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This Chicken Enchilada Soup recipe is so creamy, thick, and easy to make. Loaded with hearty shredded chicken and beans, it is a crowd-pleasing soup that’s full of your favorite Mexican flavors and very comforting and delicious.
Enchilada soup is one of the most flavorful soup recipes that is not only filling and comforting, but it is full of flavor and a crowd-pleasing soup recipe that will put a smile on everyone’s face. This soup is loaded with beans, chicken, and all the Tex-Mex flavors you love all in one delicious bowl of soup. Easy-to-make Creamy Chicken Enchilada soup is perfect for any night of the week. Especially on a busy weeknight when you need dinner ready in no time.
Reasons to love this soup
- Best-tasting soup ever: The taste of this soup is seriously out-of-this-world good.
- Filling: This soup will keep you full, happy, and satisfied. Perfect for lunch or as a light dinner.
- Healthy and good for you: Packed with fiber and protein, this soup is good for you in every way.
Ingredients you will need
- Butter or Ghee: to keep this on the healthier side, you do not have to use butter. You may use avocado oil.
- Onion: use white sweet onions or cooking onions
- Veggies: Celery Stalks, Carrot, Red Bell Pepper,
- Beans: Red Kidney Beans and Black Beans
- Seasonings: Ground Cumin, Chili Powder, Dried Oregano
- Garlic Cloves: do use fresh garlic
- One can of Diced fire-roasted Tomatoes
- Tomato Paste
- Fresh or Frozen Sweet Corn: you may use canned corn if that’s all you have and you don’t want to make a trip to the grocery store.
- Shredded Cooked Chicken: make your own chicken or get a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. To prepare your own, check out our post on How to poach chicken breast.
- Low-Sodium Chicken Broth– If you plan to poach your own chicken you may save the broth from that.
- Mexican Shredded Cheese Blend for garnishing, or you may also use Monterey jack cheese
- Salt and pepper, to your taste
- Optional: If you prefer to add some enchilada sauce, you can. We didn’t but it certainly won’t hurt and will add some flavor to the soup.
HOW TO MAKE CREAMY CHICKEN ENCHILADA SOUP
This chicken enchilada soup recipe is made on the stovetop. We will also be showing you further how to make it on your crockpot, slow cooker, and instant pot.
Note: Recipe calls for cooked shredded chicken. Either get a storebought rotisserie chicken and use that or cook your own at home using chicken breast (scroll down to learn how to cook the chicken for your enchilada soup).
To make enchilada soup on your stovetop:
- Prepare vegetables and ingredients: Set up all the ingredients and get your shredded chicken ready.
- Cook vegetables: Add butter or oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. First, add the onions, celery, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and cook until softens, about 5-6 minutes. Then, stir in seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken broth and bring to a boil.
- Cook and prep soup: Lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until veggies are very tender.
- Blend: remove from heat and using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth and creamy. (This is optional if you don’t want to blend you can skip this step).
- Add beans and chicken: Place the soup back over medium heat and add in beans, corn and shredded cooked chicken. Stir to combine and boil for a couple of minutes, just to heat it all up.
- Serve: Pour into bowls and top with your favorite toppings. Enjoy!
SOUP TOPPING Options
Endless toppings to come up with, but here are some optional toppings you can add to your creamy chicken enchilada soup are:
- Chopped avocado
- Sliced jalapeño
- Fresh chopped cilantro
- Green onions
- Lime wedges
- Crushed Tortilla Chips
- Sour cream or yogurt etc.
- Shredded Cheese
How to cook chicken for enchilada soup
Cooking the chicken is quite simple. You can use any pot or a dutch oven. It would be easiest to use a rotisserie chicken but you can certainly cook your own. We recommend using skinless and boneless chicken breasts.
- Add chicken into a pot full of water
- We like adding some sort of herbs to give the chicken some flavor. Use half an onion and a bay leaf. sometimes we use a cinnamon stick but not for this particular recipe.
- Allow boiling for about 15-20 minutes until you easily insert a knife or a fork through the chicken.
- Then, drain it in a colander and let it cool off. Or you can just remove the chicken and place it on a cutting board while you save the chicken stock.
- Finally, using your hands or forks, shred chicken.
- If you have an Instant pot, you can simply make this Instant Pot Chicken Breast to use in this enchilada soup.
