This chicken tortilla soup recipe simmers in one pot and is on the table in under 30 minutes for a delicious weeknight meal. Packed with chicken, veggies, and beans, it’s a meal the whole family will love.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- One-Pot Meal: The chicken breasts simmer in the broth, making this soup both easy and flavorful.
- Skill Level: This beginner-friendly soup is a weeknight time and labor saver.
- Budget Tip: Add a cup or two of cooked rice to stretch the recipe further.
- Serving Suggestions: Chicken tortilla soup is great served with a toppings bar.
Ingredients for Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Chicken: No need to pre-cook the chicken; add it raw. If using leftover rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken, they can be added in the last 5 minutes to heat through.
- Vegetables: Canned tomatoes with chiles (Rotel) add extra flavor to this recipe; you can choose mild or spicy. The corn can be canned, fresh, or frozen.
- Black Beans: Canned black beans keep this recipe quick. Replace them with navy beans, pinto beans, or kidney beans.
- Tortilla Strips: Homemade tortilla strips are easy to make, but any crunchies like Fritos or tortilla chips will also work.
Toppings for Tortilla Soup
- Mix in dollops of sour cream, guacamole, or salsa for quick, flavorful upgrades.
- Top with shredded cheese, black olives, green onions, lime wedges, or cilantro.
How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup
This soup comes together in one pot and just three easy steps!
- Cook Veggies:
Heat oil in a large pot and sauté chopped onion, garlic, and jalapeño until soft. Add chicken broth, diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, and chili powder. - Add Chicken:
Place chicken breasts in the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken, shred it, and stir it back into the soup. - Serve & Enjoy:
Ladle the soup into bowls and top with avocado, extra cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.
More Flavorful Comforting Soups
Did you enjoy this Chicken Tortilla Soup? Leave a comment and rating below.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 jalapeño seeded and diced
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 14.5 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can canned black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 (10 ounce) can canned diced tomatoes with chilies with juices, such as Rotel
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts about 6 ounces each
- 1 cup corn kernels drained if canned
- 1 lime juiced
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 avocado sliced, for garnish
For the Tortilla Strips
- 6 small corn tortillas cut into ¼-inch strips
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- salt
Instructions
For the Tortilla Strips
- Cut the tortillas into ¼-inch strips. In a small pan, heat ¼ cup of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the tortillas, in small batches to the oil and fry them until they are crisp, about 1 minute per side. Remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel. While warm, sprinkle with salt to taste.
For the Soup
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño to the pot, and cook until the onion is softened about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add in the chicken broth, black beans, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes with juices, corn, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, and chili powder. Stir to combine.
- Add the chicken breasts and bring the soup to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it with two forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the pot and simmer for an additional 3 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Spoon soup into bowls and top with tortilla strips, lime wedges, and sliced avocado.
Video
Notes
Chicken: This recipe uses chicken breasts that are 6oz each. If your chicken is larger or smaller, adjust the cooking time as needed. The chicken is added to the soup raw and simmers in the soup.
Cooked chicken: To replace the chicken breasts with rotisserie chicken or cooked chicken, simmer the soup for a total of 25 minutes, adding 3 cups of shredded chicken during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
Tortilla Strips: Tortilla strips can be replaced with tortilla chips or they can be cooked in the air fryer or oven. Toss the strips with 1 ½ tablespoons of oil and salt. Cook in the air fryer at 350°F for 2-4 minutes or until crisp or bake at 350°F for 11-14 minutes. Check the strips early to ensure they don’t burn.
Spice: Reduce the spice by replacing jalapeno with green chiles.
Serving suggestion: Create a fun meal by serving it with a variety of toppings.
Leftovers: Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days and in the freezer for 4 months.
Leftovers & Freezing: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave. To freeze, cool completely, transfer it to a freezer-safe container or resealable plastic bag for up to 4 months.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1.25cup | Calories: 278 | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 671mg | Potassium: 714mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 290IU | Vitamin C: 19.9mg | Calcium: 69mg | Iron: 2.7mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine American, Mexican© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Originally Published: January 2019
Updated & Republished: October 2025
Just made your Chicken Tortilla Soup this morning and it is absolutely delicious. And it is so easy to make….takes no time at all. Leave it on the stove on low and it will be gone before the day is over, it’s that good. Of course, a pan of cornbread made the meal complete. My first time to your site and I look forward to many more recipes to try for the upcoming winter months. Thank you Holly.
