Nearly every chicken tortilla soup on the internet starts with a rotisserie bird and a carton of broth, and it shows in the bowl: thin, orange, pleasant, forgettable. This one takes a different route and roasts bone-in breasts first.
The second departure matters even more. A can of white hominy goes in with the beans, which turns the pot from a brothy soup into something with weight and chew, closer to a Sunday pozole than to a Tuesday soup. Everything else is familiar territory: poblanos, a jalapeno, chipotles in adobo, fire-roasted tomatoes, and a shower of tortilla strips fried in a saucepan while the pot simmers.
- Roasted bone-in chicken instead of the usual rotisserie shortcut
- Hominy gives it body, so it eats like a meal rather than a starter
- Three chiles doing three different jobs, and you control every one of them
- Freezes beautifully, minus the strips, for up to three months
- One pot for the soup and one small pan for the strips
- Better on day two, which makes it a genuine Sunday cook-ahead
The recipe below makes six generous bowls and takes about an hour, most of which is unattended.
- What Is Chicken Tortilla Soup?
- Ingredient Notes
- The Three Chiles, and What Each One Does
- Why This Chicken Tortilla Soup Uses Hominy
- How To Make Chicken Tortilla Soup
- How To Tell When Chicken Tortilla Soup Is Done
- Slow Cooker and Instant Pot Methods
- Make It Ahead
- Storing Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Variations and Substitutions
- What to Serve with Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup FAQ
What Is Chicken Tortilla Soup?
Chicken tortilla soup is the Tex-Mex descendant of sopa de tortilla, the central Mexican soup built on a puree of roasted tomatoes, dried chiles and onion, thinned with broth and finished with fried tortilla strips. The strips are not a garnish in the original. They are the reason the dish exists, a way of using yesterday’s tortillas.
What crossed the border kept the strips and swapped the chile puree for a looser stew of chicken, beans, corn and tomatoes. Both versions agree on one thing: the tortilla goes in crisp and dry, at the table, so it has a minute of crunch before it softens into the broth.
This version sits between the two. It keeps the Tex-Mex beans and shredded meat, but borrows the hominy and the deeper chile backbone from pozole rojo. That is what makes this chicken tortilla soup taste like it simmered longer than it did.
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Ingredient Notes
Quantities are in the recipe card. These are the choices that change the result.
- Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts: Two of them. The skin gives you browning and the bones give you gelatin, and both end up in the pot. Thighs work and are more forgiving.
- Fire-roasted tomatoes, crushed and diced: Both cans, on purpose. Crushed builds the body of the broth, diced keeps recognizable pieces in the spoon.
- Tomato paste: Two tablespoons, cooked until it darkens. This is the step most people skip and the one that removes the tinny edge.
- White hominy: One can, drained. See the next section but one.
- Black beans: Drained and rinsed, added late so they hold their shape.
- Corn tortillas: Only corn. Flour tortillas go leathery in oil instead of crisp, and they will not hold up in broth.
- Cotija, sour cream, lime, cilantro: The four toppings that actually earn their place. Cotija is salty and dry rather than melty, which is the point.
You need a heavy pot of at least six quarts, a small saucepan for frying and a baking sheet.
The Three Chiles, and What Each One Does
Three chiles go into this pot, and none of them is interchangeable with the others.
Poblanos are the body. Two of them, seeded and diced, bring a dark vegetal sweetness and almost no heat. They soften into the base and you stop noticing them as a separate ingredient, which is exactly what should happen.
Jalapeno is the bright, green, immediate heat. Seeded, it is mild. Left with its seeds and ribs, it doubles the burn. This is your first dial.
Chipotles in adobo are smoked, dried, rehydrated jalapenos, and they carry both smoke and a slow heat that arrives after you swallow. Two are gentle, three are assertive. This is your second dial, and it is the one that makes the soup taste cooked over wood rather than over a burner.
If you want the mildest possible bowl, seed the jalapeno and use one chipotle plus a teaspoon of its adobo. The smoke survives; the heat does not.
Why This Chicken Tortilla Soup Uses Hominy
Hominy is dried field corn that has been simmered in an alkaline solution, usually slaked lime, which loosens the hull and swells the kernel to roughly twice its size. Illinois Extension’s explainer on what hominy is and how nixtamalization works notes that the same process makes the corn’s B vitamins far more available to us, which is why it became the foundation of Mesoamerican cooking rather than a curiosity.
For our purposes the interesting part is texture. Sweet corn dissolves into sweetness and disappears. Hominy stays springy and slightly chewy for as long as the pot simmers, and it gives every spoonful something to bite. It also tastes of corn in the same register as the tortilla strips, so the whole bowl reads as one idea instead of two.
Swap it out and you have a decent chicken tortilla soup. Leave it in and you have one people ask about.
How To Make Chicken Tortilla Soup
The chicken roasts while you build the base, so the hour is shorter than it looks on paper.
