Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup

As Georgina Iglesia’s chicken soup simmered in the kitchen of Te Amo Tequila, Iglesia herself was 2,096 miles away in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Her granddaughter Sonia Salazar was the one stirring the soup and adding onions, jalapeños, cilantro and avocado on top.

Salazar is the chef and co-owner behind Te Amo Tequila, the wildly popular restaurant and bar at 182 Temple St. While Salazar usually adds her own twist to all her dishes, she is still searching for the key to the perfection of her Grandma Georgina’s chicken soup.

“It’s always missing something. I don’t know what,” Salazar said.

Despite that mystery missing ingredient, Salazar’s version of the soup is one of the most popular dishes at Te Amo Tequila. Customers order roughly 40 quarts of the soup a day. She said that the restaurant has to make the stock from scratch daily because it sells out so fast.

Takeout and delivery orders will prove crucial to the ability of local restaurants like Te Amo Tequila to weather the pandemic during the coming months as Covid-19 cases climb and cold weather sets in. Visit the restaurant’s website to order the chicken soup and other dishes for takeout or use Uber Eats or Grubhub for delivery. Te Amo Tequila is open Monday through Sunday from noon to 9:30 p.m.

Georgina Iglesia’s Recipe

Salazar grew up in her grandmother’s kitchen and backyard in Barranquilla, eating chicken soup or arepas or drinking hot chocolate.

“We were always at my grandma’s house. I don’t know why,” Salazar said. ​“Somebody was always cooking. Sometimes it was my mother or aunt. It was always a family reunion, every day. I loved that. I really miss that part.”

Her grandmother would cook in makeup and high heels. Music would fill the house.

“In Colombia, we wear makeup and high heels for everything. We always look good even if we’re cooking. Especially her,” Salazar said. ​“She’s 85 now, and she still wears lipstick and makeup.”

Iglesia doesn’t cook much anymore. But that image of her grandmother in the kitchen is stamped into Salazar’s memory.

“That’s how I always remember her, an elegant, beautiful woman taking care of her family,” Salazar said.

Most of Salazar’s immediate family lives in the United States. Even as a busy restauranteur, Salazar tries to visit her grandmother in Barranquilla twice a year. This year was the exception.

“I miss Colombia. Hopefully I can go this year [when the Covid-19 pandemic ends]. I try to keep safe for my family and the restaurant and follow the rules 100 percent so we all get better,” Salazar said.

In the meantime, Iglesia’s recipe simmers on the stove at Te Amo Tequila.

Salazar and her chefs make most of the soup in advance of each order. They boil an entire chicken, letting the flavor of the bones seep into the broth. They set aside the broth and the meat and start the soup base by slow cooking onions, garlic and tomatoes. When the base is ready, the chefs add the chicken pieces and salt and pepper. The last ingredients are the broth and chunks of potatoes.

When a customer orders, the chefs ladle out roughly one quart of soup into a saucepan. Salazar allowed the Independent into the bright, white tiled kitchen of Te Amo Tequila to watch. Steam unfurled over the amber liquid. Salazar’s ladle unearthed slices of potatoes and strips of chicken as she stirred.

Then Salazar filled a wide bowl with the soup, carefully wiping a splash of broth off the rim. She prepared her toppings: onion, jalapeño, cilantro and avocado. All told, the process takes around an hour and 15 minutes.

A Taste Of Home

Te Amo Tequila is Salazar’s second restaurant in downtown New Haven. She opened Barracuda on the corner of Chapel and Park streets in 2014 and followed it up with Te Amo Tequila exactly two years ago.

She and her business partner, Sarah Cornelius, have maintained Te Amo’s popularity despite the pandemic. The restaurant’s outdoor seating on Temple Street is often full on weekends. Delivery drivers jockey for scarce parking spots to fulfill customer orders.

“Our numbers went down, but we’re still in good shape thanks to our customers,” Salazar said. ​“I wish everybody was busier. We appreciate so much the support of the to-go orders.”

Now that Covid-19 cases have surged again, delivery and takeout make up half of Te Amo Tequila’s sales.

Salazar attributes the restaurant’s ongoing success to the relatively low price of the dishes and the quality of the ingredients that go into them.

“We don’t use fake anything, and the food is cheap. … When you order good food and the price is really good, I think that helps a lot,” Salazar said.

The restaurant has plenty of other top sellers, like the nachos and salmon tacos that pair well with Te Amo’s signature frozen mango or passion fruit margaritas (also available for takeout). Salazar and Cornelius have also noticed that her customizable rice bowls are a favorite delivery option for vegetarians.

I’m mostly vegetarian, but the chicken soup sounded so beloved that I ordered it for myself and my partner, whose carnivorous tendencies make up for my vegetarian ones. I asked for yellow rice and cinnamon-sugar churros to complete the order.

Back in my apartment, I tried the soup. The broth was warm and comforting and so good that I nearly finished my portion before remembering to describe it. I thought about how the diced onion added bright, sharp flavors every few spoonfuls. The avocado was perfectly ripe and creamy. The rice was buttery. Even the chicken, when I tried a small bite, tasted somehow creamy and soft.

My partner said that it reminded him of his family’s chicken soup, that the soup seemed Chinese.

He’s not the only one. Salazar said that customers often tell her that it reminds them of their own grandmother’s recipe.

“And they’re not even Colombian. It makes me feel so good that people recognize that it is not just any soup. It is something that reminds people of real food and family. It makes my day every time somebody says something like that,” Salazar said.