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
Servings: 6 servings
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 can crushed tomatoes
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 14 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 14 oz can 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:
- 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:
- Preheat a pot with oil over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, garlic and chopped jalapeño and sauté until veggies soften.
- Add whole chicken breasts, 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.
- 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.
- Serve the soup with some tortilla strips, pieces of avocado, fresh cilantro and lime wedges.
Nutrition Per Serving
540kcal Calories62g Carbs32g Protein22g Fat
Nutrition Facts
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Amount per Serving
Calories
540
% Daily Value*
Fat
22
g
34
%
Saturated Fat
3
g
19
%
Cholesterol
48
mg
16
%
Sodium
673
mg
29
%
Potassium
1368
mg
39
%
Carbohydrates
62
g
21
%
Fiber
15
g
63
%
Sugar
9
g
10
%
Protein
32
g
64
%
Vitamin A
663
IU
13
%
Vitamin C
28
mg
34
%
Calcium
111
mg
11
%
Iron
5
mg
28
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Natalya Drozhzhin
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
So delicious! I made it with leftover rotisserie chicken breast. Put it in water with bones attached to make its own broth. Delicious combination of flavors. I also added some leftover Spanish rice.
Excellent recipe. This is one of my favorite soups, and I am a good soup maker… But sometimes we need a little bit of a star at our inspiration, and this is what I have found with this recipe. I do add a couple dashes of cayenne, and sometimes I actually use small chunks of fresh mango as a topping with sour cream and cilantro.
As with any recipe, we all need to use spices to our taste. If you want more cumin, or chili powder or salt, add it….. I love this recipe.
Yum! The mango topping is so creative! Thanks for sharing.
I love this soup. This website is overwhelming though. Too many pop ups and ads happening. It makes the cooking experience more chaotic and challenging.
Thank you for sharing your concerns and feedback. The only way we can continue providing free recipes is by having ads on our site, so we are not able to remove those at this time. We find that most people would rather see the ads than pay to see the recipes. But we will definitely take note of your feedback and use it to improve our website.
I appreciate your feedback, and I hope you love every recipe you try.
Hey Sammie- I feel the same as you about all the pop-ups, yet understand the need to make money. I screen shot the important parts or better yet print the recipe. It helps! This soup was amazing!
I have made this several times! And we love it every time!! Out of curiosity, it says 540 calories per serving, how much is a “serving”? A cup? Thank you!
I’m glad you love it, Ashley! The number of servings this recipe makes is set to 6 bowls. So the serving size is per one serving. Sorry I don’t have it more specific than that. If you have a food scale, you can weigh the recipe as a whole and then divide by 6 to get your single serving amount. I hope that helps.
Fantastic! That’s exactly what I needed to know, thank you so very much!:)
Best recipe ever!! Family loved it ❤️
I’m so glad it was enjoyed by the whole family!
Do you have any suggestions for using chicken thigh instead of chicken breast?
Hi Leilani! You can follow the same process and use a food thermometer to check for doneness. All of them need to reach between 170-175 degrees F in the thickest area to be safe to eat.
Made this for my boyfriend after having dental surgery. He wasn’t able to eat hard food and he was so happy to feel full. Thank you this recipe is wonderful!
This is amazing! I’ve made it once and it was a hit! I’m making it for dinner again tonight, but this time I’m gonna make it in the crockpot and let it slow simmer all day to make my house smell amazing. 🤩
Let me know how it goes in the crockpot. That sounds like a great idea!
Awesome soup! Made this tonight for dinner. I left out the black beans and subbed chipotle paste for the jalapeno as that’s what we had – delicious.
Such a delicious recipe and it’s so quick and easy. I cooked a whole chicken in my InstaPot and added it with the beans and tomatoes. Will definitely be making this again on a cold day…
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Jessica! Thank you for your review.
I usually make tortilla soup with petite diced tomatoes but decided to follow the recipe exactly. For me, the crushed tomatoes make this very tomatoes/reminiscent of a tomato soup base. I prefer the petite diced which allows the chicken broth flavor (I try to use homemade bc the difference is amazing) to stand out more.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us!
Hello Natalya,
My name is Beisy Rodriguez and I’m writing from Panama City in Central America. I’ve made your chicken tortilla soup three times now for a large crowd (100+ people) and they have absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe ♥️
Wow! That’s amazing & quite a few people to serve! Great job! I’m so happy to hear this was a hit!
This recipe is so easy and delicious! It tastes even better than I expected and was minimal effort. Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Tiffani!
I wanted to say I make your recipe all the time and they are very tasty. thank you for taking the time out of your day to publish this amazing recipe as I make it for my wife and 4 young kids all the time
Thank you for that wonderful compliment and comment, Jacob!
Would this work with frozen chicken or should I throw all of the ingredients in a crockpot on high for maybe 3 hours? I realized my chicken is frozen….
Hi Hanah,it’s best to use thawed chicken, I haven’t tried it with frozen chicken, if you happen to try it though, I’d love to know how it works out.
Love this soup! I tripled the recipe using a rinsed frozen 5 pound whole chicken. I sautéed the garlic and onions then added 8 cups of water(opted out of the broth since a whole chicken will give you its own broth)and used the pressure cooker on high for 25 minutes then shredded the chicken, removed bones, added other ingredients and set pressure cooker to one minute and it turned out great! Thank you!
Thank you for this! My husband is a picky eater and he loves this. Will definitely add this to may recipe.
Another home run . Had some left over Lime Chicken just threw it in the pot to boil.
Quick and easy loved it
I’m so happy you loved it!! That’s so great!
Natasha’s Chicken Tortilla Soup is to die fo just the right amount of spice! I love this recipe fall winter spring and summer!!
Excellent recipe. I used leftover costco rotisserie chicken and wow; great flavor and quite hearty. I would like to mention my prep time was way more than the 15 minutes listed. . . i was in the one hour range (chopping the onion and jalapeno, cleaning and chopping the cilantro, cooking the tortilla strips, rinsing and draining, etc.; not sure how one can do all the prep work in anywhere near 15 minutes). Also, my stores don’t have 20 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes so i opted for the 28 ounce can and used about 3/4th of it.
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
My sister made this for my son’s wedding on the White River. Everyone loved it! 150 people attended.
Wow! That’s amazing! I’m so glad this was a hit at the wedding. Congratulations to your son (And you, of course), how special!!