- First, sear the seasoned breasts skin down in a tablespoon of oil until deeply browned, about 4 to 5 minutes a side, then move them to a sheet pan and roast at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, to an internal 165F.
- Next, in that same pot and its fond, soften the onion, poblanos, red bell pepper and jalapeno with a generous pinch of salt for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Then add the garlic for a minute, followed by the cumin, coriander, chili powder and oregano for one more, so the spices toast rather than steam.
- After that, stir in the tomato paste and keep it moving for a full 2 minutes, until it turns brick red and smells sweet instead of sharp.
- Pour in the stock, both cans of tomatoes, the beans, the hominy and the minced chipotles. Bring it to a boil, then drop to a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Shred the rested chicken, discarding skin and bones, and return the meat to the pot for another 10 to 15 minutes.
- Finally, taste for salt, then ladle over the fried strips and top with lime, cilantro, cotija and sour cream.
Crispy Strips Without a Deep Fryer
Baking works if you would rather not fry. Toss the ribbons with a tablespoon of oil, spread them on a sheet and bake at 375F for 10 to 12 minutes, tossing once. They come out drier and snap rather than shatter, and they soften faster in the bowl.
How To Tell When Chicken Tortilla Soup Is Done
There are two separate doneness questions here, and only one of them involves a thermometer.
The chicken is done at 165F in the thickest part of the breast, measured away from the bone. Pull it out then and let it rest before shredding. Meat that goes back into the pot dry stays dry, because it will not reabsorb anything from the broth.
The soup itself is done when the broth has stopped tasting like separate ingredients. Give it a spoonful at the ten-minute mark and another at twenty. Early on you taste tomato, then cumin, then heat, in sequence. When they arrive together instead, it is ready.
One reliable signal: the fat from the chicken skin and the tomato oil will pool in small orange beads on the surface. That is the point at which the chipotle has done its work.
Slow Cooker and Instant Pot Methods
Both work, and both give up a little of what the searing step buys you.
For a slow cooker, brown the chicken and sweat the vegetables in a skillet first, because a crock will not do it for you. Then add everything except the beans, hominy and toppings and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. Shred the chicken, stir in the beans and hominy, and give it 20 more minutes on high.
For an Instant Pot, use saute mode for the sear and the vegetables, deglaze with a splash of stock so nothing on the base triggers a burn warning, then pressure cook everything for 10 minutes with a natural release of 10 more. Shred, stir, taste for salt.
Skipping the browning entirely costs you roughly a third of the depth. It is still a good bowl, but it tastes like a weeknight rather than a Sunday.
Make It Ahead
This is a better dish on day two, which is unusual and worth planning around.
Cook the pot completely, cool it, and refrigerate it whole. The chile heat rounds out, the tomato loses its edge and the hominy takes on more of the broth. Reheat gently and add a squeeze of lime at the end to wake it back up, since the acid fades first.
The strips are the only part that cannot wait. Fry them the day you serve, or bake them and keep them in a paper bag at room temperature for a day, never in a sealed container where they steam themselves soft.
Cut the vegetables and mince the chipotles up to two days ahead and hold them in the fridge. That reduces the active work on the day to browning, simmering and frying.
Storing Chicken Tortilla Soup
Handled properly, chicken tortilla soup is one of the better things to have in the freezer.
- Fridge: airtight, up to 4 days. Store the strips, cheese and sour cream separately.
- Freezer: up to 3 months. Freeze it flat in bags and it thaws in half the time. Leave the dairy toppings out entirely.
- Reheating: a covered pot over medium-low, stirring now and then. Boiling it hard shreds the chicken into threads.
- Thinning: it tightens in the fridge as the hominy drinks. A half cup of stock brings it back.
Variations and Substitutions
The base takes changes well, so long as you keep either the hominy or the beans for body.
- Creamy: half a cup of heavy cream or four ounces of cream cheese stirred in off the heat, which is the version most people mean by creamy chicken tortilla soup.
- Rotisserie shortcut: skip the searing and roasting and stir in about four cups of pulled meat at the end. You lose the fond, so add an extra chipotle.
- Thighs: bone-in thighs instead of breasts, roasted the same way. Juicier, and they forgive a long simmer.
- Vegetarian: vegetable stock, no chicken, and a second can of hominy plus a can of pinto beans.
- Green: swap both cans of tomato for a jar of salsa verde and two cups of extra stock for a white chicken tortilla soup.
- Hotter: a whole seeded chile de arbol in with the garlic, fished out before serving.
What to Serve with Chicken Tortilla Soup
The bowl is a full meal, so anything alongside should be small and sharp.
- Warm cornbread for the broth. Sweet potato cornbread leans into the sweetness the poblanos already have.
- A pot of beans for a crowd, since Cuban black beans stretch six bowls into eight.
- Something charred and sweet on the side, like Mexican street corn soup in small cups as a first course.
