Yes.
The answer to your question, yes, it tastes as good as it looks 👅👍😍👅.
In case you missed that…it was one slurpy tongue (which signifies delicious food in my emoji dictionary – I don’t know about yours), one thumbs up, one “heart eyes,” and a second slurpy tongue (signifying more delicious food). This all roughly translates to the following: this soup rocks and you must make it and love it and eat it always. Okay? Okay.
TORTILLA SOUP. It’s everything. It’s easy, yummy, flavorful, versatile, quick, gluten free, healthy, easy (did I already mention that?), and YUMMY (now I’m just being repetitive).
This soup is ALLLLLLLL about the toppings. ALL about the toppings. You cannot, I repeat – CANNOT, just make the base soup and eat it all by itself. It is illegal in Chicken Tortilla Soup world…illegal!
Think of it like a baked potato. This is the baked potato of soups. Would you ever eat a completely and totally plain baked potato?? No cheese? butter? Sour cream? NO! And if you would…well, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.
Anyway, this soup is the same way. It has a delicious base that calls for delicious toppings!
The base: Onions and garlic sauteed and seasoned with yummy Mexican seasonings before being simmered in chicken stock and fire roasted tomatoes for thirty minutes. At the end, you throw some shredded rotisserie chicken and black beans in there. BAM. There’s your base. Now for the toppings…..❤️❤️❤️.
TOPPINGS:
- Diced avocado (my fave)
- Shredded Mexican cheese (or maybe this is my fave)
- A sizable dollop of sour cream (OR MAYBE THIS IS…it’s too hard to decide…)
- Sliced green onions
- Chopped cilantro
- Tortilla chips (um…heeelllllooooo it’s called tortilla soup. Translation: these are a must)
It is hard for me to say any of these are “optional” because they are what make the soup so DE-licious. The only reason I would leave any of them out is if you despise them. For example, my husband hates avocados (what? I know) so he would probably leave those out. Which only means more avocado for me so I’m cool wi-dat.
Okay so here’s how this works. You take your nice, simple base soup and pile all these mouthwatering toppings on there, and then you stir it all together and thiiiissss happens:
Yaassssssss. See how yummy and creamy the sour cream makes the soup when you stir it in? Even if you are a sour cream hater, I think you should add a little bit in…just for creaminess.
It’s happiness in a bowl.
I hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!!! I had a pretty good day at work. My husband is deployed and I hadn’t heard from him in a while; I was starting to get preettttyy nervous and wonder what in the world was going on, but then I finally heard from him in one of my classes today.
My students had to witness my little happy/relieved dance, but let’s be honest…they probably witness lots of things that aren’t totally normal. Buutttt it’s okay…normal is boring…right? We’re going to go with yes.
Have an amazing week! Make this soup! Stay warm by making this soup if you are caught in the snow storm! If you aren’t caught in the snow storm, make this soup anyway!
Watch how to make this tortilla soup here:
Chicken Tortilla Soup

- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 3 teaspoons cumin
- 2 32oz boxes chicken stock
- 1 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded and set aside
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 4 avocados
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
- 2 bunches green onions, sliced
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- Corn tortilla chips
Instructions
- Heat some olive oil in a large pot
- Add your onions and garlic. Simmer for a few minutes until onions have softened a bit
- Stir in your paprika, chili powder, and cumin. Also season with salt and pepper
- Let this cook for another 30 seconds or so
- Add your chicken stock and fire roasted tomatoes
- Bring this to a boil
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally
- When the thirty minutes are up, add in the chicken and black beans. Stir to combine
- Taste and season with salt
- For the toppings: top each bowl with the following
- One half avocado, diced
- One to two tablespoons sour cream
- One quarter cup of Mexican cheese
- A small handful of green onions
- A small handful of cilantro
- Small handful of crushed tortilla chips
*This recipe is gluten free*
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!
In the mood for more yummy soup recipes? Check these out:
God bless you for this recipe. I haven’t tried it yet but it sure looks awesome. Also bless you for being fervent for Jesus!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Christiane!
This has been my go-to soup all winter! It’s so delicious! The base is simple and I love the versatility that all of the toppings offer. Everyone loves it in my family, and I can’t say that about much 😊
That’s so great, Jayme! I love hearing when my recipes turn out well for people. Thanks for the comment!
Im in love with this soup!
Immediately, my husband said “this is a keeper”.
★★★★★
That’s so good to hear! I agree with him :). It’s easy and yummy!
Making this tonight! Don’t have sour cream though.. think I could substitute plain yogurt? Or just leave out all together? Thanks!
Hey Candice! I have used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream before, so regular yogurt would probably work too. Just for some creamy tang!
This is really good!! We are from So. Cal., so added Tapatio sauce………amazing!!!! 10 stars!!
Yum!! So glad you enjoyed this soup, Ginny!
Amazing flavor, I have been trying to duplicate a tortilla soup from our favorite restaurant and this comes very very close!! Loved it, thank you for sharing
★★★★★
I’m so glad you loved it, Rita! It’s always fun to replicate those restaurant faves at home :).
Make this once a week now! Sometimes I’ll leave out the chicken, as it hasn’t been a “fav” during my pregnancy. It’s great with a little roasted corn added in. Love it! Thanks for sharing :)
I’m go happy this has become a regular recipe for you, Audrey! Great idea on the roasted corn – yum!!
I made this last night (1/3/18) and it was fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Awesome! I’m so glad it worked out well for you, Melissa :).
I love that you chose to do it with rotisserie chicken, I am a huge fan of doing all my chicken soups with rotisserie chicken instead of boiled breast chicken, it gives the soup so much more flavor!, great recipe.
Yes! And it’s so dang easy since you don’t have to worry about cooking the chicken!
Can this be made in a crockpot? Put everything in at once?
Great question, Angela! I think that would be really tasty, actually. Definitely hold off on the toppings until it comes out of the crockpot (avocado, sour cream, cheese, etc…), but other than that, I’d go for it! Let us know it turns out if you try it :).
Chicken tortilla soup is one of my faves. We’ve been having cold, rainy weather lately so this sounds especially good! Yum!
Ugh, we have over here too. Perfect soup weather :).
I love me some tortilla soup (although a veggie option for me). I think the main reason why I love it is because you just throw everything in. They are my favoruite kind of meals.
★★★★★
Those easy “throw everything together” meals are just the best :).
Aww so glad you heard from your husband! Hope he’s doing OK.
These photos are beautiful and the soup looks delicious!
Thank you, Sue :)!