How to make enchilada soup using an instant pot, crockpot or slow cooker
There are other ways to make chicken enchilada soup other than using your stovetop. Here are other ways to cook up your soup.
How to use an Instant Pot:
- Using the saute option, add the oil or butter in the instant pot, then add the onions, celery, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and cook until softens, about 5-6 minutes.
- If using raw chicken, add in with the veggies in the previous step at the bottom.
- Add in the seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and broth.
- Next, add in the beans, corn, and shredded cooked chicken (if using pre-cooked shredded chicken). Stir to combine.
- Then, place the lid on the Instant Pot and seal. Using the “manual” setting, cook on high pressure for 10-12 minutes.
- Allow the instant pot to natural release for 10 minutes or so before doing a quick release.
- Finally, remove the lid from Instant Pot, shred the chicken (if used raw whole chicken breast), and serve with your favorite toppings.
- Note: You may remove a portion of the soup towards the end. Blend it and then add it back into the soup. Mix and serve.
How to use a crock-pot or slow cooker
- In a pan or skillet, add oil or butter over medium-high heat add the onions, celery, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and cook until softens, about 5-6 minutes.
- Transfer to crockpot or slow cooker and add in the seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and broth.
- Then, add in beans, corn, and shredded cooked chicken. Stir to combine cover and set it on High for 2 hours or low for 4 hours if using cooked chicken.
- Note: You may add raw chicken breasts to the crockpot or slow cooker right before you add in the veggies at the very bottom and set it to cook longer. 6 hours on low and 4 hours on high. Then towards the end use a fork to shred the chicken.
- Also Note: You may remove a portion of the soup towards the end. Blend it and then add it back into the soup. Mix and serve.
Frequently asked questions
To thicken your enchilada soup, mix about 1-2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour with some cold water add over the soup, and let it cook for a few more minutes.
Another option would be to blend some of the beans and add them back in to make the soup thicker.
Place your creamy chicken enchilada soup in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for 4-5 days. Store in the freezer for 3-4 months. To reheat, place in a pot/pan and reheat on the stovetop or microwave in a bowl.
You can get creative with what you serve with your enchilada soup. Some ideas for you would be some toasted garlic bread, cornbread, biscuits, grilled cheese sandwiches, roasted corn like this street corn on the cob, Tacos, Mexican Rice, etc
soup recipes you may also like
- Italian Chicken Veggie Soup
- Creamy Chicken Broccoli Soup
- Vegetable Beef Soup
- Stuffed Pepper Soup
- Homemade Roasted Tomato Soup
- Healthy Lasagna Soup
- Taco Soup Recipe
- Mexican Sweet Corn Soup
- Beef and Barley Soup
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Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Butter or Ghee, or avocado oil
- 1 Medium Onion, diced
- 2 Celery Stalks, sliced
- 1 Medium Carrot, thinly sliced
- 1 Large Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 2-3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
- 1½ Tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tsp Dried Oregano
- 15 oz Diced fire-roasted Tomatoes, 1 can
- ¼ Cup Tomato Paste
- 4 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 14.5 oz Red Kidney Beans, drain and rinsed, 1 can
- 14.5 oz Black Beans, drain and rinsed, 1 can
- 1 Cup Fresh or Frozen Sweet Corn
- 2 Cups Shredded Cooked Chicken
- 1 Cup Mexican Shredded Cheese Blend, for garnishing
- Salt and pepper, to your taste
Instructions
- Melt butter or ghee (add avocado oil if using) in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and cook until softens, about 5-6 minutes.
- Stir in seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until veggies are very tender.
- Remove from heat and using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth and creamy. Place the soup back over medium heat and add in beans, corn and shredded cooked chicken.
- Stir to combine and boil for a couple of minutes, just to heat it all up.
- Then pour into bowls and top with shredded cheese or your favorite toppings. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Fresh, frozen, or canned corn
- Oil- avocado, olive oil, or vegetable oil
- Try Shredded turkey, ground chicken, or ground turkey
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Is it oregano or thyme?
Its oregano. Thyme in the video was just an error by my editor. 🙂
No kidney beans, no bell pepper, used 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes and 1 8oz can tomato sauce, used 2 tsp regular chili powder and 1 tsp of Chipotle chili powder for perfect amount of heat for us. Only blended about 1/3 of the soup, we like the veggies. Delicious!! Served with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the feedback. So happy you loved it
Looks wonderful! In case I missed it, what would you recommend for plumping dried beans if I were to use them and the amount of dried beans/ Substituting black beans? Thank you!
