Easy Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup Crock-Pot 5-Ingredient Recipe
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Mexican chicken tortilla soup is a very filling tomato-based soup with shredded chicken, corn and beans. It’s called tortilla soup because one of the toppings is crunchy tortilla strips! Other toppings include chopped avocado, sour cream and shredded cheese – delicious!
You won’t need any side dishes with this easy soup – Mexican chicken tortilla soup is a meal in itself! This is a one-pot (in fact a crock-pot) recipe that won’t get any other dishes dirty :) Personally, I rarely make soups because generally they are not filling enough to stand on their own, and making extra food to go with them is too much work. Well, I certainly do make THIS soup, and will be making it over and over and over! Being able to feed the whole family with this one easy slow cooker meal is a blessing for a busy cook!
If you search the Internet for “Mexican chicken tortilla soup”, I guarantee you’ll find all those other recipes that have such a long list of ingredients that you’ll say “There is no way I’m making this”. Those mile-long ingredient lists are just so ridiculous that even I, a quite experienced cook, find them daunting – assembling all that stuff is just way too much effort… even if it just needs to go in a crock-pot.
So I was determined to create a shortcut version of the Mexican chicken tortilla soup without compromising on the flavor, and I’m so proud to say that I did it! Introducing easy 5-ingredient chicken tortilla soup:
Yes, that’s it! To make easy Mexican crock-pot chicken tortilla soup, just dump the following ingredients into your slow cooker: chicken breast, black beans, frozen corn, salsa and chicken broth. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours and the soup is ready! Before serving, take the cooked chicken breast out of the soup and shred using a food processor (or you can shred it with 2 forks or just chop with a knife), then put the shredded chicken back in a soup. Top the soup with the desired toppings and enjoy!
Yes, the toppings are not included in the 5 ingredient count :) But the whole point of the toppings is that they are optional! The soup tastes really good without the toppings too, the toppings are just like an icing on the cake. Here are the toppings that I use: chopped avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese and corn tortilla strips.
To be honest, I made the corn tortilla strips just to take the pictures for this post :) Normally, I would substitute them with the pieces of tortilla chips – the exact same taste, just different shape! If you want to make the corn tortilla strips, just cut the corn tortillas into strips, put on a baking sheet and bake in a 400F oven for 15 minutes, or until crunchy.
Once you make this slow cooker chicken tortilla soup for the first time, I guarantee it will be added to your regular dinner recipe rotation! Easy to make and full of flavor – that’s a definition of a recipe winner!
This recipe makes 8 servings of the Mexican chicken tortilla soup. If this is too big of a portion for your family, I have great news for you – this recipe freezes very well. It doesn’t lose it’s flavor in a freezer, and once you defrost it, it will taste as good as freshly made! To freeze the leftovers of the chicken tortilla soup, just pour it into a freezer ziploc bag, squeeze the excess air out and freeze. Defrost in a refrigerator overnight or in a microwave on Defrost setting. It’s always a wonderful thing to have a delicious meal on hand in your freezer for those super busy nights when you totally don’t have time to cook!
Easy Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup Crock-Pot 5-Ingredient Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 package 32 oz chicken broth
- 1 can 15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 bag 14 oz frozen corn
- 2 jars 15 oz each medium salsa (or use spicy salsa if you like it hot)
Optional Toppings:
- 2 avocados
- 8 corn tortillas
- 8 tbsp sour cream
- 4 oz shredded cheese
Instructions
- Put chicken breasts, chicken broth, black beans, frozen corn and salsa in a slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours on High or 8 hours on Low.
- Before serving the soup, remove the chicken breasts from the slow cooker and shred them in a food processor using a top round slicing disk. Alternatively, you can shred them by hand by using two forks, or chop into pieces with a knife. Put the shredded chicken back into the soup and stir.
- Laddle the soup into bowls and top with optional toppings.
To make tortilla strips
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Cut the corn tortillas into strips and put on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until crunchy.
Can’t get over how quick and easy this is – my kind of recipe!! I’m totally trying this ASAP :) it’s been total soup weather around here!
Around here too! I’m in Chicago, so it’s a soup weather all winter ?
Soup sounds so good this time of year. I would devour all those tortilla strips. They look crazy good!
Those tortilla strips are so yummy! Half of them didn’t make it into the soup! Crunch!
I LOVE tortilla soup. It is so easy and so healthy! Yum!
Comfort food that’s healthy – isn’t it the greatest find ever?
