Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
I’ve been using football season, colder temperatures, and minimal daylight as an excuse to start making cozy soups every weekend again, and I am loving it! This Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup is the perfect lazy meal because you simply dump your ingredients into the slow cooker, and just 5-6 hours later, you have a delicious and nourishing meal ready to enjoy with your family (or plenty of amazing leftovers!). Easy to customize to your liking, you can adjust the spice levels of this recipe starting with mild chiles and maybe even building your way up to hot. The heat is balanced with the addition of our creamy sour cream (or greek yogurt for added protein), giving each spoon full a party of flavors! Serve on game day for minimal clean-up, or save all to yourself for a week of cozy soup sure to warm you right up! Pair with my Dairy-free Butternut Squash Queso for the ultimate game day menu.
slow cooker chicken tortilla soup ingredient notes:
Corn: Adding a bit of sweetness against the heat in every bite, corn adds a pop of color to your bowl and a boost of fiber. I like to use a can here, but you could also opt for frozen, or char your own fresh corn for a smokier flavor. Corn also holds up well in soups, rather than pasta which can sometimes expand in liquid overtime.
Sour Cream: In my opinion, every tortilla soup needs a touch of cool sour cream or greek yogurt mixed throughout, but also topped with a dollop when serving. The cold and creamy topping cuts through the heat of the chiles and is best when served with tortilla chips as well. You could also top with avocado for a similar dairy-free texture.
Green Chiles: This is the source of our heat in this soup and canned green chiles make it easier than ever to just dump and cook this soup with minimal effort. These chiles are often available in varying spice levels, allowing you to adjust the heat to your liking.
Lime: Don’t skip out on the lime juice here when you add back in your chicken and sour cream. The juice provides a bright, citrusy element to the soup. Pro tip: add the juice of half a lime over your cilantro before chopping — it helps give the juice something to stick to, and livens up your cilantro topping.
Diced Tomatoes: In order to get that rich tomato base, I like to use a can of diced tomatoes, which won’t entirely break down when cooking in the soup, leaving you with those delicious tomato bites in the end. If you’re not a fan of this texture, you can also opt for crushed tomatoes here, however diced work best in slow cooked meals such as this.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
6
servings15
minutes5
hoursI’ve been using football season, colder temperatures, and minimal daylight as an excuse to start making cozy soups every weekend again, and I am loving it! This Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup is the perfect lazy meal because you simply dump your ingredients into the slow cooker, and just 5-6 hours later, you have a delicious and nourishing meal ready to enjoy with your family (or plenty of amazing leftovers!). Easy to customize to your liking, you can adjust the spice levels of this recipe starting with mild chiles and maybe even building your way up to hot. The heat is balanced with the addition of our creamy sour cream (or greek yogurt for added protein), giving each spoon full a party of flavors! Serve on game day for minimal clean-up, or save all to yourself for a week of cozy soup sure to warm you right up! Pair with my Dairy-free Butternut Squash Queso for the ultimate game day menu.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast
1 taco seasoning packet
28 ounces diced tomatoes
15 ounces canned corn, drained
15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
6 ounces green chiles, drained
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup sour cream or greek yogurt
juice of 1 lime
Chopped cilantro, tortilla chips, and sour cream or greek yogurt, for topping
Directions
- Add the chicken, taco seasoning, onion, pepper, garlic, tomatoes, corn, black beans, chiles, and broth to the slow cooker. Mix well to combine, then cover and cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or low for 6 to 7 hours.
- Once cooked, transfer the chicken from the slow cooker to a large bowl and shred it with two forks or an electric mixer (see notes). Add the shredded chicken back to the slow cooker along with the sour cream and lime juice. Stir to combine. To avoid slight curdling, let the sour cream sit at room temp for 10 to 15 minutes.
- To serve, divide evenly among 4 to 6 bowls and top as desired with cilantro, tortilla chips, sour cream, or Greek yogurt.
