Chicken Tortilla Soup

Made with simple but delicious ingredients, this Chicken Tortilla Soup comes together in a few easy steps. Even better, it's made in one pot so cleaning up is a breeze.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 498kcal

Author John Kanell

Equipment

Dutch oven or large pot

Ingredients

Tortilla Strips:

¼ cup olive oil (60mL)
4 6-inch yellow corn tortillas cut into 1/4-inch strips (95g)
⅛ teaspoon salt

Chicken Soup:

1 medium yellow onion chopped (1 1/4 cups) (160g)
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon seeded, diced jalapeno
4 cups chicken broth (.50L)
1 can crushed tomatoes (794g)(28-ounce)
1 can black beans rinsed and drained (432g)(15.25-ounce)
1½ cups frozen yellow corn (172g)
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (454g)
1½ teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Toppings:

shredded cheese
sour cream
sliced avocado
chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

For the Tortilla Strips:

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. In two batches, add the tortillas strips and cook until crispy, about 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt.

For the Chicken Soup:

Return the pot to medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, beans, corn, chicken, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue simmering for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from the heat. Remove the chicken and shred.
Return the pot to medium-low heat. Stir the shredded chicken back into the pot. Stir in the lime juice. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Serve the soup with shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, and cilantro, if desired.

Notes

Decrease the amount of jalapeno if you want the soup less spicy.
When cutting the jalapeno, make sure to remove the seeds before adding them to the pot. You can wear gloves to avoid your hands feeling tingy.
If you have leftover rotisserie chicken, you can shred it to add to the soup instead of cooking the chicken breasts in the tortilla soup. You will need approximately 3 to 4 cups of shredded chicken. You can even simmer the soup with some rotisserie bones to add more flavor to the soup.
If you want to thicken the soup, you can whisk some masa harina with the soup before pouring it back into the soup. Masa harina gives a distinctive corn flavor to the soup. A cornstarch slurry will thicken the soup if you don’t have any masa harina.

Nutrition