Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup (2024)

Even living in Southern California, there’s a noticeable turn in the air to cooler temps, warmer clothing and hot dinners when winter rolls around. I love making soups and stews, and usually do it once a week during the cooler months. They reheat great and freeze lovely too! One of my favorite soups to make on the stove (as opposed to the crock pot, which is my normal go-to) is Chicken Tortilla Soup. It’s hearty, healthy, has tons of flavor and takes less than an hour. Over the last few years, I’ve found a recipe that is always met with oohs and ahs at family dinner and made it my own. I hope you’ll love it too!

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, previously cooked (I like shredded as opposed to cubed)
• 2 cans of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed
• 1 15 oz. can of corn
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 4 oz. can diced green chilis
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tbls. olive oil

Toppings:

• Crushed tortilla chips
• Avocado
• Green onions
• Monterey jack cheese
• Cilantro

Start off by finely dicing both the onion and garlic. The recipe calls for a whole onion, but I honestly use more like half to 2/3rds of one because this recipe has so many goodies in it. Depending on your garlicclove size, you may also only need to use 2, like I did (those babies were HUGE!).

Heat a stock pot over medium heat and add olive oil to warm. Then toss in garlic and onion and cook until both are soft and onions are translucent. While it’s cooking, wash your knife and cutting board because you are DONE chopping! Yet another reason I love this recipe: minimal prep work at its best!

Once onion and garlic are done, add two cans of chicken broth and can of crushed tomatoes. Stir well

Then add 2 tsp. of chili powder and 1 tsp. of cumin and stir until mixed well. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 10 minutes.

After simmering, add corn, black beans, green chilis and chicken and stir well. Set to simmer and put the lid on the pot. You can let it simmer for 10 minutes or 30! The soup only gets better the longer it cooks.

While the soup is wrapping up on the stove, prep your toppings. We like monterey jack cheese, green onions and of course, avocado in our house. Note the absence of tortilla chips- I know, I’m a fraud. But I’ve grown to love this soup, even without the extra calories in the chips!

By now, your soup should look pretty tasty:

Ladle hot soup into bowls, add your toppings and devour!

This recipe was adapted from AllRecipes.com Chicken Tortilla Soup I.

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Karly Wood

I'm a born and bred Southern California native and currently the managing editor at Red Tri. I get to share my life with my husband of 13 years and our beautiful, 5-year old daughter. In my free time you'll catch me cheering for the Dodgers, cooking, baking, reading, crafting and probably watching a little HGTV!