Notes
- Store it: Refrigerate the soup in a sealed container for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Reheat it: From refrigerated, heat in a covered saucepan over medium-low heat until warm, about 10 minutes. From frozen, defrost in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, or overnight, then heat as instructed. Option to microwave defrosted soup until warm, about 3 minutes. When reheating, you may need to add a little broth or water to reach your desired consistency.
- Saute for Flavor: For added depth of flavor, saute the onions, bell peppers, and garlic in a skillet before adding them to the slow cooker.
- Thickening the Soup: To thicken the soup, you can blend a portion of it using an immersion blender before stirring in the sour cream and lime juice.
- Adjust Consistency: Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more broth or water if it becomes too thick after cooking.
- Sour Cream: for a dairy-free alternative, swap for 3/4 cup full fat canned coconut milk or dairy-free yogurt.
Did you make this recipe?
Snap a photo & tag @jenneatsgoood on INSTAGRAM
If you try out this recipe, I want to know!
Leave a comment with a star rating below if you love it.
Hi! I made this chicken tortilla soup recipe a few weeks ago and it was truly amazing. It’s so flavorful! I also added black eyed peas to it as well because I had them leftover and I loved their additional flavor. I loved that I could just put it in my slow cooker and forget about it for a few hours. It made tons of soup for two people, but I froze it for later this winter. I can’t wait to have it again soon!
So easy and so flavorful… we made it twice in one week!
Made this last week and it is SO good! Easy meal to make and delicious too! 5 stars!!
This was so good!! The longer it sat in the slow cooker the better it got. The best leftovers! The slow cooker is not really my thing, but I’d probably try to start it the night before next time so it could cook longer.
Made this last week. It was easy, delicious and the whole family enjoyed it! Tasted even better the next day!
This recipe was delicious. Had it for lunch all week. It really warms you up on a cold day!
SO delicious and SO easy! We’ve already made this
multiple times on cold weekends. We used coconut milk instead of sour cream because my daughter has a dairy allergy and it turned out great- she is one and loves this soup too!
So easy! So yummy! Love it as a busy mom!! And freezes well!
I only have an instant pot. What would you recommend for that cook time?
I just made an Instant Pot chicken soup last week and I think those instructions could possibly work here although that recipe did have more broth in it (I’m going to try it out this week.) After using the sauté setting to soften the vegetables, the instructions were:
Set the Instant Pot to the Soup setting and set the timer to 7 minutes. If your instant pot doesn’t have the Soup setting just use Manual/high pressure for 7 minutes. Then do a natural release and remove the lid once the pin drops. Take out the chicken and shred, then return to the pot.
Made this soup last week using frozen corn and no bell peppers. This is by far the best version of a tortilla soup recipe that I have tried. The sour cream is the kicker. So creamy and flavorful. Poured over a bowl with tortilla chips and topped with some jack cheese…Yum. Super easy to throw in the pot and then go on about the day and forget about it until dinner time. This one is a keeper. Thank you!
This was sooo good! It got better as leftovers the next days as the flavors continued to meld. We used crushed tomatoes and the Siete brand taco seasoning packet. Thanks for another great one Jenn!
How much time would you recommend for insta pot?
I’d recommend using the slow cook setting on either low for ~8 hours, medium for ~6 hours, or high for ~4 hours!
Made this a few weeks ago, and it was both SO delicious and so easy! Will definitely be making it again.
I made this last night using fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles along with the green chile called for in the recipe. It was very good! My wife and two sons really liked it and all declared this recipe one to go into our rotation. My wife said she might even like it more than the minestrone soup I make, which has been her favorite for couple of years!
I made this tonight and it gets 20 stars!!! So delicious!!! So flavorful!!! Everyone loved it. It was easy to make so I’ll be putting it on my meal rotation for sure!!! Bring on the cold weather!!!
p.s. I did use a little “Better Than Bullion” because I was trying to stretch it for more people and it needed a little boost of extra flavor.
We’ve made this soup so many times and it is DELISH!
Love this soup! Easy to make, freezes beautifully, and as soon as I finish one batch, I make another. This will be on permanent rotation every fall and winter. It’s cozy and satisfying, plus corn chips, yogurt, and cheese on top make it fun to eat.