Chicken Tortilla Soup pair crispy house-baked tortilla strips with hearty, hearty soup. It comes together in less than 45 minutes and is absolutely packed with flavor! The recipe includes how to video!
The Most Delicious Tortilla Soup
My chicken tortilla soup deserves a spot on your dinner table this season. It’s hearty, super filling, and has a touch of cream cheese to make it a little creamy, but not too rich Crispy homemade tortilla strips (they’re so easy to make, I promise!) add the perfect crunch and make this a complete meal in one bowl!
This soup is loaded with shredded chicken and black bean protein. It’s a (mostly) wholesome yet indulgent dish that’s comforting and perfect weeknight dinner or cold weather comfort food (like me creamy chicken noodle soup).
What’s to love about this recipe
- Fast: only 35 minutes to prepare. This includes making homemade tortilla strips!
- Incredible flavor of pork base, fire-roasted tomatoes, ancho chili powder and a few other special ingredients.
- It uses pre-cooked chicken, that’s why great for using up leftover chicken or store-bought chicken.
- Easy: The list of ingredients in this recipe may be long, but the actual process is very simple. We really throw everything into the pot!
- you can do customize your spice level depending on your taste. Like, this soup is bland. But it is very easy to spice it up; Scroll down to the FAQ section for more information.
What do you need?
Let’s take a look at some of the key ingredients that add flavor to this soup. A full list of ingredients can be found under the post on the recipe card.
- Bacon. Although this is an unlikely suspect, this secret ingredient makes an incredibly tasty base, as in my article. potato soup recipe. If you don’t want to use bacon, that’s fine! I provide instructions for making this soup without bacon in the recipe notes below.
- Chili powder. Like I won an award chili recipewe use a combination of regular and ancho chili powder for depth of flavor. If you don’t have ancho chili powder, you can use whole regular chili powder instead. The ancho adds a nice smoky element, I love it!
- Fire-roasted tomatoes. If you can’t find fire-roasted ones, straight diced tomatoes work well, but I prefer the smoky depth of flavor that the fire-roasted version offers.
- Sugar. I know, I know – we usually save sugar for desserts, but here just a teaspoon really complements the flavors. I also use sugar in mine sloppy joes recipe and tomato soup recipeso this shouldn’t surprise you too much!
- Cream cheese. This thickens the soup and adds a lot of flavor. You can always skip it for a more tomato-based thinner soup, but I love the creaminess it adds.
SAM’S TIP: I prefer to use rotisserie chicken for this recipe; it’s easy and cheap to buy one at the grocery store, shred it, and throw it in the soup. You can also make my job easier finely chopped chicken and use it instead.
Remember, this is just an overview of what I use and what I use it for. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe!
How to make chicken tortilla soup
- Cook the bacon until crisp, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Cook the onion, pepper and jalapeño in bacon fat and until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Stir the broth, diced tomatoes, beans, enchilada sauce, corn, chilis, seasonings and chicken.
- Let the soup boil while making your tortilla strips (shown below).
- Add cream cheese and lime juice and stir until the cream cheese is melted.
- Serve filled with tortilla strips and other toppings (suggestions below!)
SAM’S TIP: Preheat your oven before you start the soup, so you have time for your tortilla strips to get nice and hot!
How to make tortilla strips
Crispy corn tortilla strips are maybe mine cute part of this soup. While you can buy pre-made strips, making them at home using corn tortillas only takes a few minutes.
- Cut 10 corn tortillas Cut into ¼” strips (mine are usually thicker than that, but I always aim for ¼”) and then cut the strips about 2″ long. Place on a baking sheet.
- Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Toss and spread evenly in pan until all strips are lightly coated.
- To cook until crispy (about 10 minutes) and allow to cool before serving with the soup.
Frequently asked questions
Even though this soup uses jalapeños, chiles, and enchilada sauce, it’s still mild enough for my kids to enjoy because we remove the jalapeño seeds and use milder versions of potentially spicy ingredients.
If you want to make it spicy, throw in some jalapeño seeds and use hot green chiles and hot enchilada sauce.
Toppings-wise, we love avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice. A splash of hot sauce doesn’t hurt either!
As for the sides, we love to serve them with celebrity corn bread or jalapeño cornbreadalthough biscuits is always a good choice.
I haven’t tried freezing this soup, but I would be concerned that the cream cheese wouldn’t melt properly and cause the end result to look “crumbly” and separated (although I suspect it would still taste good). You can try freezing the soup before adding the cream cheese and stirring it once it’s thawed.
If you try freezing this recipe, I’d love to know how it goes for you!
This soup makes a perfect cold weather meal. I hope you give it a try this season!
Enjoy!
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Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Portions: 6 portion
Calories: 428kcal
Prevent your screen from dimming
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 415F/215C (this is for baking your tortillas, you want the oven to be preheated and it may take a while to get to that temperature, so preheat it now).
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Place the pork chops in a large heavy-bottomed pot (I like to use my Dutch oven) and cook over medium heat until browned, crispy, and cooked through. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
5 strips (uncooked) pork
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Add the onion, pepper and jalapeño to the pan and cook until translucent (about 3-5 minutes).
1 cup (115 g) chopped onion, 1 cup (115 g) chopped red pepper, 1 finely chopped jalapeño
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Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
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Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, enchilada sauce, corn, chili, chili powder, sugar, cumin, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, paprika, black pepper, and chicken. Mix well and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, make your tortillas.
3 ½ cups (830 mL) low-sodium chicken broth, 14 oz (396 g) roasted diced tomatoes can burn, 14 oz (396 g) black beans, 10 oz (283 g) mild enchilada sauce, 1 cup frozen corn, 7 oz (200 g) chopped green pepper, 1 tablespoon of pepper powder, 1 teaspoon of sugar, ¾ teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, 3-4 cups (450 g) cooked chicken, shredded or shredded
Tortilla strips
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Cut the tortillas into ¼” thick 2″ long strips. Spread evenly on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, drizzle lightly with olive oil (about 1 tablespoon), sprinkle with kosher salt, and use a spatula to coat evenly with olive oil.
10 corn tortillas, olive oil, Kosher salt
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Transfer to 415F (215C) and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool in the baking pan.
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Meanwhile, after the soup boils, add the cream cheese and lime juice and mix well until the cream cheese melts. Return the bacon to the pot and stir well.
4 oz (113 g) cream cheese², 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
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Serve topped with your crispy tortilla strips and other toppings as desired.
Optional toppings: avocado, cotija cheese, cilantro, sour cream, etc.
Notes
¹Bacon
If you don’t want to use bacon, you can substitute 2 tablespoons of butter (or even olive oil) instead, but each substitution will result in less flavor. Melt over medium/high heat, then proceed as directed.
² Cream cheese
If you don’t like creamy soup, you can leave out the cream cheese.
It is saved
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Service: 1serves | Calories: 428kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 22g | Oil: 17g | Saturated fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated fats: 2g | Monounsaturated fats: 5g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 1476mg | Potassium: 561mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 2850IU | Vitamin C: 88.3mg | Calcium: 130mg | Iron: 4mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content depends on brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, serving sizes, etc. will vary depending.
I originally published this recipe in March 2019. The post has been updated to be more helpful, but the recipe remains the same.
