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
Cooked this recipe for the first time and I’m over the top happy with the final results!!!
I actually had a question, I have been looking for the recipe I have used for a couple of years. I think it is yours, only thing is a see it’s been revised. The one I was looking for required Roma tomatoes. Is this the same recipe? Thanks
Hi Amanda, while the write-up has been revised this recipe is exactly the same as when originally published. Sorry, this one didn’t turn out to be the one.
I struggled with this one. Mine came out too tomatoey/limey tasting. I added more broth and spices but that only helped a little. Doctored with extra toppings (avocado, cheese & sour cream).
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you Jeanne. This is a tomato based soup so the tomato flavor is prominent. You could certainly leave out the lime or just serve with wedges for each to squeeze on their own if you prefer.
Just wanted to pop by and leave a review because this dish is DELISH. It’ll be a regular in my rotation from now on. I did modify a few things, basically because of what I had on hand. The toppings MAKE this soup. I didn’t homemake tortilla strips, only used crushed up tortilla chips.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Delicious!! I love this, will definitely make it again!
This sounds amazing! Could I use bone in chicken breasts?
Hi Chloe, Bone-in chicken should work fine just be sure to remove all the bones once done cooking.
Thanks so much!
Y.U.M. Every time I make tortilla soup, I try a new recipe. I think I’ve found the one to stop the madness. Love it.
Family likes spice, so despite that it tasted delicious as is, I added about 1/2 tsp more cumin and a 1/2 of paprika. I squeezed a bit more lime (my lime was small), and added about 1/2 cup of cream cheese (in small spoonfuls) after microwaving it then stirred until it was fully mixed in. Served with tortilla chips, sour cream and avocado. Family LOVED it. Thank you!
Those sound like delicious additions Trish! Thanks for sharing.
My family loves this soup. It’s a winner in my house.
Made this for dinner tonight, and WOW!! I used pinto beans instead of black beans, because it’s my preference, but HOOOOOT BOY this is YUMMY!!!!
I made this recipe yesterday and was so happy with how it turned out. I topped with tortilla chips because that is what I had on hand.
Thanks for having such great recipes!
You’re so very welcome Katherine!
Amazing!! BY FAR THE BEST TORTILLA SOUP!
I also did not have fresh jalapeños, I used canned. Diced up what I thought would be 1 whole jalapeños.
I don’t have a jalapeño pepper on hand but I do have canned diced jalapeños. Can I substitute that and how much would you recommend? Thanks
Canned jalapenos can vary in their level of spice. Since they don’t require much cooking, you could add them a bit at a time, and do a taste test until you achieve the flavor that you’d like. I’d let it cook a minute or so between each addition to let the flavors meld together. Enjoy Jen!
It was delicious. Thanks.
Yay! Glad to hear that Jen!
It was good but I would only put coriander leaves at the end as a garnish. I would definitely make it again.
Using a WHOLE chicken makes it even better! I’ve made Holly’s recipe several times and wonder….how can something so simple be this good!?!
I boil a whole chicken the night before and leave it in the pot, put in fridge. The next day I skim the fat off the top, remove whole chicken (need to debone), then put pot on the stove to start heating up. Add the ingredients as directed, plus the deboned chicken. Also add a can of diced green chiles bc man they are so good! Top with store bought tortilla strips and lots of cilantro and lime. Aaaahhhmazzing ❤️
That does sound amazing Emily! Thank you for sharing that great idea!
This has become our family favorite! All year round we enjoy this recipe. Making it today in preparation for second COVID vaccine. Comfort food at its finest:)
This is a great recipe. Thank you, Holly! I made a few changes. Since I love cumin I used 2 t. instead of 1 t. I also added 1/2 t. of smoked paprika. I cooked both chicken breasts in the pot as directed, but I only shredded/chopped 1 and put it back in the pot. I thought it was too meat heavy to put them both back, but I thought cooking them both would give more flavor. I also added 1/3 to 1/2 C polenta or corn meal and let it cook about 5 or 10 minutes. This gives the soup a little more body. Don’t leave the lime juice out–it gives it some zing! I didn’t use the tortilla strips, just added corn chips, but I’m sure they would be good if you wanted to make them.
Try a little sour cream like my taqueria and you will taste even more heavenly.
Thank you. Simple, straightforward and delicious. I wouldn’t fry anything in olive oil, sauté: yes. I used an air fryer. I drizzled some olive oil on the sliced tortillas, fried them for 5 mins at 370 and they came out perfectly (shake once or twice to make sure it fries evennly). Be careful if you make it ahead, you might end up finishing them because they were a delicious light snack :)
I was worried it’d be too spicy for me but it wasn’t.
I’m serving it with avocado slices and a dollop of sour cream.
You’re welcome Yas! Sounds amazing!
I have made this several times so I think it’s only right that I mention how delicious and easy it is.
Thank you for leaving your comment Kirk! So glad to hear that you love the soup!
Made this soup with some leftover chicken. It was a perfect use for it. It was very simple process to make. I had all the ingredients on hand so I was able to put this together quickly.