Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup With All the Fixings Recipe (2024)

  • Soups
  • Mexican
  • Slow Cooker
  • Chicken Thighs
  • Cinco de Mayo

Rich, spicy chicken tortilla soup gets showered with quintessential toppings: avocado, onion, sour cream, cilantro, cheese, limes, and hot sauce.

By

Jennifer Olvera

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup With All the Fixings Recipe (1)

Jennifer Olvera

Jennifer Olvera is a Chicago-based food writer and cookbook author who has written eight cookbooks and contributed to Serious Eats, the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and others.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated April 21, 2023

Trending Videos

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup With All the Fixings Recipe (2)

Why It Works

  • Browning the chicken and sautéing the vegetables before adding them to the slow cooker helps build flavor.
  • Canned chipotles en adobo, ancho chile powder, cumin, and a touch of unsweetened cocoa powder create layers of flavor.
  • Apple cider vinegar added at the beginning of cooking ensures the soup stays bright and flavorful.
  • A slew of toppings allows for customization.

Soup season is upon us, and there's no better time to let your slow cooker work magic. Thankfully, crowd-pleasing chicken tortilla soup lends itself especially well to a long, leisurely simmer. You just need to build the base so it has lots of flavor.

It's tempting to just dump everything into the slow cooker, turn it on, and go, but you'll never get the best flavor out of your food that way. Instead, you should start with browning your meat. Chicken thighs work best for two reasons: they're especially flavorful, and their high content of connective tissue means they don't dry out the way chicken breasts do. In fact, they do the exact opposite—that connective tissue slowly converts into rich, moist gelatin making the meat more tender and adding body to the broth.

Once you've got nicely browned chicken, building a broth with depth isn't difficult, though there are a few tricks.

First, It's essential to sauté your vegetables—in this case onion, jalapeño, and garlic—before tossing them in the pot. This will get rid of any raw, sulphurous aromas and add a touch of sweetness to them. Powerful spices like ancho chile powder and cumin help the flavor-factor, along with bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Secret ingredient time: a touch of unsweetened cocoa, which helps to create a rich, brooding base that accentuates the chiles. Meanwhile, the soup gets smokiness from a canned chipotle pepper and fire-roasted tomatoes.

One of the big problems slow cooker recipes face is that after all that time spent slow simmering, you lose a lot of brighter, fresher flavors. The soup I was making was coming out rich and complex, but a little dull. To counteract this, I tried adding apple cider vinegar to the mix. In the end, you can't really pick it out as an extra flavor, but you can't deny the difference it makes in the finished product. I also like to season my broth at the beginning of cooking so that the seasoning penetrates all the other ingredients. (Just make sure not to season too heavily—you can always add more salt at the end but you can't take it away.)

After a day spent in its hot bath, the chicken comes out spoon-tender, and ready to be shredded into bite-sized pieces. I serve the soup ladled into deep bowls, accompanied with the classic toppings: avocado, red onion, sour cream, cilantro, cheese, lime wedge, and crunchy tortilla chips.

October 2014

Recipe Details

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup With All the Fixings Recipe

Active20 mins

Total4 hrs 30 mins

Serves6 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 large yellow or white onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

  • 1 large jalapeño, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)

  • 3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons anchochile powder

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

  • 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1 cup lager-style beer

  • 2 bay leaves

  • 3 sprigs fresh thyme

  • 1 chipotle chile in adobo, minced

  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted

  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste

  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

  • 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles

  • 6 cupshomemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

To Serve:

  • 1 avocado, diced

  • 1 medium red onion, diced

  • Sour cream

  • Chopped fresh cilantro leaves and fine stems

  • Shredded cheddar cheese

  • Crushed tortilla chips or fried fresh corn tortillas cut into strips

  • 2 limes, cut into wedges

  • Hot sauce

Directions

  1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. When oil is shimmering, brown chicken on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Transfer chicken to the bowl of a slow cooker.

  2. Reduce the heat to medium. Add onion and jalapeño to the same pan and cook, stirring often and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan until they start to soften, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add chile powder, cumin, and cocoa powder and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add beer, raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.

  3. Transfer to the slow cooker along with the bay leaves, thyme, chipotle pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, green chiles, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low setting or until chicken is cooked through and fall-apart tender, at least 4 hours.

  4. Discard bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Shred chicken using two forks. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed.

  5. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with avocado, onion, cilantro, cheddar and a sprinkle of tortilla chips. Pass limes and hot sauce at the table.

Special Equipment

Dutch oven, slow cooker

Read More

  • Real-Deal Tortilla Soup
  • Quick Tortilla Soup With Chicken and Avocado
  • Sopa de Lima (Yucatán-Style Lime Soup)
  • Slow-Cooker Chicken Tomatillo Tacos
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
306Calories
17g Fat
28g Carbs
11g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories306
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 17g22%
Saturated Fat 5g26%
Cholesterol 26mg9%
Sodium 1265mg55%
Total Carbohydrate 28g10%
Dietary Fiber 6g21%
Total Sugars 11g
Protein 11g
Vitamin C 85mg423%
Calcium 197mg15%
Iron 3mg15%
Potassium 876mg19%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup With All the Fixings Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What goes well with chicken tortilla soup? ›

Chicken and tortilla soup goes well with corn tortillas, a simple side salad made from lettuce tomatoes and avocadoes. This soup is hearty enough to be a meal. If you are looking for a drink to match perhaps a glass of tamarind juice. Perhaps you can add a glass of California's sauvignon blanc to the experience.

