This simple slow cooker chicken tortilla soup is the ultimate easy weeknight meal! It's full of shredded chicken, beans, and corn; then topped with homemade tortilla strips, sliced avocado, and green onions. It's cozy, comforting, and super easy to make!
You might also like this slow cooker beef chili or this sick day chicken soup!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients (and some fun toppings) to make this chicken tortilla soup!
Chicken - You can add chicken breasts to the crockpot to cook in the soup. But if you have leftover rotisserie chicken, you can shred it and add it in towards the end!
Onions, Garlic, Peppers - I recommend always sautéing the aromatics before adding to the chili for the best flavor!
Poblano - I love the mildly spicy flavor of poblano peppers, but jalapeños or hatch chilies are also delicious!
Spices - You can use chili seasoning if you want, but I prefer to just make my own with a blend of chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper.
Canned Tomatoes - You can use any canned tomatoes that you have on hand, but my favorite are fire roasted salsa tomatoes! They have a ton of extra flavor from being roasted with chilies meaning you need a little less seasoning for a super flavorful tortilla soup!
Beans and Corn - I love using a combo of black beans, garbanzo beans, and corn. But you can also use kidney beans or pinto beans instead.
Vegetable Stock - I always use homemade vegetable stock because that's what I have on hand. But you can also use store-bought vegetable stock or chicken stock! Just note, if using store-bought stock you may need to reduce the salt content of the soup.
Tortilla Strips - You can't have tortilla soup without tortilla strips! I like to make my own tortilla strips, but store-bought ones work just as well. You can also just crumble some regular tortilla chips on top of the soup instead!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
Topping Suggestions
- Sliced avocado
- Cilantro
- Shredded cheese
- Lime slices
- Sliced jalapeños
- Green onions
- Sour cream
How to Make Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup
Slow cooking the soup is the best way to get super flavorful tortilla soup with perfectly tender chicken! To make the soup, I like to first sauté the onions and peppers. Then just combine everything in a Crock Pot and let it hang out all day! Super easy!
In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté the diced onion, poblano, and garlic in the olive oil until translucent and fragrant.
Then add to the slow cooker along with the canned tomatoes, corn, black beans, canned chilies, garbanzo beans, and chicken breasts.
Add in enough vegetable stock (or water) to cover the top of the ingredients.
Then stir in the salt, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and oregano.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
Before serving, shred the cooked chicken breasts and add back to the soup.
Stir in the lime juice. Then taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.
Serve the chicken tortilla soup with tortilla strips or broken up tortilla chips for extra crunch!
Stovetop Chicken Tortilla Soup
If you don't want to use a slow cooker, you can make this tortilla soup on the stovetop instead!
- In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, sauté the diced onion, poblano, and garlic in the live oil until translucent and fragrant.
- Add in the canned tomatoes, corn, black beans, canned chilies, garbanzo beans, and chicken breasts. Then stir in the salt, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and oregano. Cover with the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Before serving, shred the cooked chicken breasts and add back to the soup.
- Stir in the lime juice. Then taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.
- Serve the chicken tortilla soup with tortilla strips or broken up tortilla chips for extra crunch!
Recipe FAQ's
Store the tortilla soup without toppings in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. It reheats great in the microwave!
Yes! Store the chicken tortilla soup without toppings in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months! Let defrost in the fridge overnight before serving. I personally love souper cubes because they come in different sizes so they're perfect for freezing different amounts of soup! After thawing, top with all your desired toppings!
As written, this tortilla soup has a slight kick but it's not very spicy. However, you can easily add more heat by adding a few jalapeños or your favorite hot sauce!
Yes! Just leave out the chicken and add in some extra veggies for a delicious vegetarian tortilla soup! My favorite additions are zucchini, yellow squash, and extra beans!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Chicken Tortilla Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 1 poblano pepper, or jalapeno
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 (14 ounce) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can corn kernels, drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
- 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, optional
- 2 large chicken breasts
- 4 cups vegetable stock, substitute chicken broth or water
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
Topping Suggestions
- tortilla strips
- sliced avocado
- cilantro
- shredded cheese
- lime slices
- green onions
- sliced jalapeños
- sour cream
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté the diced onion, poblano, and garlic in the olive oil until translucent and fragrant.
- Then add to the slow cooker along with the canned tomatoes, corn, black beans, canned chilies, garbanzo beans, and chicken breasts.
- Add in enough vegetable stock (or water) to cover the top of the ingredients.
- Then stir in the salt, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and oregano.
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- Before serving, shred the cooked chicken breasts and add back to the soup.
- Stir in the lime juice. Then taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.
- Serve the chicken tortilla soup with tortilla strips or broken up tortilla chips for extra crunch!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Valjean L Merkel says
I always have roasted chicken meat in my freezer. Any thoughts on adjusting time for pre-cooked chicken meat?
Kyleigh Sage says
Absolutely! I would thaw it overnight in the fridge and then just add it in 1-2 hours before the end of cooking time/before you want to serve!