Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup (Easy 10 Minute Recipe!)

Medically reviewed by Abbey Sharp, Registered Dietitian (RD), BASc.

This easy Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup is made in just ten minutes with all of your go-to pantry staples & grocery store shortcuts to make dinner a total breeze!

I’m a huge soup fan, especially once it’s cooler out, and I’m an even bigger fan when making said soup is not a full day event. Mama don’t have time for that. So this week I busted out a variety of household staples to make the EASIEST 10 minute healthy chicken tortilla soup you EVER put in your mouth.

Why This Recipe Works

What’s not to like about a quick and easy soup!? This healthy chicken tortilla soup is currently one of my go-to’s thanks to these reasons!

• It’s simple
• You can add whatever you have on hand
• It’s family friendly
• It’s freezer friendly
• Uses pantry staples

Key Ingredients

Beans — Black beans are the base of this recipe. We blend up half of it to get this healthy chicken tortilla soup nice and thick and the other half is added in afterwards. If you cant find canned black beans at the store and have an extra hour to spare, dry black beans will certainly do.

Salsa — We use jarred salsa for this soup but you can use homemade salsa or pico de gallo instead. When using homemade, add tomato paste to the soup to amp up the flavour.

Veggies — We’ve got bell peppers, zucchini, and corn as our veggies for this soup. If you have extra veggies in your fridge, add them in!

Spices — to stay true to the Mexican flavour that we want, this recipe uses cumin and chilli powder but feel free to add in any other spices that you like!

Chicken — To make life easier, we use rotisserie chicken. It saves us the time and effort of making the chicken and you can hold onto the bones to make broth later!

Tortilla — because, duh! It wouldn’t be called a tortilla soup without this key ingredient now would it? I personally like to use tortilla strips, but any tortilla type of chip crushed up definitely works. Just add them on top when you’re done!

How to Make This Recipe

Step 1: To a large pot, combine one can black beans, salsa, stock, cumin, chili, lime, and tomato paste, if using.

If you’re using homemade salsa or pico de gallo that is more fresh and less flavourful, then I recommend adding tomato paste. How much lime and tomato paste you use will depend on the salsa you use. Puree using an immersion blender or just add everything to a stand blender and puree before adding to the pot.

Step 2: Heat over medium heat until simmering, then add in the bell peppers, zucchini, corn, chicken, and residual black beans. Adjust seasoning (depending on your salsa’s flavour) by adding more lime, tomato paste, chili, cumin, and salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the soup is hot. Serve with tortilla chips, avocado, sour cream and cilantro.

Expert Tips

This Mexican Chicken Tortilla soup is more of a guide than a full on recipe since a lot of this depends on the shortcuts you use. When I’ve made it with fresh pico de gallo, I have found it needed more tomato paste to add depth. When I’ve made it with salsa, it might need a little lime. And if I make it with medium or hot salsa it needs less spices than if I make it with mild.  Different brands have different flavours, too! Some are smoky, some are pretty bland so they might need a little more help. But if you start with a product you really like, you’re going to make a tasty soup.

If you have frozen vegetables instead of fresh, you can totally sub them into this healthy chicken tortilla soup. It’s a such flexible recipe, use what you have!

This soup is so flavourful and is done in 10 minutes but if you want to toss everything in and leave the house for errands throughout the day, you can always make this in the slow cooker. Instead of simmering for 10 minutes, set the slow cooker for LOW for 4 to 5 hours and you can have this soup ready for dinner time.

Recipe FAQs

More Recipes You Might Like

Want more delicious soup recipes? Try these readers’ favourites:

• VEGAN BROCCOLI WHITE BEAN SOUP
• HEALTHY PIZZA SOUP
• VEGAN FLORIDA OJ SWEET POTATO SOUP
• VEGAN PEA, MINT, AND COCONUT SOUP 

Now friends, tell me — what’s your favourite pantry staple recipe lately? Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!

Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup (Easy 10 Minute Recipe!)

This easy Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup is made in just ten minutes with all of your go-to pantry staples & grocery store shortcuts to make dinner a total breeze!

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American, Mexican

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 5 servings

Calories: 368kcal

Author: Abbey Sharp

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cans no salt added black beans 19 oz per can, drained and rinsed and divided
• ▢ 15.5 oz salsa or pico de gallo mild, medium, or hot
• ▢ 4 cups no salt added chicken broth
• ▢ 1 tsp cumin or to taste (optional)
• ▢ 1 tsp chili powder or to taste (optional)
• ▢ 2 tbsp tomato paste optional
• ▢ Juice of 1 lime or to taste (optional)
• ▢ 2 bell peppers diced
• ▢ 2 zucchini diced
• ▢ 340 grams canned corn
• ▢ 1/2 rotisserie chicken shredded
• ▢ Salt and pepper to taste

To serve:

• ▢ Avocado
• ▢ Sour Cream
• ▢ Tortilla Chips
• ▢ Cilantro garnish
• ▢ Purple Cabbage garnish

Instructions

• To a large pot, combine one can black beans, salsa, stock, cumin, chili, lime, and tomato paste, if using. (If you're using homemade salsa or pico de gallo that is more fresh and less flavourful, then I recommend adding tomato paste. How much lime and tomato paste you use will depend on the salsa you use.) Puree using an immersion blender or just add everything to a stand blender and puree before adding to the pot.
• Heat over medium heat until simmering, then add in the bell peppers, zucchini, corn, chicken, and residual black beans. Adjust seasoning (depending on your salsa’s flavour) by adding more lime, tomato paste, chili, cumin, and salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the soup is hot. Serve with tortilla chips, avocado, sour cream and cilantro.

Notes

• This Mexican Chicken Tortilla soup is more of a guide than a full on recipe since a lot of this depends on the shortcuts you use. When I’ve made it with fresh pico de gallo, I have found it needed more tomato paste to add depth. When I’ve made it with salsa, it might need a little lime. And if I make it with medium or hot salsa it needs less spices than if I make it with mild.  Different brands have different flavours, too! Some are smoky, some are pretty bland so they might need a little more help. But if you start with a product you really like, you’re going to make a tasty soup.
• If you have frozen vegetables instead of fresh, you can totally sub them into this healthy chicken tortilla soup. It’s a such flexible recipe, use what you have!
• This soup is so flavourful and is done in 10 minutes but if you want to toss everything in and leave the house for errands throughout the day, you can always make this in the slow cooker. Instead of simmering for 10 minutes, set the slow cooker for LOW for 4 to 5 hours and you can have this soup ready for dinner time.

Nutrition

Calories: 368kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 1694mg | Potassium: 1233mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2307IU | Vitamin C: 96mg | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 4mg

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Abbey Sharp

Abbey Sharp is a Registered Dietitian (RD), regulated by the Ontario College of Dietitians. She is a mom, YouTuber, Blogger, award winning cookbook author, media coach specializing in food and nutrition influencers, and a frequent contributor to national publications like Healthline and on national broadcast TV shows.