The BEST slow cooker chicken tortilla soup is filled with chunks of chicken, beans & corn. It is easy to make and full of flavor!
A classic and popular soup recipe – this chicken tortilla soup is always a hit! Filled with so many great ingredients and being so simple, we love to make this all year long along with our Enchilada Soup and White Chicken Chili.
THe best & easiest soup!
I’m in Soup Mode right now and taking advantage of this cool weather to try out even more soups. I mean, how can you NOT love them (especially our Chicken & Rice Soup or our Chicken Enchilada Soup)?
Today’s recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup is so good and simple that we wanted to make sure you could try it too. Being Hispanic, our family loves anything with tortillas, so this recipe was right up our alley.
We ended up topping it off with some homemade tortilla strips and cubed avocado, which made it even that much better! If I’m going to be honest, if a recipe calls for Chicken and Avocados, I pretty much know I’ll love it. 😉 Put it in a soup form, and I love it even more!
How to Make Tortilla Soup
CHICKEN. Cook the chicken and shred (or cube) it – for tips on shredding chicken GO HERE.
COOK. Add all the ingredients (except for cheese, tortilla strips, and avocado) to the crock pot and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or HIGH for 3-4.
SERVE. Stir in cheese just before serving.
TORTILLA STRIPS. If you want to make homemade tortilla strips for sprinkling on top, cut corn tortillas into strips with a pizza cutter. You can either flash fry in hot oil, or bake at 425° for 8-10 minutes turning halfway through.
Aside from the tortilla strips, here are other topping ideas:
- Diced avocado
- More shredded cheese
- Sour Cream
- Chopped green onions
- Cilantro
- Queso fresco
- Limes
Stovetop Instructions
To make tortilla soup on the stovetop:
- BOIL. Simply put all the ingredients (minus the cheese and toppings) into a large pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- GARNISH + SERVE. Add cheese just before serving, and top with your favorite toppings!
Tips + Storing info
Vegetarian: To make this soup vegetarian, just eliminate the chicken and use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock. For a dairy free version, leave out the cheese and don’t top with sour cream.
Thicken it: Our favorite way to thicken tortilla soup is to use masa harina, which is traditional Mexican flour used to make tortillas. You can whisk a little bit of this in to give it a distinctive flavor and to thicken. If you don’t like the flavor of masa harina, you can use regular flour to thicken the soup.
Make it Creamy: This slow cooker chicken tortilla soup is definitely more on the broth-y side, but can also be made creamy. In the last 30 minutes of cooking in the crock pot, just add 2/3 cup heavy cream and ⅓ cup sour cream, and it will be nice and creamy!
To FREEZE, let the soup cool first, then freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag, making sure you omit the toppings. To reheat, let the soup thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat on the stove or in the microwave.
For more chicken soup recipes, check out:
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Crock Pot Enchilada Soup
- Chicken Tortellini Soup
- White Chicken Chili
- Chicken Dumpling Soup
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 6 c chicken stock
- 15 oz can corn drained
- 1 1/2 15 oz can diced tomatoes drained
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 c chopped onion (optional)
- 1 can black beans drained
- 1 small can diced green chilis
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- monterey jack cheese shredded
- corn tortillas for homemade tortilla strips – you can use store bought strips
- cubed avocados for topping
Instructions
- Cook and shred (or cube) chicken.
- Add all the ingredients, except the cheese, corn tortilla strips and avocados to your crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 3-4 hours).
- Add cheese just before serving, and top each serving with your favorite toppings (we like corn tortilla strips and avocado).
- To make homemade corn tortilla strips, slice up corn tortillas with a pizza cutter. Flash Fry in hot oil or bake in the oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes turning halfway through. ENJOY!
So easy. I instant pot chicken breasts with taco seasoning and salsa and use that.
Perfect!! Thanks for sharing!
This is a soup that the entire family will eat. It is so hearty and full of delicious flavor.
Thanks a bunch for this amazing and really delicious chicken tortilla soup recipe! So easy to make as well! Highly recommended!
Mostly I loved that I had everything on hand to make this soup! It turned out so yummy – there were no leftovers. lol
My family enjoyed every last drop!
Can I use dry black beans for the soup?
You could use dry black beans if you were planning on cooking them beforehand. I wouldn’t recommend putting them into the soup dry. All the ingredients in the soup are already cooked/ready, so it’s mostly just heating everything through together. Therefore, the beans wouldn’t be soft enough if using dry.
I made this tonight and it was a hit. So very good. Thanks so much for sharing
You’re welcome!! I’m so happy to hear the soup was a hit!
Super easy and so delicious! I love mine topped with some shredded cheese and LOTS of diced avocado. So yummy!
Delicious soup! Lots of great flavor! Love all the veggies! So hearty! Looking forward to having this over & over this coming autumn and winter!
Great recipe, super easy with ingredients we already have in our pantry. The only change I made was we pretty much tripled the spices (and a bit more than that for the chili) because we like spicy! This was a great recipe and I look forward to trying more of your crockpot recipes! With working and trying to keep up with (and feed) 5 people these crockpot recipes are perfect. Looking forward to trying all the soups this fall/winter!!
So easy and delicious!
The best tortilla soup I’ve ever had!
One of our family favorites!! So easy to put together and yummy!!
What’s not to love? So easy and so satisfying! The whole family loves it. It’s also a great addition to a Mexican themed buffet.
I love this recipe!! I make it every year when the weather gets colder, and it was one of my families favorite soups!!
Very Yummy and my whole family loved it
I’m a sucker for a crock pot soup and this recipe satisfies all the cold night blues! It has the perfect spice and warms you up! My kids really love it! Serve it with chips or bread!
A nice “comfort food” soup.
Love this!!