Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup (slow cooker or stovetop)

This delicious Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup is loaded with healthy veggies, tender chicken and fabulous southwestern flavor! It's wonderful for lunch or dinner and reheats beautifully!

This Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup recipe has been in the making for the past month or so. It all started earlier this fall, when my daughter was gifted with a huge bag of jalapenos, poblanos and various other chili peppers and offered me some of her bounty.

Hmmm, how about a new soup recipe featuring poblanos? It didn't take long and I was pulling out the chicken broth, corn tortillas, veggies, spices and herbs and the soup pot.

We've eaten quite a few renditions of this soup but I think it's just right now and Scott agrees. As we enjoyed it for dinner last night topped with diced avocado, shredded cheese, cilantro and these Ridiculously Easy Oven-Baked Tortilla Strips, (pictured below)he commented several times on how delicious it was.

"Real" tortilla soup

If you google "tortilla soup" you'll find a plethora of recipes... to be precise, 51,100,000 results! Most of them, to me, are just glorified chicken soups with chili powder, cumin and a few other Southwestern spices. Granted these soups are often topped with some type of tortilla chips or strips.

This Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup is different. It actually has TORTILLAS in the ingredient list. Yep, corn tortillas are diced small and added to the soup before a slow simmer. While the soup simmers away, the tortillas "melt" into the soup, creating a fabulous layer of tortilla flavor that you won't find in most of the other 51,100,000 Google hits!

Lots of veggies!

If you've been following The Café for a while, you know that I love to incorporate the colors of the rainbow in my recipes with lots of veggies. Vegetables are loaded with great nutrition while also adding delicious layers of flavor to dishes like this Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup.

So next time you pass through the produce department at your local grocery store or visit a favorite farmer's market, pick up onions, poblano peppers, bell peppers and carrots. They all get diced nice and small which allows the flavors to meld together nicely with each spoonful of soup.

A magical little gadget

You end up with a little mountain of diced veggies by the time you're done prepping for this Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup. That will take a while, right? Well, it depends. It took me less than 5 minutes to get the job done!

Is it because I have great knife skills? Absolutely not! I know how to dice, chop, etc. but I'm not super speedy at stuff like that. Instead, I have a wonderful kitchen tool that makes fast work of chopping so many different fruits and veggies. It's called a Vidalia Chop Wizard... no, this is not a sponsored post. I just love this little workhorse!

It's perfect for neatly chopping, onions, peppers, potatoes, summer and winter squashes, celery, sweet potatoes, eggplant, apples, pears, and so much more! Scott says that whenever he hears the "whack", "whack", "whack" of the chopper, he knows something delicious is right around the corner!

To demonstrate this handy little gadget, I had my daughter-in-law, Lindsay, create a video. We call it, The Ridiculously Easy Way to Chop Vegetables. Check it out (note - if you have an ad-blocker, this video will not display):

I also love that it's small enough to store and that it can go right into the dishwasher. Mine's been washed a zillion times and it still looks and works like new.

I just finished a bowl of this soup for lunch and went back for a second helping. With all those veggies and lots of lean chicken, it's a guilt-free and crazy delicious option for lunch, brunch or dinner. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Cafe Tips for making this Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup

• You'll notice in the recipe that the chicken is poached in a separate pot, then cooled slightly and shredded before it's combined with the soup. This can be done ahead of time or while the soup is simmering. Why not just cook the chicken in the soup? I have discovered that the chicken is more tender if poached separately without salt and other ingredients. I poach my chicken as the soup simmers. When the soup is done, my chicken has also been cooled and shredded.
• If you're running short on time, feel free to use 3 cups of diced rotisserie chicken in place of the shredded chicken.
• You may be wondering about the honey in this soup recipe. The honey rounds out the flavor and helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.
• Baking soda is also an unusual ingredient in soup. Baking soda also helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.
• I like to use fire-roasted diced tomatoes and fire-roasted crushed tomatoes for this Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup recipe. Fire-roasted tomatoes are tomatoes that have been charred over a fire before canning. They have an extra layer of sweet, smoky flavor and a beautiful deep red hue.
• You can find fire-roasted tomatoes with the regular canned tomatoes at most grocery stores. I like the fire-roasted tomatoes from Aldi (they're super reasonable too!) and the fire-roasted crushed tomatoes from Trader Joe's.
• If you can't find fire-roasted diced and/or crushed tomatoes, regular diced and crushed tomatoes will work fine!
• This soup makes a BIG pot of soup. It's wonderful for leftovers and rewarms well in the microwave or on the stovetop. It also freezes well - a real treasure to pull out on a busy day for a delicious, nutritious meal!

