Soup travails

So, seeing as it is winter, and it WAS cold last week (notwithstanding today's 60+ degree temps), I decided to try Ina's Mexican Chicken Soup (ignore the messy bowl in the picture, you know I'm not know for presentation!). I used a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of roasting my own, but I did not deviate from the recipe otherwise. Oh, I did use fire-roasted tomatoes, figuring they'd add some flavor. I even used homemade stock. The resulting soup was very bland. I don't know if my jalapenos had lost their zip or whatever. So I doctored it up. I added one chipotle pepper and a tablespoon of adobo sauce. Nothing. I added several squirts of Texas Pete, then some of some random hot sauce in my fridge. Again, nothing. So, I went for the "depth of flavor" angle and threw in some chicken base. It helped a bit. It needed tang for sure, so I added some lime zest and juice. Nope. Red wine vinegar. Nothing. Worcestershire. Couldn't taste it. Finally, I broke open a bottle of this lemon/garlic/soy finishing sauce my brother gave me for Christmas. That seemed to add a tiny bit of something. But still, it was just an okay soup. I mean, any homemade soup is going to be better than stuff out of a can on your average day, but this was really underwhelming for me. That said, R seemed to enjoy it and others seem to find it ok. But I was really hoping for a home run and was a bit disappointed. HOWEVER, the plus side of this recipe was the cool discovery (sue me, I'm coming to the party late on this one probably) of using tortillas to thicken a soup - those corn tortillas dissolved right into the soup. I had my doubts, but they went away. It was cool.