5 from 23 votes

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Name: Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 5 strips (uncooked) bacon (cut into small pieces¹ ); 1 cup chopped onion (about one medium onion); 1 cup diced red pepper (about one red pepper); 1 finely chopped jalapeno (seeds removed); 1 Tablespoon minced garlic (about 4-5 cloves for me); 3 ½ cups low sodium chicken stock; 14 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes (undrained); 14 oz can black beans (rinsed and drained); 10 oz mild enchilada sauce; 1 cup frozen sweet corn; 7 oz can diced green chilis; 1 Tablespoon chili powder (I like use ½ Tbsp ancho chili powder and ½ Tbsp regular chili powder); 1 teaspoon sugar; ¾ teaspoon cumin; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ teaspoon paprika; ½ teaspoon ground black pepper; 3-4 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken (I use shredded rotisserie chicken); 4 oz cream cheese² (cut into cubes); 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice; Optional toppings: avocado, cotija cheese, cilantro, sour cream, etc.; 10 corn tortillas; Olive oil (for drizzling); Kosher salt (for sprinkling)

By Sam MerrittPublished Sep 09, 2024

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56 Comments

Servings: 6 servings

35 mins

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Chicken tortilla soup pairs crispy home-cooked tortilla strips with a hearty, filling soup. It comes together in under 45 minutes and is absolutely loaded with flavor! Recipe includes a how-to video!

Overhead view of bowls of chicken tortilla soup topped with tortilla strips, sour cream, lime, and cilantro.

The Coziest Tortilla Soup

My chicken tortilla soup deserves a spot in your dinner rotation this season. It’s hearty, super filling, and has just a touch of cream cheese to make it slightly creamy but not too rich. Crispy homemade tortilla strips (they’re so easy to make, I promise!) add the perfect crunch and make this a complete meal in a bowl!

This soup is loaded with protein from shredded chicken and black beans. It’s a (mostly) wholesome, yet still indulgent meal that is comforting and perfect as a weeknight dinner or cold weather comfort food (like my creamy chicken noodle soup).

What’s to Love About This Recipe

Fast: just 35 minutes to make. And that includes making the homemade tortilla strips!
Incredible flavor from a bacon base, fire roasted tomatoes, ancho chili powder, and a few more special ingredients.
Uses pre-cooked chicken, so it’s great for using up leftover chicken or a rotisserie chicken from the store.
Easy: the ingredient list on this recipe might be long, but the actual process is so simple. We’re really just tossing everything into the pot!
You can customize your spice level depending on your tastes. As is, this soup is mild. But it’s very easy to spice up; scroll down to the FAQ section for more info.

What You Need

Let’s go over a few of the key ingredients that give this soup its flavor. You can find the full list of ingredients further down into the post in the recipe card.

Overhead view of a pot of soup with shredded chicken, corn, and fire roasted tomatoes on top before stirring in.

Bacon. While it may be an unlikely suspect, this secret ingredient creates an amazingly flavorful base, just like in my potato soup recipe. If you don’t want to use bacon, that’s fine! I provide instructions on how to make this soup without bacon in the recipe notes below.
Chicken. As in my chicken tortilla soup and white chicken chili, I opt to start with pre-shredded chicken (a rotisserie chicken works great here!)
Chili powder. Like in my award-winning chili recipe, we are using a combination of regular and ancho chili powder for the most depth of flavor. If you don’t have ancho chili powder, you can just use all regular chili powder instead. The ancho adds a nice smoky element though, which I love!
Fire roasted tomatoes. If you can’t find fire roasted, plain diced tomatoes work just fine, but I prefer the smoky depth of flavor the fire roasted version offers.
Sugar. I know, I know–we typically save the sugar for the desserts, but just a teaspoon here really rounds out the flavors. I also use sugar in my sloppy joes recipe and tomato soup recipe, so this shouldn’t surprise you too much!
Cream cheese. This thickens the soup and adds lots of flavor. You can always skip it for a thinner soup with a more tomato-y base, but I love the creaminess it adds.

SAM’S TIP: I prefer to use rotisserie chicken for this recipe; it’s easy and inexpensive to buy one from the grocery store, shred it, and toss it into the soup. You could also make my easy crockpot shredded chicken and use that instead.

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup

Overhead view of a pot of chicken tortilla soup.

Cook the bacon until crisp, then remove to a paper towel lined plate.
Cook the onion, pepper, and jalapeno in the bacon grease and until translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Stir in the stock, diced tomatoes, beans, enchilada sauce, corn, chilis, spices, and chicken.
Let the soup simmer while you prepare your tortilla strips (demonstrated below).
Add cream cheese and lime juice and stir until the cream cheese is melted.
Serve topped with tortilla strips and other toppings (suggestions below!)

SAM’S TIP: Preheat your oven before you start the soup, that way it has time to get nice and hot for your tortilla strips!

How to Make the Tortilla Strips

The crispy corn tortilla strips are possibly my favorite part of this soup. While you could just buy pre-made strips, it takes only minutes to make them at home using corn tortillas.

Corn tortillas being cut into strips with a pizza cutter.

Cut 10 corn tortillas into ¼” strips (mine usually end up thicker than this, but I always aim for ¼”) and then cut strips to be about 2″ in length. Place on a baking sheet.
Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Toss until all strips are lightly coated and spread evenly over the pan.
Bake until crisp (about 10 minutes) and allow to cool before serving with the soup.

Tortilla strips on a baking sheet after baking.

Frequently Asked Questions

How spicy is this soup?

This soup is still mild enough for my kids to enjoy despite using a jalapeno, chiles, and enchilada sauce, since we remove the jalapeno seeds and use mild versions of the potentially spicy items.

If you want to make it spicer, toss in a few of the jalapeno seeds and use hot green chiles and hot enchilada sauce.

What can I serve with chicken tortilla soup?

Toppings-wise, we love avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice. A splash of hot sauce doesn’t hurt either!

As for sides, we love serving with my famous cornbread or jalapeno cornbread, though biscuits are always a good option, too.

Can I freeze this soup?

I haven’t tried freezing this soup, but I would be worried that the cream cheese wouldn’t thaw properly and could make the end result seem “piecey” and separated (though I suspect the taste would still be fine). You could try freezing the soup before adding the cream cheese and stir it in once thawed.

If you try freezing this recipe, I’d love to know how it goes for you!