ears in the sun or a dehydrator. Once completely dry, which takes days or weeks depending on your climate, you strip the kernels off. This process typically cracks a lot of the kernels, which is good, because that opens the starch up in them to thicken soups or stews. Once made, chacales keep for years if kept dry.
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