Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup is easy to make and packed with flavor. It has a smooth and smoky base made from chicken broth, peppers, tomatoes, and a little spice. Filled with shredded chicken and topped with homemade baked tortilla strips and whatever other toppings you like, this soup is a winner. It also comes together in less than an hour, so it’s perfect for weeknights or weekends.  

Why You’ll Love This Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

• Hearty and light at the same time. This soup feels hearty and filling, but at its core, it’s light and healthy.
• Deep, bold flavors. This easy chicken tortilla soup comes together in under an hour but it tastes like it’s been cooking for much longer. The flavors are deep and bold and balanced.
• One-pot for easy clean-up. To cook the soup, you’ll only need one large soup pot. The chicken even goes into the pot whole, so you don’t need to worry about chopping it up first or cooking it in another pan. If you do make the tortilla strips, you will need a cookie sheet too, but there is minimal clean-up and effort there!
• Customizable with your favorite toppings! You can keep it simple and healthy and just top the soup with a few baked tortilla strips. Or you can add sour cream, lime, avocado, and cheese to jazz it up!

The Many Versions of Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken tortilla soup is a delicious dish with many variations. Originating in Mexico, a traditional version of this soup might have a broth base that is enhanced with tomatoes and chiles (often dried) and a generous topping of crispy tortilla strips. A Tex-Mex or Midwestern version might have corn and black or pinto beans, and a California version like ours would be topped with fresh lime and lots of avocado.

Some versions of tortilla soup keep the ingredients whole and chunky, while others take a more silky and creamy approach by blending everything up. You may see a more veggie centric version with no chicken and lots of cubed up veg like squash and big chunks of tomato. You’ll also see people using tortillas in different ways. Some recipes call for crispy tortilla strips on top like ours, and others instruct folks to blend tortillas directly in the broth to flavor and thicken it.

Our Version

We like to keep ours simple and on the smoother side, with a blended broth, big chunks of chicken, and lots of toppings. 

Before building the broth we develop the flavor base by cooking up fresh ingredients and spices. We use onions, poblano peppers, and jalapeños for richness, freshness, and peppery notes. The backbone of the soup comes from chicken broth and fire roasted tomatoes, with chipotle chilies in adobe and tomato paste to boost the flavor. We cook the chicken directly in the broth to keep it super easy. No need to chop the chicken ahead of time or cook it in a separate pan. 

Tortilla Soup Breakdown

1. Cook your aromatics and veggies – cook these for about 5 minutes.
2. Build the broth and cook the chicken breasts right in it – instead of cooking the chicken separately, you’ll cook it right in the delicious broth. It adds flavor to the broth and avoids another dish.
3. Toast up the tortilla strips – make these while the chicken cooks. They’re easy and bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the oven. You could also use store bought chips and crush them up.
4. Blend and shred – remove the cooked chicken from the pot, dice or shred it, and set it aside while you blend the broth with an immersion blender. Add the chicken back to the pot.
5. Toppings – this is probably the most fun part because you can get creative and customize your own bowl to your liking.

Ingredients in Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe has 3 distinct parts: the soup, baked tortilla strips, and the other toppings.

The Soup

• Chicken – use chicken breasts because they’re easy to shred, high in protein, and low in fat. For a veg option, use your favorite non-meat protein.
• Broth – chicken broth adds savory flavor and volume. 
• Onion – we like the flavor of yellow onion in this soup, but you can use any kind of onion. 
• Fresh Peppers – use poblano peppers for mild flavor and jalapeños for light spice. 
• Chipotle peppers in adobo – these add delicious smoky heat to the soup. Some brands are spicier than others, so be sure to taste them before committing to adding a ton
• Tomatoes and tomato paste – for roasted flavor, we like using canned fire roasted tomatoes. A little tomato paste brings richer tomato flavor. 
• Spices – season the soup with salt, cumin, chili powder, and adobo seasoning.

The Tortilla Strips

• Tortillas – we like to use corn tortillas for flavor and texture.  
• Neutral oil – use a high smoke point and mild tasting oil (canola, avocado, etc.)
• Spices – we like to season the tortillas with salt and a little chili powder. You could also add some cayenne or chipotle chili powder for spice.

The Toppings

You can top this soup with whatever you like! You can keep it simple and just do the baked tortilla strips and some lime wedges, or go wild and add a ton of toppings. Aside from the baked tortilla strips, some of our favorites toppings include:

• Shredded Jack cheese
• Mexican crema or sour cream
• Cilantro
• Green onions
• Avocado
• Lime

How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup

Preheat the oven to 400°F for the baked tortilla strips. You’ll make these while the soup cooks.

Add olive oil to a large soup pot and cook the onions, poblanos, and jalapeños until they’re starting to get a little translucent, about 5 minutes. Mix in the chipotle peppers in adobo, tomato paste, salt, and spices and cook for about a minute more. 

Add the fire roasted tomatoes and broth and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the chicken breasts, cover the pot, and cook for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. 

While the chicken is cooking, mix the cut tortilla strips, oil, and spices together and place the strips on an unlined baking sheet. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool (they’ll crisp as they cool).

Remove the cooked chicken from the pot and shred it with 2 forks or chop it. Set the chicken aside. 

With an immersion blender, blend the soup until mostly smooth. Add the shredded chicken back to the pot and remove the soup from the heat. Ladle it into your favorite soup bowl and top with the baked tortilla strips and your desired toppings.