Chicken tortilla soup with rotel, creamed corn and a healthy dollop of sour cream elevates a typical tortilla soup to a creamy chicken tortilla soup. Predictable with Hatch chiles and all of your favorite Southwestern spices, this is a recipe perfect for cool weather and busy weeknights.
We love making soups here On The Ranch, and especially those with a South of Border flair. Some of our favorites are, Mexican Rotisserie Chicken Soup, Cheddar Cheese Soup with Chicken and Poblano Peppers, and Instant Pot Mexican Chicken Soup.
If you’re chile pepper crazed like us, don’t miss my post, Chili vs. Chile. Some good information about chile peppers and a lineup of great recipes.
And, a classic favorite, this Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. There are about as many recipe versions of Chicken Tortilla Soup as there are for pizza.
But common denominator ingredients are chicken, and a good ratio mix of spices. And making sure you are purchasing quality spices. This insures you’re serving a show stopping bowl of soup … one that’s easier than you think.
And being in full swing of soup season, it only makes sense to put this classic and very popular classic tortilla soup recipe into your meal rotation plans. After all, it’s time to celebrate the season.
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Tortilla Soup
My secret to a great chicken tortilla soup is to give it a creamy spin. And I accomplish that with the use a can of creamed corn. Undrained. But the real creamy factor comes once the soup has been served.
- Adding creamed corn and a heaping dollop of sour cream once it’s in the bowl, makes this a luscious treat.
- It’s an easy recipe, worthy of a weeknight fix. Its on the table in about 45 minutes.
- The flavor is intoxicating.
- And, it’s easy to customize to your liking.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Creamed Corn: 1 small can
- Chicken Broth: 2 small cans, around 30 ounces
- Canned Chopped Tomatoes: Fire roasted tomatoes are always a good choice.
- Rotel Tomatoes: 1 can. The can marked “original” is what I buy. It packs some heat, so start with ¼ can then add more to the level of your heat tolerance.
- Sweet Onion: Chopped
- Roasted Green Chile Peppers: Preferably Hatch Chiles.
- Sour Cream
- Neutral Oil: Such as canola.
- Garlic: Chopped
- Spices: Ground cumin, chile powder, chili seasoning and Mexican Oregano
- Chicken: 1 ¼ pounds
- Toppings: Avocado, purchased or homemade tortilla strips, crushed tortilla chips, sliced jalapeno peppers, cilantro, limes for squeezing.
Ingredient Subs and Swaps
- You’ll find Chimayo Chile Powder listed in this recipe, which can be difficult to find. But please don’t let that stop you from making this tortilla soup. You can simply substitute Ancho Chile Powder, which is a milder version of red chile powder and if you’re after the heat of Chimayo, try a pinch of cayenne. Chipotle Chile powder will give it a smoky flavor.
- I also include regular Chili Powder in this recipe. Chili powder with an “i” is a blend of spices and a mixture we commonly use to season Beef Chili Soup.
- Please look for Mexican Oregano next time you’re in the store. And keep a supply on hand whenever you cooking up any Mexican themed recipe. Mexican oregano is different than traditional “regular” oregano as it has a grassy and citrus note, rather than the sweater and anise flavors of Mediterranean oregano. Its flavor profile is suited for Mexican food. Taste them side by side sometime. If you don’t have Mexican oregano, substitute Marjoram rather than Mediterranean oregano. Marjoram follows suite with the citrus flavor notes.
- Use Chicken breasts, chicken thighs or both. And even meat from a Rotisserie chicken works great to makes this an even quicker fix.
- Sour Cream: Ever try Mexican crema? You’ll find it in the Mexican produce section, its lighter in texture and carries a tangier flavor.
How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup, It’s Easy
- Step 1: Heat a Dutch oven or your favorite soup pot over medium high heat. Once the pot is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is shimmering add the chopped onions. Cook the onions, stirring often until they start to soften. About 3 minutes. Add the pieces of chicken. Don’t stir for 2 minutes, allowing the chicken to obtain a sear on one side. Stir the chicken and let cook 3 more minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. About 1 minute.
Step 2: Turn down heat a bit, pour in chicken broth and add spices. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes to blend flavors.
- Step 3: Add canned tomatoes, part of the can of Rotel tomatoes, creamed corn and chopped chile peppers. Give it a good stir and simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes. It’s ready to serve.