So glad you found me Barbara!
I’ve made other chicken tortilla soups, but this one is the simplest and most delicious. I went a little heavy on the spices since we like a bit of heat, and had to substitute serrano for the jalapeno, but otherwise I made this as written. Delicious! Definitely going in my soup rotation!
Note: I was too lazy to make my own tortilla strips, but I did mix up some cornbread–with some serrano and cheddar thrown in. It made a nice accompaniment.
Thank You For These Amazing Recipes!!!!
You’re welcome Deborah! Enjoy!
This soup was absolutely amazing! I added some diced bell peppers just because I had them. I’ve never had chicken tortilla soup but I had all the ingredients on hand and decided to give it a try. So glad I did. This is gonna be perfect as we head into cooler weather.
So good!! I used a tablespoon of both the cumin and chilli powder, and it was delicious!! Would absolutely make it again
I am wondering if this could be done in the crockpot? Sounds delicious!
Hi Katie, we do have a slow cooker version of this soup! Click here for the recipe!
The receipts sound wonderful can’t wait to try them
Enjoy Judy!
Every Tuesday is chicken tortilla soup!! Family requests this every week, from 92 year old Grandpa to the kids, everyone loves this recipe!
I’m so glad your family loves this recipe Deborah!
Baked the chicken, covered in fajita marinade, at 450 for 30-35 minutes. Then I let it rest (tented with foil) for another 10+ minutes before shredding. Other than that, I made this recipe exactly as written. It was fantastic AND kid-approved! Will be adding it to my meal rotation list as it’s a good deviation from my family’s usual “Taco Tuesday” dinner – and especially during the cooler fall and winter months! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
So glad your family loved the soup, Kimberly!
So easy and better than any tortilla soup I order at a restaurant. Highly recommend!
This is good. Made a homemade broth and used a tsp of cayenne pepper powder an an extra can of diced tomatoes instead of the rotel tomatoes. Never realized how easy this is to make.
Absolutely delicious. I added a little extra lime juice to brighten the flavor. And shred your cooked chicken with a hand mixer, people! Best kitchen hack I’ve learned in years
Could I use chicken thighs instead I’m not a fan of breast breast
Absolutely.
Made it today! It is fantastic!
This isn’t tortilla soup. Tortilla soup does not have meat, nor does it have corn or beans.
This is one way to make chicken tortilla soup! Enjoy Rex!
Great, quick, easy, and tasty! Hits all the tastebud spots and have a ton left over. Thanks!
Approximately what would the “2 chicken breasts” equate to, in measured cups of shredded chicken? I would like to use shredded chicken from a whole chicken that we smoked.
Thank you!
Hi Lauren, it would be about 2 cups of shredded chicken. You can add a little more or a little less depending your preference.
Thanks for the great recipe. It’s my families favorite chicken recipe and that’s saying something. They are beyond picky!
I loved this soup! Just great! I had decided I wanted to use a serrano pepper instead of jalapeño, but I then forgot it altogether at the store! Used a double-can of crushed tomatoes and a full box-style container of chicken broth. To replace the pepper, I added a good dash of cayenne powder and also some smoked paprika. Because I don’t like cilantro (I’m a soap-taster) but didn’t want to lose that aromatic, I added some dried parsley. Replaced the tortilla strips with a bit of fritos for ease of use (and I love fritos! so nostalgic) and topped with a dollop of sour cream. Threw the frozen chicken breast right in the soup, brought to a boil and simmered for a couple hours.
this soup hit ALL the notes! Savory, bright, deep. I’m going to make this so much– definitely going to be my go-to soup! It’s just so great! Thanks for this!
Great recipe! Made it tonight and it was fantastic. Super easy, and makes enough to feed a family. Only things we did different was baking the tortilla strips (and seasoned with Trader Joe’s “everything but the elote” seasoning… try it, seriously), and added a little salt to the broth. But not much. I’m a bit of a salt aholic. Definitely flavorful as is. Thanks for a great recipe!!!! Can’t wait to make it again.
That sounds delicious Tom, thanks for sharing!