An easy one pot dinner, this healthy Chicken Enchilada Soup recipe is a super hearty soup that’s packed with proteins. Easily customizable, you can make this enchilada soup on the stovetop, slow cooker, or Instant Pot!
If you’re a fan of chicken enchiladas then this super easy chicken enchilada soup recipe is perfect for you! Loaded with all the flavors of a classic enchilada but made with half the effort. Even better, this soup uses a lot of pantry staples. You can use whatever leftover chicken you have in your fridge or freezer and swap ingredients wherever possible for this easy enchilada soup.
Want more delicious soup recipes? Try my Lebanese Lentil Soup or my Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup.
Why You’ll Love This Healthy One Pot Enchilada Soup
- It’s easy! This is such an easy soup to make. I also share three methods of making this soup: stovetop, slow cooker, and pressure cooker so you can pick the easiest method for you!
- It’s customizable. Turn this one pot healthy chicken enchilada soup into a creamy chicken enchilada soup or into a spicy chicken enchilada soup or even a cheesy enchilada soup with only one additional ingredient!
- It’s healthy! This soup is made with delicious and wholesome ingredients that are good for you as well. Plus, these healthy ingredients are probably already in your kitchen as they’re kitchen and pantry staples.
Chicken Enchilada Soup Ingredients
- Cooked shredded chicken breast — you can make your own or use a rotisserie chicken. If making your own, I have instructions on how to do that below!
- Vegetables: onions, garlic, red bell pepper, frozen corn, and green chilies.
- Seasoning: enchilada sauce, enchilada seasoning, cumin powder, chili seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Olive oil — I like the light tasting one for this enchilada soup.
- Chicken broth — make sure to get low sodium broth.
- Fired roasted diced tomatoes — this gives your chicken enchilada soup that smoky flavor that you can’t get with regular diced tomatoes.
- Tomato paste– to thicken up the tomato sauce.
- Canned black beans– drained and rinsed well.
- Lime juice-to add a little zesty flavor
- Cheddar cheese– for toppings or add it in the soup to make it cheesy.
How to Make Shredded Chicken
While you can make chicken enchilada soup with rotisserie chicken, you can easily make your own shredded chicken for this enchilada soup. I recommend using chicken breasts.
- Add chicken chicken into a pot with chopped onions, bay leaves, one or two cinnamon sticks, and celery. Add enough water to cover the chicken with at least an extra inch.
- Bring the pot up to a boil and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken breasts are tender.
- Remove the chicken breasts and shred with two forks.
How to Make Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Sauté the aromatics: In a large pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent in color.
- Sauté the sauce, tomatoes, and spices: Add in the enchilada sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, spices, and salt. Sauté for about 1 minute then add in the broth.
- Simmer: Cover and bring to boil for 20 minutes. Remove the pot from heat. Using an emergent hand blender, blend the soup carefully to the consistency you like. You can make it super smooth or textured. Place the soup back over medium heat.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients: Add in the shredded chicken, black beans, corn and green chilies into the pot. Mix and cover to cook for another 10 minutes. Add in the lime juice and stir.
- Serve: Serve in a bowl topped with some tortilla chips, cilantro, sour cream, and avocados.
How to Make Chicken Enchilada Soup in a Slow Cooker
- Sauté the aromatics: In a large pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent in color.
- Sauté the sauce, tomatoes, and spices: Add in the enchilada sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, spices, and salt. Sauté for about 1 minute.
- Add the rest into the slow cooker: Add everything you sautéd, the shredded chicken, corn, beans, and chile and broth into the slow cooker.
- Cook: Slow cook for 2 hours on HIGH or 4 hours on LOW.
- If using raw chicken, double the cook time and shred the chicken in the slow cooker before serving.
How to Make Chicken Enchilada Soup in an Instant Pot
- Sauté the aromatics: On sauté mode, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent in color.
- Sauté the sauce, tomatoes, and spices: Add in the enchilada sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, spices, and salt. Sauté for about 1 minute.
- Add the rest into the Instant Pot: Quickly deglaze the pot with a ¼ cup of your broth and then turn off sauté mode. Add in the shredded chicken, corn, beans, and chile and the rest of the broth into the pressure cooker.