Thank you. You can soak the beans overnight or I recommend just bringing a pot of saltwater to boil. Add the beans, cover the pot and let it sit for an hour to soak.
Great recipe. Enjoyed it with shredded cheese and sour cream
Thank you. So glad you loved it
Delicious! I substituted a can of rotel tomato instead of diced tomato. At the end I put in 8 oz of cream cheese.
so awesome. Thanks for the feedback
This dish is so delicious!! I made it the week before thanksgiving and it was so good I even served it at thanksgiving. Yum!!
Thanks for the feedback. This is a family favorite as well. Glad you guys loved it
Thank you, the soup was so delicious! I can’t stop eating it…. It’s definitely going to be on my regular menu
So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback
I made this tonight and it was awesome. I did cheat a little though. I had a bag of taco meat in the freezer, so I threw all the ingredients in my instant pot and added the frozen meat, set it on high pressure for 10 minutes and had a delicious beef enchilada soup. Thank you for the delicious recipe.
That sounds amazing! Smart move.
I made this yesterday and it’s become our new favorite soup!! So delicious! This came together so quickly, but had so much flavor!
So glad you loved it. It is such a delicious soup
Made this last night and it is fantastic and very filling. I need to pickup some jalapenoes for the left overs.
So glad you loved it. Thanks for the feedback
Can this be done in crock pot and if so are there any alterations in recipe?
Yes, you can use your crockpot. you can pan fry the veggies first before adding to the crockpot for added flavor. Or you can simply add everything to the crockpot except for the cheese and garnishes. Cook at low for 6-8 hours or high for 4 hours
What is the serving size of this for those nutrition calculations??
one bowl per serving
Please check your Instagram
Dm
What size bowl? How many cups or ounces per serving. TIA looks great!
I would say 2 cups
I’m making this tonight and I’m super excited! Quick question-can I use olive instead of butter and boneless skinless chicken thighs? Thoughts?
Sorry about the late reply. Yes, it should be fine.
It was amazing, thank you!!!
Awesome. So glad you liked it.
This was a great use for my leftover rotisserie chicken! The only thing I did differently was I roasted the veggies beforehand at 450 for about 10-15mins just for some char….man did that add a punch of flavor, an extra step, but so worth it!! Simply delicious!
that does sound so delicious. I will try it out your way next time. yummy
Any ideas on if you don’t have a hand blender?
You may use a food processor or any blender.
What’s the cup of cheese for?
Hi Heather. This is to serve as toppings. But you don’t have to use it at all.
I just made this recipe for dinner tonight! It’s delicious! I didn’t use crockpot, I had the time today so I did it all on the stove. Balance of flavors works very well! Thank you !!
Amazing!Thanks for the feedback
Maybe I missed it, but when do you add in the cheese? I’d assume after blending it all together? I couldn’t find that on the recipe. Thank you!
Hi Julia. The cheese is to top the soup off at the end. You may also add them in at the very end, mix until it melts
Can you substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth?
Also, if you don’t have the can of fire roasted tomatoes or tomato paste, what can be used instead? I was going to put fresh tomatoes, but didn’t know how much I should use. I also have a can of tomato sauce and pasta sauce – can either be used?
Hi
You can use any broth you have. As for the tomatoes, you can improvise. Use any canned tomatoes you have. Tomato sauce works just fine but don’t use pasta or marinara sauce. Fresh tomatoes are fine too. Sautee about a full cup of chopped fresh tomatoes.
Delicious and easy. Perfect for a family.
Thanks!
When do we add the 1 cup of cheese ?
Hi Laure. At the very end to garnish.
Made this for my parents for Cinco de Mayo and they loved it! Only thing I would add on the ingredients list is salt, but this soup was so decadent and rich and not heavy at all! I didn’t even need to thicken it. We garnished with some queso fresco, tortilla chips, and cilantro. I love the rich red-orange color of the soup- the smell filled the entire house. Definitely a great option to try when you want an enchilada but don’t want to feel sluggish afterwards from all of the carbs!
I don’t have the hand blender. Can I just use a regular blender?
Yes, just don’t blend too much