Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup with black beans and corn is topped with tortilla strips and cheese for a bowl of soup that is great for lunch or dinner. It’s an easy soup recipe that’s full of flavor.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a bowl of chicken soup for lunch or as a light dinner, and one of my favorite recipes to make is this chicken tortilla soup. It’s filling but light and really easy to make.
This soup is made with a chicken-based broth and bite-sized or shredded chicken. There are many variations, but it usually has beans, corn and is topped with crushed tortilla chips or crispy tortilla strips.
My version is very easy to make and ready in about 30 minutes, making it great for weeknights. Or, you can make it ahead for easy lunches during the week.
Ingredients
- Chicken: Use boneless skinless chicken breasts (or chicken thighs). For an even easier version use already cooked rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken.
- Beans: Classic tortilla soup uses black beans but you can also use pinto beans. For a quick and easy weeknight dinner, use canned beans.
- Chicken Broth: For fast dinners it’s essential to use broth or chicken stock. You can also use vegetable stock or beef broth.
How to Make Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Cut your chicken into bite size pieces – make sure they’re even in size so they cook at the same time.
- Once the chicken is seared on all sides, remove it from the pan and add the stock, beans, corn, and spices. Be sure to scrape the chicken bits off the bottom of the pot!
- Once the soup is hot you’ll add the chicken (and any juices) back into the pot.
- Serve the soup with tortilla strips, shredded cheese or cojito cheese, and fresh cilantro. You could even add diced avocado!
- We always taste and add salt and pepper to taste before serving.
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Expert Tips
- If you have cooked chicken on hand, you can use it in the soup. It makes things easier because you can skip the step for cooking the chicken. Just add it at the end after you’ve added all of the other ingredients.
- You can buy bags of crispy tortilla strips at the grocery store. Look for them near the salad ingredients. Or, you can use crushed tortilla chips instead.
- You can control how spicy the soup is by the kind of salsa and hot sauce you use. For the salsa, pick one that has your desired heat level, or you can increase the amount of hot sauce you add.
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces and cooked
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans rinsed and drained
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 cup frozen corn (or one 15 ounce can)
- ½ cup salsa
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1 package store bought tortilla strips
- 1 cup Monterey jack cheese ,shredded
- Cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot cook chicken over medium heat until it is no longer pink. (5-7 minutes). Set to the side
- Add broth, oregano, chili powder and cumin into the pot. Turn heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Add corn, beans and salsa, stir and bring back to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken and let simmer, covered for 5 minutes. Stir in hot sauce.
- Serve in soup bowls and add tortilla strips, cheese and cilantro to garnish.
Recipe Nutrition
Variations
- Want to add some fresh vegetables? Feel free to use chopped medium onion, chopped bell peppers or even jalapeños. Add them to your dutch oven and sauté them until translucent after removing the chicken but before adding the stock and spices.
- Add a can of diced tomatoes to give even more tomato flavor.