Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe (2024)

This chicken tortilla soup recipe is easy to make in 40 minutes on the stovetop. Learn how to make chicken tortilla soup that’s even more delicious than your favorite restaurant!

This chicken tortilla soup is one of our family’s favorite soup recipes (along with this taco soup). It’s healthy and easy to make in 40 minutes on the stovetop!

This chicken tortilla soup is loaded with chicken, veggies, and beans, flavorful with herbs and spices and topped with the best homemade tortilla strips.

It tastes even better than your favorite restaurant and is an irresistible soup recipe you will make on repeat.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: Ingredients & Substitutions

• Chicken Breasts. I suggest thinly sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts for the best results.
• Onion. Use a sweet, yellow onion or red onion.
• Minced garlic. Fresh or jarred can be used. You can replace 1 tablespoon minced garlic with 1 tsp garlic powder (add with the spices).
• Green Bell Pepper. Any color bell pepper works well.
• Diced tomatoes. fire roasted, with green chilies or just plain diced tomatoes all work well in this taco soup recipe.
• Green Chiles. choose your “heat” preference, we use mild.
• Chicken Broth. Vegetable broth can be used in place of chicken, although I prefer chicken broth.
• Black Beans. Other beans that work well are kidney beans and great northern (white) beans.
• Taco Seasoning. Make your own with this Homemade Taco Seasoning Recipe, or use an organic seasoning to avoid unfavorable ingredients. This is a mild chicken tortilla soup, but you can easily increase the heat/spice by adding chili powder, hot sauce, spicy taco seasoning, jalapeño peppers, etc.
• Frozen Corn. You can substitute fresh corn.

How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe is easy to make on the stovetop. We’ll walk through it together, and don’t forget tow watch the video.

Cook olive oil, onion green pepper and garlic over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

Then, add the diced tomatoes, chiles, chicken broth, lime juice, taco seasoning, sea salt, pepper, chicken breasts, beans and corn to the pot and stir to combine.

Next, bring the mixture to a boil. Once it’s boiling, lower the heat, cover and simmer until the chicken is easily shredded with a fork (about 25-30 minutes).

Once the chicken is fully cooked, shred it and then return it to the pot.

Then, add the cilantro and cover and simmer for 10-30 minutes (until ready to serve).

Make the Tortilla Strips

While the soup is cooking (preferably while the chicken is cooking before it needs to be shredded), make the tortilla strips (I have a full post dedicated to making tortilla strips here: homemade tortilla strips)

Begin by preheating the olive oil in a large skillet, then add the tortilla strips and stir to combine

Cook over medium-high heat for 2-5 minutes, stirring often, until crispy. Sprinkle warm strips with salt and set them aside to serve on top of the soup!

Serve

Once the homemade chicken tortilla soup is ready, serve it warm with sour cream, cheese, chopped onion, sliced avocado or homemade guacamole, and homemade tortilla strips. Check out all of our favorite Mexican Recipes.

Store/Freeze

Store leftover chicken tortilla soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.

Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe FAQs

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