Lately I’ve been in a taco/enchilada/soup-ish mood. Maybe it’s the cold weather and snow that has me thinking along those lines. Soup is one of my favorite go-to bone warmers, and creamy soups definitely top the list. I could probably spend a whole week or more posting nothing but creamy or thicker types of soups.
I just took this long pause thinking about all kinds of soups and have made myself so hungry! In the past couple of minutes of productive day dreaming I have come up with four ideas for different types of rib-sticking soups or stews. Yeehaw!
That’s a funny word – yeehaw. Do you hear it in your head as an exuberant twangy cowboy shout? I took another break from writing just now and Googled ‘yeehaw’. Save yourself the trouble. No one is certain where it originated. Oh well, living languages evolve…or devolve from time to time, I suppose.
Anyway, yeehaw for this soup! It turned out even better than I had hoped. I ordered a bowl of a similarly named soup at a chain restaurant a couple of weeks ago and it inspired me to come up with my own rendition. I am using the term ‘inspired’ loosely. In reality, there was nothing inspirational about the restaurant soup other than the fact that it inspired me to get cracking on a recipe of my own.
Although I used a rotisserie chicken (from Costco, of course – yum), any cooked chicken would work well in this Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. I believe that this soup would also be good with some of the left-over turkey that may be hanging out at your house in a few days.
There are a few things that I did to make this soup wonderfully flavorful:
- I sauteed the cooked chicken, onions, garlic, and spices together in some olive oil. This helped to deepen the flavors.
- Cream cheese provided both a creamy texture/appearance and added lots of good tangy cheese flavor without the stringiness that some cheeses can bring. Additionally, if you are counting fat and calories, a low fat cream cheese will work well.
- Corn tortillas, torn into small pieces, were used as the thickening agent. They thickened the soup beautifully and added a subtle, yet tasty addition to the soup. In case you are wondering, the tortillas simply ‘dissolve’ in the broth.
- I made my own baked tortilla strips to garnish the soup. I cut several corn tortillas into 1/4″-wide strips and baked them in the oven for a few minutes until they were crispy.
Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 10-12 corn tortillas, divided
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 rotisserie chicken, broken up into chunky shreds (about 4 cups
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, choppped
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
- 8 cups chicken stock, divided
- 1 (15 ounces) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15-16 ounces) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (4 ounces) can whole green chiles, diced
- 1 cup corn
- 2 cups red salsa
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Tear 6 tortillas into chunky, bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
- Heat an 8-quart Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat, then add the 3 tablespoons cooking oil. Add chicken, onion, garlic, torn tortillas, cumin, salt, and chipotle chile powder. Saute until onion is translucent, stirring as needed. Be careful to not burn.
- Add 6 cups chicken stock, tomatoes (with juice), black beans, green chiles, corn, and salsa to pot. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.
- Pour the remaining two cups of chicken stock into a blender. Add the softened cream cheese and blitz until smooth. Pour the broth and cream cheese slurry into the soup pot. Cook, stirring as needed, until the soup has thickened. (The torn tortillas will thicken the soup as they soften and disperse into the liquid cooking liquid.)
- Just before serving, stir in the cilantro.
- While the soup is cooking, preheat the oven to 375-degrees. Cut the remaining tortillas into approximately 1/4-inch wide strips. Slice the longer strips in half.
- Place the tortilla strips on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the strips are crispy; tossing once or twice during baking so that the strips will bake evenly. Serve as a garnish on the soup.
Other easy recipes using a rotisserie chicken:
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Traditional Chicken Salad
Creamy soup AND Mexican flavors…you speak to my foodie soul! Looks so good!!
Stella B–oh yeah, baby. Definitely food for the soul.
This looks like the perfect soup for cold winter days. Love it!
Ronja–yep…it works well as an inside warmer-upper!
Love your blog! I look forward to trying out the soup. Thanks so much
BB, you’re welcome and thank you for the compliments.
Stunning photos Terri!! This soup makes me want to reach in to the screen for a bowl. It’s morning here… but I’m up for this soup for breakfast. 🙂
Thanks, Ramona. Breakfast is as good a time as any to have soup…starts your day out nice and warm.
Here I go again, commenting on past posts on your most recent post.
I can’t stand the nerve of Mr. Real Estate guy back from the Butterscotch Buddies (I think?) post! GRR! We have a No Soliciting sign and I am surprised that people still try to sell us stuff. I’m always polite, but I make my point early on in the conversation that I am not in any way interested. I had a similar experience as yours and it still makes me mad! The nerve. 🙂
About this soup… it looks fabulous and I would probably lick my screen if I thought I might get a taste of it that way. I just pinned a bunch of things from your blog. You’re a great cook! 🙂
Kristin, I was just thinking about you a couple of days ago and that I need to drop by your blog to see how you are doing. You can leave a comment on whatever post(s) make you happy. 😉 Thanks for echoing my thoughts/feelings about mr. real estate. As a follow-up, I was talking to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and mentioned the mr. real estate issue. She lives several streets over from me and the same guy knocked on her door, too, with the exact same approach. She yelled at him and told him that she was not moving and neither were any of her neighbors, EVER and to leave them alone and to go away! Then, she slammed her door shut. How great was that!!!!
As for Pinterest, don’t you just love it? I can’t believe that I ever managed without it.
My husband asked me “what would we do without Pinterest?” Jokingly, of course. And in all honesty, he is a big supporter because my recipe selection has broadened, as well as crafting/cleaning/organizing/church lesson planning/etc. So it’s a great thing all around!
that soup was sooooo delicious. Want to make me some and bring it over? 🙂
Katrinka Dinka…yes, I will make you some of this soup. And let’s get you a new gravatar. I need to look through my 1000’s of pictures of you guys and find one that includes the whole family. I love that pic of you, Gavin, and Tim, but we need one with Kade in it, too.
Now, Miss Smarty Pants, I’m thinking that you are going to have pace yourself on all of the food that you have “requested” that I make for you. As sick as you have been with this pregnancy, I’m surprised that you can even look at pictures of food.
This looks amaaazing! 🙂
http://cafecraftea.blogspot.com
Thanks, Vanessa. I’ll let you in on a little secret…it tastes great, too! ~Terri 😉