Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Chicken Tortilla Soup is the perfect easy weeknight dinner. Full of shredded chicken, corn, beans, and homemade tortilla strips, this soup is a meal in itself. It’s comforting, hearty, and filling.
What’s even better? Just like our Taco Soup and Beef Chili, this Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe comes together in one pot.
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Hi there! My name is Natalya and I run the blog Momsdish. If you already follow me, you know I can’t get enough of easy meals that require simple ingredients
Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup:
Chicken tortilla soup is like a taco in soup form. Its rich tomato and chicken broth pairs perfectly with chunky veggies, shredded chicken, beans and sweet corn.
You can sprinkle some tortilla strips right on top with a healthy handful of cheese, or pair the dish with soft Dinner Rolls.
Tips For Tortilla Soup:
- Use Leftover Chicken. Have a rotisserie chicken hanging out in your fridge? What about some leftover chicken breasts you don’t know what to do with? You can always use leftover chicken to make a fresh batch of Chicken Tortilla Soup.
- Bone Broth Makes All The Difference. Use low-sodium bone broth or easily make your own chicken broth.
- Adjust The Spice. Do you like it spicy? Add some extra jalapeños into the mix.
- Save Time With Canned Corn And Beans. Speed up the cooking time by using canned corn and beans.
- Cut Avocado Right Before Serving. To keep your avocado from browning, cut it right before you serve the soup
- Season To Taste. Depending on the tomatoes and broth you use, you may need to adjust the salt to taste at the end.
To Make Crispy Tortilla Strips:
- Pan Frying: Preheat a pan with 1/4 cup oil over medium-high heat. Cut 8 (6″) corn tortillas into thin strips and fry them in a couple of batches, adding more oil as needed. Remove from the pot and let drain on a paper-towel-lined plate.
- To Bake: Toss tortilla strips in a bowl with 2 Tbsp oil until well coated. Bake on a cookie sheet in a single layer at 350˚F for 15 minutes.
How To Make Chicken Tortilla Soup:
- Place a soup pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil and sautee chopped onion, garlic, and jalapeno until tender.
- Add chicken breasts and remaining soup ingredients to the pot. Bring to a boil then simmer for 25 minutes.
- Remove the chicken to a bowl and shred it with 2 forks. Return chicken to the pot and simmer 5 minutes then add lime juice.
- Serve the soup with homemade tortilla strips, chopped avocado, fresh cilantro, and lime wedges.
Make-Ahead Tip: the broth gets more and more flavorful the longer it marinates in itself. Can you say delicious leftovers? Make a big batch of tortilla soup and eat it for lunch throughout the week.
Serving Chicken Tortilla Soup:
The only thing that makes Chicken Tortilla Soup taste even better are the toppings. These are our favorites:
- Sour cream
- Homemade tortilla strips
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Lime wedges
- Jalapeno, sliced or diced
Storing Leftover Soup:
- Refrigerator: Store your leftover soup without toppings in an airtight container in the fridge. It should stay fresh for 3-4 days.
- Freezer: You can also freeze your soup in an airtight container for up to two months. When you are ready to eat it, allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight. Reheat soup by bringing it to a boil in a saucepan.
More Soup Recipes You’ll Love:
- Beef Stew – with tender morsels of beef
- Pasta e Fagioli – easy Olive Garden copycat recipe.
- Loaded Potato Soup – creamy and you’ll love the toppings
- Chicken Noodle Soup – a family favorite
- Cabbage Soup – a soup to warm your soul in winter
- Minestrone Soup – a hearty, tomato-based soup that never gets old.
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Chicken Tortilla Soup is the perfect, cold weather weeknight dinner. What’s even better? It comes together in one pot.
