Simple Chicken Tortilla Soup

This simple chicken tortilla soup is an easy meal to make for a crowd or just a cozy night! This soup is bursting with flavor, beans, and chicken! It’s hearty, healthy, and absolutely delicious. It’s like Mexican night, soup edition. Soup is the gift that keeps on giving because leftovers are delicious, you need one pot, and you can easily double it to freeze some and save for later. We love this one so much and it will definitely make it into our frequent rotation. Hope you love it as much as we do!

Overhead view of tortilla soup topped with cheese and cilantro in a white bowl with extra chips, cheese, a gold spoon, and fall decor in the background.

What you need to make simple chicken tortilla soup + substitutions:

Cooked Chicken- For this recipe, Thomas cooked a whole roasted chicken and then we used cooked chicken from there. You could also use shredded rotisserie chicken, shredded crockpot chicken, or baked chicken. You basically just need 2 cups of cooked chicken.
Yellow onion- The onion gives a great flavor and adds some bulk to the soup.
Bell peppers- These add a good amount of veggie, brightness, color, and flavor to the recipe!
Garlic cloves- Garlic is ideal in basically every savory recipe. You can substitute with 1 tsp garlic powder if needed.
Avocado oil- When we’re cooking with high heat, we prefer to use avocado oil. We always buy the giant Chosen Foods avocado oil from Costco.
Black beans- Black beans go perfectly in this Mexican-inspired dish. They also had a nice heartiness as well as fiber and flavor.
Canned corn- We have a bunch of canned corn so that’s what we used. Frozen corn works just fine as well and you don’t even have to thaw it. You can put it right in this simple chicken tortilla soup.
Fire roasted tomatoes- I just love the flavor that the fire roasted tomatoes bring. If you need to you can use petite diced tomatoes, but I highly suggest the fire roasted.
Chicken stock- We have a bunch of chicken stock from Costco so that’s what we used, but feel free to substitute with chicken broth or vegetable broth.
Lime- Adds a really nice touch and brightness to the soup!
Cilantro- I always love an herb to finish off a dish. If you don’t love cilantro you can skip this part but it’s delicious both in the soup and garnished on top.

If you love this, you may also love:

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Simple Chicken Tortilla Soup

This simple chicken tortilla soup is an easy meal to make for a crowd or just a cozy night! This soup is bursting with flavor, beans, and chicken! It's hearty, healthy, and absolutely delicious. It's like Mexican night, soup edition. Soup is the gift that keeps on giving because leftovers are delicious, you need one pot, and you can easily double it to freeze some and save for later. We love this one so much and it will definitely make it into our frequent rotation. Hope you love it as much as we do!

Course: Main Course

Keyword: chicken, easy dinner, make ahead, mexican, soup, tortilla

Servings:

Ingredients

For the Soup:

1 yellow onion diced
3 bell peppers diced
4 garlic cloves minced
1-2 tbsp avocado oil (omit for crockpot version)
15 oz canned fire roasted tomatoes
32 oz chicken broth
2 cups cooked chicken (or raw for crockpot version)
15 oz canned black beans drained
10 oz canned corn drained (or frozen straight from the bag)
½ of a lime juiced
1 tbsp cilantro chopped & mixed in
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp sea salt to taste
1 tsp pepper

For Serving:

shredded mexican cheese
avocado
cilantro
lime
sour cream or greek yogurt
tortilla chips

Instructions

Start by chopping the garlic, onions, and peppers.
In a large pot, heat avocado oil. Add in the onions, garlic, and peppers and cook for about 5-7 minutes until cooked down a bit.
Next, add in the fire roasted tomatoes, salt, and all the spices. Mix together until everything is incorporated.
Add in the broth, shredded chicken, black beans, and corn and bring it to a light boil.
Give the soup a good stir, turn down to simmer. Squeeze in fresh lime and chopped cilantro. Season with more salt if needed. Let simmer for 10 minutes and it's done!
We love to top ours with any or all of the following: chips, cheese, cilantro, greek yogurt, avocado, and more lime. Enjoy!

For the Crockpot Version:

Add all the soup ingredients to the crockpot. We used about 1lb of raw chicken breasts and added it right in instead of the cooked chicken. If you'd like to use cooked shredded chicken, you can add it in at the end of the cook time about 30 minutes before it's done.
Set the crockpot on low and let the soup cook for about 6-8 hours if using raw chicken until the chicken shreds really easily. You can do 4 hours if doing cooked chicken. Once the chicken is cooked, shred and add it back into the soup. Taste and add more salt if needed. Top with toppings of your choice and enjoy!