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My recipe for Chicken Enchilada Soup 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.
You may also love my classic chicken chili soup or my white chicken chili soup recipe.
Feed me this chicken Enchilada soup every day and I will never complain. It 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 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: The recipe calls for cooked shredded chicken. Either get a store-bought 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!
Enchilada Soup Topping Options
Endless toppings to come up with, but here are some optional toppings you can add to your soup:
- 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 soup.
Alternative ways to make this soup
There are other ways to make this soup other than using your stovetop. Here are other ways to cook up your soup.
How to make it in an Instant Pot:
If you are looking for an instant pot soup recipe then here is how you can make this soup using your instant pot:
- Using the saute option, add the oil or butter in the instant pot, then add the onions, celery, carrots, bell pepper, and 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 the 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 make it in 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, and 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, jalapeno cornbread, biscuits, grilled cheese sandwiches, roasted corn like this street corn on the cob, Tacos, Mexican Rice, etc
More Soup Recipes
- 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
Equipment
- spatula
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Butter or Ghee, or Ghee, avocado oil also works
- 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 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 1 tablespoon Chili Powder
- 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
- 15 ounces Diced fire-roasted Tomatoes, 1 can
- ¼ Cup Tomato Paste
- 4 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 14.5 ounces Red Kidney Beans, drain and rinsed, 1 can
- 14.5 ounces 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 1 tablespoon Butter or Ghee (add avocado oil if using) in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.
- Add 1 Medium Onion (diced), 2 Celery Stalks (sliced), 1 Medium Carrot (thinly sliced), 1 Large Red Bell Pepper (diced), 2-3 Garlic Cloves (chopped), and cook until softens. About 5-6 minutes.
- Stir in seasonings ( 1½ teaspoon Ground Cumin, 1 tablespoon Chili Powder, and 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano, 15 ounces Diced fire-roasted Tomatoes, ¼ Cup Tomato Paste, and 4 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth. Season with Salt and pepper, to your taste, 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 14.5 ounces Red Kidney Beans and 14.5 ounces Black Beans, 1 Cup Fresh or Frozen Sweet Corn, and 2 Cups Shredded Cooked Chicken.
- Stir to combine and boil for a couple of minutes, just to heat it all.
- Then, pour into bowls and top with shredded cheese ( 1 Cup Mexican Shredded Cheese Blend divided into 6 servings) or your favorite toppings. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Corn: you can use fresh, frozen, or canned corn
- Oil- avocado, olive oil, or vegetable oil
- Try Shredded turkey, ground chicken, or ground turkey. I love to use leftover chicken, or I just buy rotisserie chicken to save on time. So, next time you are at Costco, grab that chicken.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very yummy soup! I was able to convert it to a crock pot recipe by doing the first 2 steps, then adding the veggies, seasoning, and chicken (2 whole raw chicken breasts) to the crock pot with the broth and tomatoes. Cooked for 4hrs on high, then removed and shredded the chicken. Blended the soup, then put the chicken back with the beans and corn. Cooked 1.5 more hours on low. It worked super well! Very flavorful. I like how you show the quantities needed in the instructions so I don’t have to keep scrolling up. Thanks for the great recipe!
So glad you loved it. Thanks for the feedback.