Ingredients
Chicken Tortilla Soup
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 lb chicken breasts (2 medium)
- 20 oz crushed tomatoes
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 14 oz black beans drained and rinsed
- 14 oz corn drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup cilantro chopped, divided (reserve 1/4 of it for garnish)
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
Homemade Tortilla Strips
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 8 corn tortillas (6" tortillas)
Toppings
- 1 large avocado diced
- 1 lime cut into wedges, to serve
Instructions
Tortilla Strips:
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Preheat a pan with 1/4 cup oil over medium-high heat. Cut tortillas into thin strips and fry them in batches in the hot oil until crisp. Remove from the pan and allow them to drain on a paper towel. Repeat with remaining tortilla strips, adding more oil as needed then set aside.
Chicken Tortilla Soup:
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Preheat a pot with oil over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, garlic and chopped jalapeño and sauté until veggies soften.
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Add whole chicken, corn, beans, chilli powder, cumin, crushed tomatoes, salt, ¼ cup of cilantro and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and let simmer for at least 25 minutes.
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Remove chicken from the pot and shred it using 2 forks. Add shredded chicken back to the soup and simmer another 5 minutes then add lime juice.
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Serve the soup with some tortilla strips, pieces of avocado, fresh cilantro and lime wedges.
Natalya Drozhzhin
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious!! I had to use bone in chicken breast and substitute tortilla chips, but it still turned out wonderful! Perfect hot dinner in for this snowy Saturday night ❤️
Sounds perfect! Thank you for your wonderful review, Shelby. Appreciate it!
So easy and so good!!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Josselinne.
Absolutely loved it. For some reason its hard to get fresh jalapeños in Germany but I substituted with Harbanero and it was amazing.
I’m glad that worked well too, Kristina. Thank you so much for sharing that with us!
OMG this is a must. Today mother nature dropped 13” plus of snow and thought soup would Be good. My family loved it everyone had 2 or 3 bowls. The soup was tasty,filling and just perfect! Thank you Natasha for all your recipes
That’s just awesome, Doris! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. This is the perfect recipe for a cold winter day!
I was wondering if I can substitute pinto beans for the black beans. Just not a huge fan of black beans. This looks so delicious!
Hi Karen, I honestly haven’t tried that yet to advise. You might need to do an experiment on that one. If you do try it, please share with us how it goes.
Made this soup for the first time tonight. Wow it was so delicious and easy to make. This is a keeper….will make again and again!! Thank you Natasha!!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
This is definitely going into my recipe box. We used to always buy Wolfgang Pucks Tortilla soup in a can and add shredded chicken but after the pandemic our store hasn’t carried it so I came out to Natasha’s site for a recipe. This was easy and did not disappoint, waaaay better than the can, and my family loved it, even more so the 2nd day. Once again,love your recipes. Thank you
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
Very easy and absolutely delicious! I made it tonight and will make it again for sure. Watching my husband going for the second bowl was a good sign:-)
Definitely a great sign! Thanks for sharing your good comments and feedback with us.
Hi there! I have tried many of your recipes and love them all! This soup sounds amazing, but I was wondering if I could use rotisserie chicken? (I happen to have some leftovers in the fridge). Thank you!
Hi Mary, I haven’t tested that with rotisserie chicken; if you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
I made this soup tonight…amazing! Excellent recipe once again Natasha’s. Probably the best chicken tortilla soup I have ever made! Don’t skip on the homemade tortilla strips!
Awesome! Thanks, Janice. I’m glad you enjoyed this soup!
Fantastic! I doubled the recipe so we’ll have plenty of leftovers while my adult sons are still in town.
Very nice! I hope they will still be able to try and love this recipe.
Just tried this receipt last night. Made as is. Loved it!!! Will go into my make more offend binder for sure.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Debbie!
It was snowing a few days ago and my husband and I were craving soup to go with the cold weather. This hit the spot! Incredible recipe!
I’m a newlywed, and I’ve been learning how to cook through your website and wonderful videos on social media. I never knew how much I would enjoy cooking and trying new recipes! Thank you Natasha for all you do!
P.S.: My husband’s family is German and I made pork schnitzel for them using your recipe and they absolutely loved it! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Hello Lara, that is so wonderful! I’m so glad that you’ve been learning a lot of new recipes. I hope that you and your husband will love every recipe that you will try.