- Cook: Set the pressure cooker to manual and cook for 10 minutes under high pressure. You can either quick release or natural pressure release when done.
- If using raw chicken, no need to change the cook time. Simply shred it when you’re done cooking before you serve.
Tips and Substitutions to make the Best Enchilada Soup Recipe
- Beans: feel free to swap the black beans for pinto beans.
- Vegetables: feel free to add in additional vegetables if you have some leftover in the fridge.
- Corn: for even more smoky flavor, you can use fire-roasted corn instead of regular corn.
- You can use any kind of cooked chicken for this soup, such as shredded rotisserie chicken, roasted chicken, pre-cooked cubed chicken. Be sure to adjust the salt if using pre-cooked chicken as it might already have been salted.
- If you don’t have enchilada seasoning, add more cumin and chili seasoning to the recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
This chicken enchilada soup will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Once it has cooled, store it in an airtight container and refrigerate it. To reheat, heat through on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Once the chicken enchilada soup has cooled, transfer the soup into freezer safe bags or containers. If you are using bags, press all the air out and store it flat, as it takes up less room in the fridge. For the best results, use within 3 months. When ready to enjoy, thaw the soup in the fridge overnight and reheat it on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Before serving, you can add some heavy cream to the soup to make it extra creamy. Simmer for an extra 3-5 minutes after adding the heavy cream.
Instead of regular enchilada sauce, you can use hot enchilada sauce as well as add in some hot sauce to kick the heat up a notch. You can also add jalapeno to the soup alongside the corn and beans.
Instead of ½ cup of shredded cheese, at up to 1 additional cup of shredded cheese to make this soup thick and cheesy.
While this chicken enchilada soup recipe can be enjoyed on its own, here are a few sides I like to serve with my chicken enchilada soup: Roasted Garlic Bread or my No Knead Artisan Bread.
There are two ways to thicken enchilada soup and one is by adding cheddar cheese, which makes the sauce cheesier and thicker. Another is by making a slurry with cornstarch. Discolve one tablespoon of cornstarch into 3 tablespoons of water. Add into the soup and mix well.
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Best Chicken Enchilada Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb. chicken breast cooked, shredded
- 1 cup onion petite diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsps. olive oil light tasting
- 4 cups chicken broth low sodium
- 1 14.oz can fired roasted tomatoes diced
- 1 10.oz can enchilada sauce
- 1 tbsp. enchilada seasoning I used McCormick's.
- ¾ tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. chili seasoning
- ¾ tsp. salt or more to taste
- 2 tbsps. tomato paste
- 3/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1 cup red bell pepper petite diced
- 2 cups frozen corn
- 2 cups canned black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 4 oz. can green chilies
- 2 tbsps. lime juice
- ½ cup cheddar cheese shredded
Topping Options
- Avocado
- Sour cream
- Lime
- Tortilla chips
Instructions
- If you don't have cooked chicken, cook some chicken breast. See blog post for details.
- In a large pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion, garlic and sauté until translucent in color.
- Add in the enchilada sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, spices, and salt. Sauté for about 1 minute then add in the broth.
- Cover and bring to boil for 20 minutes. Remove the pot from heat. Using an emergent hand blender, blend the soup carefully to the consistency you like. You can make it super smooth or textured. Place the soup back over medium heat.
- Add in the shredded chicken, black beans, corn and green chilies into the pot. Mix and cover to cook for another 10 minutes. Add in the lime juice and stir.
- OPTIONAL: You can also add some heavy cream at this point if you decide to make the soup extra creamy. You will cook for an extra 3-5 minutes after adding the heavy cream.
- Serve in a bowl topped with some tortilla chips, cilantro, sour cream, and avocadoes.
Notes
- Beans: feel free to swap the black beans for pinto beans.
- Vegetables: feel free to add in additional vegetables if you have some leftover in the fridge.
- Corn: for even more smoky flavor, you can use fire-roasted corn instead of regular corn.
- You can use any kind of cooked chicken for this soup, such as shredded rotisserie chicken, roasted chicken, pre-cooked cubed chicken. Be sure to adjust the salt if using pre-cooked chicken as it might already have been salted.
- If you don’t have enchilada seasoning, add more cumin and chili seasoning to the recipe.
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