What is in Chick Fil A tortilla soup? ›

The Chicken Tortilla Soup is a hearty, seasonal Chick-fil-A® favorite that features shredded chicken breast and beans in a creamy base with a blend of vegetables and spices, served with Seasoned Tortilla Strips.

What can I use to thicken my tortilla soup? ›

Incorporate Cornstarch

Cornstarch is another popular thickening agent that can be easily added to your chicken tortilla soup. Mix cornstarch with a small amount of water to create a slurry.

Can I use water instead of broth for crockpot chicken? ›

Using a nice, long, low-and-slow cook time helps chicken breasts retain plenty of moisture - but you can certainly opt to add a splash of water or chicken stock to the crockpot if you like!

How do you tone down chicken tortilla soup? ›

Add Some Starches

The easiest way to tone down a spicy dish is to serve a smaller portion with plenty of rice, bread, potatoes, pasta, or plain starch to counter the heat. For soups and stews, raw and starchy vegetables like potatoes or carrots work well.

What is the significance of tortilla soup? ›

Contrary to Pozole, Tortilla Soup is not a celebratory but an everyday soup. According to some archeologists, the soup dates back to the prehispanic days. The story goes that it was first invented in the state of Tlaxcala, which in the Náhuatl means the place of tortilla abundance.

What is Chick-fil-A secret ingredient? ›

That ingredient is monosodium glutamate, more commonly known as MSG. While many people think MSG is only found in Chinese (or Americanized Chinese) cuisine, it's prevalent in dozens of all types of food items, including snacks like Doritos and powder mixes like Hidden Valley's ranch dressing.

What type of beans are in Chick-fil-A tortilla soup? ›

Shredded chicken breast with navy and black beans in a white creamy soup base with a perfect blend of vegetables and spicy heat. Topped off with seasoned corn tortilla strips.

What part of Mexico is tortilla soup from? ›

Although the exact origin of tortilla soup is unknown, it is known that it comes from the Mexico City area in Mexico. Traditional tortilla soup is made with chicken broth combined with roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic, chiles and tortillas, cut into strips and fried.

Is it better to thicken soup with flour or cornstarch? ›

The most classic and surefire way to thicken a broth-based soup is with a cornstarch slurry. Whisk together equal parts cornstarch (or arrowroot) and water or broth, then whisk it into the pot of soup. A good ratio to get to a pleasant thickness without your soup tasting goopy or heavy is one tablespoon.

How do you make soup creamier and thicker? ›

6 ways to thicken soup:
  1. Blend all or part of it. If you've made a broth with chunks of vegetable in it, such as minestrone soup, then pour the soup through a sieve. ...
  2. Add cream or yogurt. ...
  3. Add flour or cornflour. ...
  4. Use a butter and flour paste. ...
  5. Blend in bread. ...
  6. Add lentils or rice.

What does cornstarch do in soup? ›

Cornstarch, or corn flour, can be used to thicken soup through its high starch content. Cornstarch is a great thickener for soup because only a little bit is needed to significantly thicken a soup, and it will not affect the flavor profile of the soup.

Is it better to cook chicken on high or low in crockpot? ›

Always cook your boneless skinless chicken breasts on LOW for the best results. I do not recommend cooking boneless chicken breast on HIGH, as it will become very dry and tough, even if you check it early. On high, the chicken turns out drier; I consistently have the best results with low.

Should liquid cover chicken in crockpot? ›

When cooking meat or poultry, the water or liquid level should cover the ingredients to ensure effective heat transfer throughout the crock. Some manufacturers of slow cookers recommend adding liquid to fill the stoneware 1/2 to 3/4 full. Follow the manufacturer's recipes and directions for best results.

How do you keep chicken from getting watery in a slow cooker? ›

okay, secondly, you can put a tea towel under the lid. that will capture some of the moisture, it stops it circulating in the slow cooker. and then thirdly, you can use a corn flour slurry, so into a bowl, a little bit of corn flour, cold water, mix it with your finger, pour it in, stir it. you're done.

What can you have as a side with soup? ›

25 Sides for Soup
  • 01 of 25. Simple Roasted Butternut Squash. View Recipe. ...
  • 02 of 25. Low-Carb Zucchini Pasta. View Recipe. ...
  • 03 of 25. Fried Brussels Sprouts. ...
  • 04 of 25. Roasted Green Beans. ...
  • 05 of 25. Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. ...
  • 06 of 25. Butter-Roasted Cauliflower. ...
  • 07 of 25. Buttered Biscuits. ...
  • 08 of 25. Quick and Easy Grilled Potatoes.
Dec 2, 2020

What do Mexicans eat with tortillas? ›

Tortilla-based dishes
  • Alambre – Mexican food.
  • Arizona cheese crisp – Cheese dish.
  • Burrito – Tex-Mex dish consisting of a wheat flour tortilla wrapped to enclose the filling.
  • Chalupa – Mexican specialty dish.
  • Chilaquiles – Traditional Mexican dish.
  • Chimichanga – Mexican and Southwestern American dish.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Amb. Frankie Simonis

Last Updated:

Views: 6302

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (56 voted)

Reviews: 95% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Amb. Frankie Simonis

Birthday: 1998-02-19

Address: 64841 Delmar Isle, North Wiley, OR 74073

Phone: +17844167847676

Job: Forward IT Agent

Hobby: LARPing, Kitesurfing, Sewing, Digital arts, Sand art, Gardening, Dance

Introduction: My name is Amb. Frankie Simonis, I am a hilarious, enchanting, energetic, cooperative, innocent, cute, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.