- Sliced radishes, shredded cabbage and extra lime, all raw, on a plate in the middle of the table.
Here is what readers ask most often about chicken tortilla soup.
Chicken Tortilla Soup FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the secret ingredient in chicken tortilla soup?
In this pot it is the two tablespoons of tomato paste, cooked until it darkens before any liquid goes in. That single step is what separates a broth that tastes canned from one that tastes simmered. The runner-up is the adobo clinging to the chipotles, which carries vinegar, garlic and smoke all at once.
What is typically in chicken tortilla soup?
Shredded chicken, a tomato and chile broth, beans, corn, and fried corn tortilla strips over the top, finished with lime, cilantro, avocado and a crumbly white cheese. Beyond that it varies wildly by cook. Ours adds hominy and drops the sweet corn, which is the main way it differs from the standard formula.
What is the difference between chicken taco soup and chicken tortilla soup?
Taco soup is built on taco seasoning, ground beef and often a packet of ranch, and it is thick with beans and corn from the start. Chicken tortilla soup is brothier, uses whole chiles rather than a spice packet, and depends on fried tortilla strips for both texture and name. Taco soup is served with chips on the side; this one is served over them.
More Questions About Tortilla Soup
Frequently Asked Questions
What are common mistakes when making tortilla soup?
Four come up again and again. Skipping the browning of the chicken and the tomato paste, which costs most of the depth. Boiling the shredded meat, which turns it stringy. Putting the strips in the pot instead of in the bowl, where they go to mush within a minute. And under-salting, because canned tomatoes and hominy both absorb far more salt than they seem to.
Can I use rotisserie chicken instead?
Yes, and about four cups of pulled meat is the right amount. Stir it in during the last five minutes so it warms without cooking further. You will lose the browned bits from searing, so compensate with an extra chipotle and a little more salt than you think you need.
Does it freeze well?
Very well, for up to three months, as long as you leave out the dairy and the strips. Sour cream splits on thawing and the strips are already gone. The hominy and beans hold their texture better through a freeze than pasta or rice ever would, which is another argument for using them.
Is this like the Chick-fil-A chicken tortilla soup?
Not really. That one is creamy, mild and thickened, closer to a chowder with corn and beans. This is a brothy, smoky, chile-forward bowl. If the creamy style is what you are after, stir half a cup of heavy cream in off the heat and use a single chipotle.
Make it once with the hominy and you will not go back. If you like the way a long, quiet simmer treats a pot of vegetables, my creamy wild rice and mushroom soup works on the same principle in a completely different register.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
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Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts about 2 pounds
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil avocado or vegetable, divided
- kosher salt to taste
For the Soup Base
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 2 poblano peppers seeded and diced
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1 jalapeno seeded and chopped
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano Mexican if you have it
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 15 ounces fire-roasted crushed tomatoes one can
- 15 ounces fire-roasted diced tomatoes one can
- 1 can black beans 15 ounces, drained and rinsed
- 1 can white hominy 15 ounces, drained and rinsed
- 2 to 3 chipotle peppers in adobo minced, plus 1 teaspoon of the adobo
Tortilla Strips and Toppings
- 5 corn tortillas cut into thin ribbons
- vegetable oil for frying
- 1 lime cut into wedges
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese crumbled
- sour cream for serving
Equipment
- Large pot
- Baking sheet
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
- Tongs
- wooden spoon
- Ladle
- Paper towels
- Medium saucepan or skillet for frying tortilla strips
Instructions
Sear and Roast the Chicken
- First, heat the oven to 350F and season the chicken breasts generously with kosher salt. Warm 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat, lay the breasts in skin side down and sear until deeply browned, about 4 to 5 minutes a side.
- Next, move the chicken to a baking sheet and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer reads 165F in the thickest part of the breast away from the bone. Set it aside to rest while you build the soup.
Build the Soup
- Then add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the same pot over medium heat. Add the onion, poblanos, red bell pepper and jalapeno with a generous pinch of salt and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, scraping up the browned bits from the sear, until everything has softened.
- Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then stir in the cumin, coriander, chili powder and oregano and cook for 1 minute more, so the spices toast rather than steam.
- After that, stir in the tomato paste and keep it moving for a full 2 minutes, until it darkens to brick red and smells sweet rather than sharp. This is the step that decides whether the broth tastes canned or simmered.
- Pour in the stock, both cans of tomatoes, the black beans, the hominy and the minced chipotles with their adobo. Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Pull the skin and bones off the rested chicken, shred the meat and return it to the pot. Simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes, then taste and add salt until the flavors arrive together rather than one at a time.
Fry the Strips and Serve
- Meanwhile, heat about an inch of vegetable oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Fry the tortilla ribbons in three small batches until golden and crisp, about 2 minutes each, then drain on paper towels and salt them straight away.
- Finally, pile the strips into warm bowls and ladle the soup over them. Top with lime, cilantro, cotija and sour cream, and serve while the strips still have their crunch.