Riffs For Chicken Tortilla Soup
This recipe lends itself to improvisation, here are some ideas.
- Add a can of black beans. rinsed and drained.
- A sprinkle of sliced black olives would be a nice addition.
- A little grated cheese never hurt anything, try cheddar or muenster. Muenster is a great creamy white melting cheese. A sprinkle of Cotija cheese is good here as is Monterey Jack Cheese.
The Chile Peppers
We’re lucky out here in the West, we have easy access to roasted Hatch Chile Peppers. I always have a supply of them in the freezer. If you can’t find them, or other varieties of roasted chile peppers in the freezer section of your grocery store, check the Mexican Food aisle for canned roasted chiles.
Pro Tip
To add an additional layer of chicken flavor, use bone-in, skin-on breasts or thighs or both. The bones and skin are full of flavor. Just sautee the onions, add the garlic until fragrant, then add the chicken broth and spices. Place the chicken into the pan and cook for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove the chicken and once cool enough to handle, remove the skin and shred the chicken from the bones. Return the chicken pieces to the soup and let simmer for a few minutes to reheat.
Refrigerator: For any leftovers, simply place in an air tight container (minus toppings) and store in the refrigerator. It should stay fresh for 4 – 5 days.
Freezer: Place any leftovers in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight and reheat stovetop in a saucepan.
This is a brothy Mexican Chicken Tortilla soup. If you’d like it a little thicker, add a tablespoon of masa harina. Masa harina is a traditional Mexican flour used to make tortillas. Just whisk in a tablespoon until blended.
If you love soups as much as we do, check out my Soup Category. You’ll find lots of delicious cozy comfort food recipes, including the most popular on my site of Hatch Green Chili.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback and hearing how everything went.
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Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons Neutral oil Such as canola
- 1 ¼ pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 large sweet onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic diced
- 30 ounces chicken stock homemade or canned broth. Use either two cans of chicken stock, or a 32 ounce box container.
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano or marjoram
- ½ teaspoon Chimayo Chile powder A single belnd red chile powder
- 1 teaspoon chili seasoning A blend of spices used to season chili soup
- 15 ounce can chopped tomatoes undrained
- ½ can Rotel tomatoes undrained. Use only a portion of the can, or enough to satisfy your heat tolerance.If I use the whole can, it simply makes the soup too spicy for us.
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt or more if needed
- 14.74 ounce can creamed style corn undrained
- 4 Hatch chile roasted, peeled and chopped. Or 1 -4 ounce can chopped green chiles.
- Corn chips sour cream, chopped cilantro, diced avocado for topping
Instructions
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add chopped onions and cook until starting to turn tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the pieces of chicken. Don't crowd the meat and don't stir for 2 minutes, allowing the chicken to obtain a sear on one side. Stir the chicken and let cook 3 more minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. About 1 minute.
- Turn down heat a bit, pour in chicken broth and add spices. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes to blend flavors. Add kosher salt to taste.
- Add canned tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, creamed corn and chopped chile peppers. Give it a good stir and simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if need, it's ready to serve.
- Ladle soup into soup bowls, top with hand crushed corn chips or multi-colored tortilla strips. Stir in a dollop of sour cream, top with diced avocado and sprinkle with cilantro. A squeeze of lime will bring a pleasant bright flavor.
Notes
Nutrition
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe … It’s What’s For Dinner
This recipe was first published June of 2010 and republished December, 2021 with new photos and step by step instructions.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Good looking soup Chef. Since I didn’t comment, I must not having been a follower back in 2010.
I love this recipe. I have not cooked with hatch chilis since moving out of Texas. Can’t wait to try this. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Sandi. And for stopping by. Heading over to take a look around your place.
Hey!! I’m back, finally!! I wish I’d known about the throwdown – I make a mean (as in SPICY) tortilla soup myself. I will love trying some of your ingredients next time I make a batch because yours looks and sounds delicious!
There are very few foods I haven’t tried. I’ve never had the nerve to eat any kind of bug (that I know of), but I’ve eaten some stuff that’s just as strange. 🙂
I hear you can skewer cubes of Spam with pineapple and grill it. Have you done anything with it?