This is one of the world’s great soups, isn’t it? I sometimes use store bought tortilla chips too — easier, and just as tasty. Terrific recipe — thanks so much.
Store bought tortilla chips is such a great shortcut! If presentation is not an issue, why not save some time – crushed tortilla chips taste exactly the same ?
This soup looks SO GOOD. I love all the toppings and the fact that is is such an easy slow cooker soup with only a few ingredients.
Me too! It’s ridiculous how many ingredients some of the recipes for this soup have! If I can bring down the number of ingredients without compromising on flavor, I always do that!
Chicken tortilla soup is one of my favorites, and this is so loaded with goodness! Perfect winter meal right here!
I agree – it’s a perfect meal for a winter!
A simple recipe packed full of flavors is a winner in my opinion. I also sometimes do things differently just for photos ?
LOL it’s the food bloggers little secret – before making something, we ask ourselves – how will this look on a photo ?
Wow! Check this out!
This looks so filling, stuffed with tons of healthy ingredients, I love it!
I’ve no Mexican chicken soups currently in my recipe lists. I’m adding this one. Thanks Melanie. :-)
Thanks Neil! I’m happy that this soup made it on your menu!
Yummy Mexican-style soup with crunchy pieces of tortilla goodness on top? Count me in :D I completely agree with you about not making soups too often because they just aren’t substantial enough. We love them in winter but always need to serve something on the side or have loads of bread with them, or else we end up a little starving by bed time. This one, on the other hand, looks very filling with the chicken in there as well as the extra carbs from the tortillas on top. Yum! On a completely unrelated note, I like it that you’ve included a picture of the ingredients here Melanie! I always find it really interesting to see what food products in other countries look like for some reason. I guess it’s my inner foodie :P When I went on holiday to Argentina a couple of years back, on my first day there I honestly must have spent about an hour and a half just wandering through the supermarket looking at all the different products. It’s just find it so intriguing, and it’s funny to think that the products that look so mundane to us are totally fascinating to others!
Yes, ingredients from other countries are always fun to see! The packaging is so different that even the most boring products seem exotic ? I included the picture of the ingredients list so people can visualize how easy it is to put together, but never thought of the fact that people outside the US would find the picture itself interesting ?
I am in serious love with my crock-pot, and this gorgeous soup is going on my Must Crock-Pot List – pinning right now!
Crock-pot is awesome, isn’t it? I love how it does all the cooking while I’m away, and I can come back to a hot delicious meal!
Mexican chicken tortilla soup is SO SO good! I looove that you turned it into a 5 ingredient AND crock pot soup! Perfect! However, to me the toppings are never optional! ;) Lots of cheese, please! Can’t wait to slurp this! Cheers!
I love lots of cheese too, especially when it gets melted in a hot soup! More cheese please! ?
So many great things about this recipe. The 5 ingredients and one pot totally gets me and the fact that it makes a hearty meal that’s great as leftovers is a huge plus!
Thanks, Monica, glad you like it! And another great thing about this soup is that it’s healthy too!
I love the fact that this is crock-pot friendly! My wife and I were just talking last night about making a delicious crock pot soup, and then this pops up in my inbox. Sold! This looks like the ultimate meal on a cold winter day, Melanie!
Talk about serendipity! ? I’m glad this soup will make its way into your crock-pot!
Tortilla soup is just the best! I think it’s secretly because I adore just completely piling on the toppings!! haha This sounds delicious!
I love piling on the toppings too! Yum!
I have been meaning to make a Mexican chicken tortilla soup recipe for a while so I am happy to find this one on your blog that is also for the crock-pot! I feel the same about soup not being filling normally so looking forward to try this as a meal.
This is a complete meal with lots of protein, so it will surely fill you up!
Oh this looks so good! I love Mexican food, especially easy Mexican.
Thanks for sharing
Julie
Thank you, Julie, I’m glad you like this recipe!
So flavourful and yum! I love that it’s made in a slow cooker.
Thanks Angie! Slow cooker is great for soups, since it does what the soups need – simmering for hours!
The ease of this recipe is making me put it on the meal plan for next!
Thanks Nicole! I’m glad this chicken tortilla soup has found its way onto your meal plan! Enjoy!
I LOVE tortilla soup but I have never made it at home. I must try! Using a crock pot is genius!
Give it a try – you are going to love it! It’s so easy to make and so yummy!
Chicken tortilla soup is one of my all-time favorites! I need to make this!
Love that this soup is both easy and flavorful.
The soup sounds delicious and I’m all for less cleanup!