Thought for the day:

Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. 
Isaiah 40:26

What we're listening to for inspiration:

How Great Thou Art

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SUBMIT

Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup

Chris Scheuer

This delicious Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup is loaded with healthy veggies, tender chicken and fabulous southwestern flavor! It's wonderful for lunch or dinner and reheats beautifully!

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 20 servings

Calories 210

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Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

.5x1x2x

For the shredded, pulled chicken:

• 1 ½-2 pounds bone-in chicken breast halves, 2 whole breasts

For the corn tortillas:

• 8 6- inch corn tortillas

For the soup:

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, diced small
• 2 medium poblano peppers, seeded and diced small (about 7-8 ounces in total)
• 1 large yellow bell pepper, diced small
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
• 1-3 teaspoons mild chili powder, more or less, to taste (I like Mexene Chili Powder)
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 28- ounce can of crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted, if possible
• 15- ounce can fire fire-roasted tomatoes
• 2 cups carrots, diced small
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons dry oregano
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• tortilla strips, sour cream or Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, diced avocado, lime wedges, for garnish, if desired

Instructions

 

For the shredded, pulled chicken:

1. Bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil. When the water is bubbling, add the chicken, cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Allow to sit, undisturbed for 20 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes, remove the chicken to a cutting board to cool. Discard the water.
3. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut each breast into 1 ½-inch pieces, width-wise. Using your fingers or two forks, shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. Set aside or refrigerate if it will be more than 30 minutes before you use it.

For the corn tortillas:

1. Stack the tortillas and cut them in half. Slice each half into thin strips, about ¼-inch wide, lengthwise. Now cut them thinly width-wise to create tiny ¼-inch diced tortillas. Set aside.

For the soup:

1. Heat a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the olive oil and tilt the pan to coat the bottom. Add the onion, poblanos and bell pepper. Stir to combine and cook for 3-4 minutes or until softened.
2. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, coriander, cumin and 1 teaspoon of the chili powder. Stir to combine and cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Add the chicken or veggie broth, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, carrots, honey, diced corn tortillas, honey, oregano, salt, pepper and baking soda. Stir well to combine.
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook, uncovered for 45 minutes. Taste and add additional chili powder and/or salt, if needed.
5. Add the shredded chicken, stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Serve with tortilla strips, diced avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream or Greek yogurt, chopped fresh cilantro and lime wedges

Notes

See Café Tips above in the post for more detailed instructions and tips to ensure success.

If you prefer to use Metric measurements there is a button in each of our recipes, right above the word “Instructions”. Just click that button to toggle to grams, milliliters, etc. If you ever come across one of our recipes that doesn’t have the Metric conversion (some of the older recipes may not), feel free to leave a comment and I will add it.

TO MAKE IN THE SLOW COOKER

To make this recipe in the slow cooker:

1. Make the shredded pulled chicken and the corn tortillas as instructed in the recipe.
2. Combine the olive oil, diced onion, poblano, bell pepper, garlic, smoked paprika, coriander, cumin and chili powder in a large, microwave-safe bowl. Stir to combine then cook on high power for 4 minutes.
3. Combine the veggies from step 2 and all other ingredients except the chicken and the garnishes in a large slow cooker or crock pot. Stir to combine.
4. Cook on low power for 6-8 hours or on high power for 4 hours.
5. Add the chicken, stir and allow the soup to warm a bit more before serving.
6. Garnish as suggested in the recipe.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupCalories: 210kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 12gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.004gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 234mgPotassium: 486mgFiber: 5gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 2479IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 79mgIron: 2mg

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Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Mexican, South West, TexMex