Cheddar Cheese Soup with Chicken and Poblano Peppers

Using a high quality cheese for this cheddar cheese soup insures a superb flavored, rich textured luxurious texture. This soup features bite sized pieces of chicken breast, poblano peppers and your favorite Southwestern spices to liven things up. This is a crowd pleaser that will have everyone asking for seconds.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Mise en place. Always gather ingredients before starting any recipe. It will save you time and organize your mind.

• Dairy: Milk, Sour Cream, Sharp Cheddar Cheese. Full fat dairy is best for flavor and texture for this soup. Also choose a quality brand of sharp cheddar cheese for the best flavor result. Sharp cheddar adds a bold flavor that makes this soup very special.
• Chicken Broth: The base of the soup. If you can, use homemade chicken broth.
• Chicken Breast: Boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite sized chunks and sauteed before adding to this soup.
• Tomatoes: During the Winter months, I find that Roma tomatoes are a good choice. They’re meatier and work well when chopped.
• Flour: All purpose flour is used to thicken the soup.
• Onion: Sweet onion or yellow onion. A red onion will add a strong flavor profile for this recipe.
• Peppers: Jalapeno peppers and poblano peppers. Poblano peppers resemble green bell peppers and are mild on the heat scale with an earthy peppery flavor. This recipe calls for one jalapeno to add a bit of heat.
• Spices: Cumin, chili powder and cilantro.

Pro Tip: Purchase good quality cheese and grate it yourself. Pre-grated cheese in bags includes additives to keep it from clumping, which will also compromise the melting factor. Grating cheese from a block of cheese will result in a creamier and more consistent melting experience. Plus, it’s less expensive.

Ingredient Swaps

• Tomatoes: In place of fresh tomatoes, use one 15 ½ ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained.
• Chicken Broth: Use regular chicken broth or low sodium. You can also use vegetable broth. Beef broth would not be a good choice here, as the flavor profile would change and be too strong.
• Peppers: If poblano peppers are not available, a good substitute are Anaheim Peppers. Anaheim are smaller, so use six peppers to equal three poblano. If you don’t have jalapeno peppers, replace with one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. Just remove the veins and seeds and chop. Chipotle peppers are simply smoked and dried jalapeno peppers. You could also use pickled jalapenos from a can or jar. Just rinse them of the brine before chopping.
• Chicken: To make this soup even easier, use meat pulled from a rotisserie chicken. Both dark and white meat would work well here. You can also use cooked boneless skinless chicken thighs.

How To Make Cheddar Cheese Soup, It’s easy!

• Step 1: In a large Dutch oven, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Add the tomatoes, lower heat and simmer covered.
• Step 2: In a skillet, heat the butter and oil. Add the onion and saute until tender. About 5 minutes. Add the chile’s and cook until they have softened. Add the cumin and chili powder. Stir and then sprinkle in the flour, blending all.

• Step 3: Gradually add the milk and stir until smooth.
• Step 4: Ladle 2 cups of the tomato/stock mixture into the thickened milk and stir to thin. Pour the entire contents of the skillet into the tomato/stock mixture and let simmer over very low heat, stirring often. Let cook about 15 minutes.

To finish: Stir in the cheddar cheese and sour cream. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the chicken and chopped cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in some hot sauce. Cook on very low heat until everything is toasty and blended.

FAQ’s

Pro Tip: This recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste. Be careful with adding salt. Cheese naturally contains a lot of salt, so add just a little and then taste and adjust.

Storage and Reheating

Leftover soup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three days. Recommended method to reheat is in a saucepan stove top. You can also reheat individual servings in the microwave in increments using 50% power and stirring in between.

Recipe for Cheddar Cheese Soup with Chicken and Poblano Peppers

I hope you give this cheese soup recipe a try, and if you do please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.

Looking for more soup recipes? Don’t miss my Soup Category, you’ll find lots of great recipe ideas, including the most popular soup recipe on my site for Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Style Chili Recipe. And if you love a good Southwestern soup recipe, don’t miss this easy one for Chicken Poblano Soup. It will brighten your day.

And if you’re looking for a soup recipe to cook when you don’t feel like cooking, check this one out for Taco Soup with Ranch Dressing.

More Favorite Creamy Soup Recipes

• Slow Cooker Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken Soup
• Southwestern Cheesy Creamy Chicken Soup
• Easy Creamy Sausage Potato Soup
• Creamy Olive Soup with Chicken and White Rice

Cheddar Cheese Soup …It’s What’s for Dinner.

This recipe was first published January of 2013 and updated February 2021 with step by step instructions and new photos.