I love Tortilla Soup (the soup and the movie) and your version looks delicious. Thanks so much for sending it to Souper Sundays. 😉
I’ll have to save this recipe for the Fall. It is WAY TOO HOT to eat soup here. It was 87 degrees at 8:30 this morning and HUMID! I would swear that I live on the sun.
I have never eaten Spam either, but do you remember Mr. Beasley down on the corner? His daughter was my best friend, we tore up that dirt road walking between our houses….when I walked up the path to their house he would always say, “Here comes Pam, I think I’ll have some SPAM.” May he rest in peace.
I was pretty sure we had eel on our Suchi, correct me if I am wrong.
In honor of this post: http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html
I have had SPAM and actually liked it as a kid. Since then I’ve only had it once when I smoked it on a lark (well, on a whim, I did not smoke a lark topped with SPAM) after Jeannie did on her blog: http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2009/05/smoked-spam.html
What have I not eaten? Haggis and tripe!
I have loved tortilla soup from the very first taste back in Texas. I know I want to try your recipe because you have included in it my favorite things: it sounds fantastic. I jut hope I can find poblanos in Beirut!
Oooh, you must have been getting vibes… I’ve been longing for tortilla soup! I’ve never eaten Spam before. Or Okra, which here in Texas is something close to blasphemy~
no okra…Texas???? Did you just type that outloud???? :-0
You are so right! It is never too hot for comfort food! Yum!
It is 93 here today with humidity to match, so soup is the farthest thing from my mind. That being said, all those cool toppings look mighty tasty.
Thanks Pam.
Great dinner idea for a rainy day like today. Would you still have some left overs at your house? I’ll be there to pick them up in a bit. Could offer some dessert that I just finished.
Sorry, there’s not a drop of that soup left. 🙂
I just watched the movie last night. And have to agree – it’s never too hot for comfort food! And this looks fantastic! I’ve never eaten any of those things you mentioned – or snails, mussels, or raw clams.
Thanks Reeni. Unfortunately I once ate a snail.
I have a feeling spam isn’t really eaten anymore…except in Hawaii. So you’re not alone!
That tortilla soup looks um. awesome! Love the avocado!
What is something that I’ve never eaten…well I’ve never eaten SPAM. Or parsnips. I’ve never had parsnips.
I like parsnips in stews. I’m surprised you’ve not had them. Spam is still eaten in Hawaii???? LOL, why Hawaii?
Okay, you know that I eat soup no matter how hot it is. Nothing like a nice soup, especially if it’s spicy to sweat all the ick out. Sweatin’ anyway, so why not!? That said….YUM! Your version sounds great. I love the sound of the bitter orange seasoning. I’ll have to hunt that down. Thank you so much for joining me on my quest for “THE” Tortilla Soup. You Rock 😉
I’m not sure this is “THE” tortilla soup, but it’s really good. When I heated it up for left overs, I put the broken tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl and then ladles the broth over. Liked that better.
Under the influence of alcohol, I have tried darn near everything I would not normally touch.. I have not eaten land based insects, or worms…
I was under the influence when I ate a snail. Same as worms to me. Not eaten an insect (on purpose) 🙂
Wow this looks wonderful! You have a wonderful site here.
Cheers~
Thanks Catherine
Because it reached 90 here today, I have to confess I’m not ready for soup right now. But I love the recipe, Lea Ann, and have copied it. The last bowl of tortilla soup I had was in Cozumel. It was soooo good. So I’m looking forward to trying this next winter!
As for spam. Yes, I’ve had it. Yes, I was served it as a child. WWII families ate it a lot. I also remember when we were in the Air Force in the 50’s someone gave me a recipe for a spam appetizer. It was served on a wooden skewer: a chunk of spam, chunk of dill pickle and chunk of cheese, alternating. Ugh.
I agree Barbara, 90 is a tad hot for soup. Even if it does have a cold dollop of sour cream and fresh avocado.
It’d hard for me to think soup when it’s 90* outside, but this sounds so good,I may have to try it anyway. When I was a kid, Mom bought Treet rather than Spam. I smoked some a while back and it was pretty good – still tasted like Spam though. Make sure you check out my blog on Sunday.
Denver: 44 degrees, constant rain mixed with hail, rumbling thunder, flash flood warnings…sounds like soup weather to me. 🙂
I’ve never heard of Treet, but Googled it. I wonder if Treet made it west?