This was delicious and very easy. I made it for me and the kids to have for lunch. I dropped out the peppers, but used a 28 oz can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes. My very picky 1 year old actually said, “mmm” when she started eating it! Can’t wait to eat it again for lunch tomorrow! I also used Bona Fide Provisions bone broth, if you haven’t checked them out before, I highly recommend them! Great quality product with a lot of extra nutrients.
That is the best when kids love what we parents make. That’s so great!
Can you suggest how to make this in an Instant Pot? I love all your recipes BTW!!
Hi Lisa, I haven’t experimented with making this in an instant pot because it’s so quick to make on the stovetop. If you try this as an Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup, please let me know how it goes.
Can I make this in a CrockPot? If so what are the instructions.? I really want to try and make it in a crockpot like the “chicken cream cheese chili”
I would really like your input/advice.
Hi Nataly, I think it could be adapted similar to the way the cream cheese chicken chili is but it is so quick that we do it on the stovetop.
20 oz crushed tomatoes, not 28 oz? Since the link opens to 28 oz jars
Hi Valerie, 20 oz is correct but I have added 28 oz when that is what I had on hand and just adjusted the seasoning – adding a touch more seasoning.
Honestly i was kind of hesitant half way through but i continued and it is beyond amazing so yummy both me and my dad loved it 100% gonna repeat it
Hello Roua, I am so happy that you continued with this recipe and I’m glad you loved it! Thanks for your trust and for sharing your great review with us.
This was absolutely delicious! A keeper for sure!
Thank you for this lovely review, Jennifer! I’m so glad you enjoyed that!
Hi, when does the lime juice go in? It’s in the ingredients but not in the directions. Thanks
Hi Alecya, so sorry I missed that. Thanks for asking! I Added it after adding the shredded chicken back to the pot and simmering 5 minutes. Its added at the very end. I updated the recipe card.
How much chicken broth?
Nevermind was reading right over it
Hi Nelly, we used 32oz of chicken broth. To see the list of ingredients you can click Jump to Recipe and that will take you to the printable recipe card
Just made it!!! used exact ingredients! let it simmer for an hour total. It’s delicious!
Isn’t it the best! Happy you liked that Anita!
I will have to try your version out. A quick suggestion, as a twist, try adding Habanero peppers seeded & diced instead of jalapeno. (caution use gloves when cutting due to juice). My magic number is 7 – 8 peppers. I have been using this recipe as my standard with the habanero mod & 3 diced sweet small sweet peppers. I also changed brands on the Old El Paso ingredients. I use Rio Organic green Chiles, Frontera red enchilada sauce, Pacific low sodium chicken broth, and gtwo 7 oz cans Green Giant mexicorn. The recipe is from Betty Crocker slow cooker recipes if you want to have another recipe to modify/try. I like the slow cooker option so that it frees time.
Thank you for sharing some suggestions and tips, Michael.
This soup is great..it’s a keeper for sure!!!
I’m so glad you loved this recipe Laura!
Delicious dinner meal! We added shredded cheese and it was perfect. Thank you for the recipe!
Yay, love it! Thank you so much for your awesome review and perfect rating, Lana. We appreciate it!
I’ve been a fan since trying to Chicken Marsala recipe! I still use that for hibiscus and birthdays in my family. The tortilla soup was amazing and can’t wait to share it! It was delicious, hearty and a perfectly easy meal after a long week. Thanks again Natasha!
You are most welcome, Kayla. I’m happy that you’re enjoying all the recipes that you tried. I hope you love all my other recipes too!
This soup recipe is a keeper! Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
What would be the suggested serving size?
Hi Ken, this recipe makes 6 servings at about 1 – 1.5 cups per serving.
Super delicious and easy! I love the bright and slightly spicy flavors in this savory, brothy soup! So perfect for cool evenings!
Hi Betsy, I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup! It really is perfect for this cooler weather that is rolling in.
One pot meals are such a lifesaver for busy nights! This was delicious!
They are my favorite kinds of dinners also. I’m so glad you loved the Chicken tortilla soup!