Ingredients
Scale
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small white onion, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 to 3 cups (about 1 pound) shredded cooked chicken
- 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) enchilada sauce, homemade or store-bought
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, with their juices
- 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 cup masa harina
- 8 ounces freshly-grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- optional toppings: tortilla chips/strips, diced avocado, extra shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped fresh cilantro, or pico de gallo
Instructions
- Sauté the veggies. Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute, stirring frequently.
- Simmer. Add the chicken stock, cooked chicken, enchilada sauce, black beans, tomatoes, green chiles, cumin and stir to combine. Continue cooking the soup until it reaches a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer.
- Mix in the masa harina. Ladle out 2 cups of the hot broth into a heatproof bowl or measuring cup. Add the masa harina and whisk until combined. Add the mixture back to the hot soup and stir until combined.
- Add the cheeses. Add the cheeses and stir until melted and evenly combined. Taste and season the soup with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve. Serve warm, garnished with lots of your favorite toppings.
Notes
Source: Recipe inspired by the amazing chicken enchilada soup from Chili’s.
Update: Recipe updated slightly in 2022.
One of our favorite creamy tex-mex soups! Easy and delicious!
I made this as per the recipe, including using fire-roasted (Hunts) tomatoes. I used a canned enchilada sauce that I’ve found to be quite good (A La Orden) and Ortega green chilies. For toppings, I used avocado slices, some of the grated cheese, cilantro leaves, and seasoned tortilla strips.
This recipe is very simple and it’s delicious. This one goes into my “keeper” cookbook. Thanks for this.
I have made this soup about 10x now and its our favorite dish yet! Holy Crap is this soup good, and it holds its heat for a loooooong time. I feel I could survive on this for the rest of winter uuuughhh love it!
Thank you for this recipe! I am not a cook by any means, and this was SO easy to make. I have made it twice now, once with chicken and once with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. We couldn’t tell the difference and it was a great way to get rid of leftovers. Maybe I’ll try it with steak sometime! My husband loves the chicken enchilada soup at Chili’s, and he approves!
I’ve made this in the slow cooker before! It can work! Just cook the onions and masa marina at the end and then put the cheese in. I’ve done several times without any issues in the consistency.
I have been making this for 3 years, it is delicious! I do agree with some reviewers that it doesn’t need the cheese, but whatever floats your boat. For a couple years, I have been making it with leftover chicken from this recipe: https://www.fromvalerieskitchen.com/crock-pot-chicken-tacos/
It is a flavor explosion! I also use leftover broth from that chicken. Also, my enchilada sauce makes 16 oz, I add 1/2 a cup of water, then freeze half so I only have to make it every other time. This is my favorite soup recipe ever!
This was a very good recipe. I added a little lime juice to mine and roasted chicken thighs with cumin, chili powder, salt pepper and garlic before shredding it and adding it to the soup. I will make this recipe again.
I have made this soup many times and everyone loves it! I add chili cheese Fritos and sour cream as a garnish for each bowl of soup.
Would make again. first time make enchilada soup. My husband loved it too! Great recipe.
I made this recipe twice now and I loved it! love love love love! I am a 25 year old whose working multiple jobs while trying to finish school and this was an easy make, I made it in the crockpot. I cooked my meat first(subbed in ground turkey) and added everything to the crock-pot. I omitted some of the juices from the Chiles and Fire roasted tomatoes just to test it out and that worked out perfectly for me. I’d say from Walmart( which I rarely shop) I made this for about 15$ ( buying name brand things and some Great Value) and that yielded me about 3-4 meals ( and I’m a guy who can eat). I love love love loved this recipe.
* I accindetally added in 1/2 tsp of Chili powder ( I thought it was Cumin) and let me tell you, what a WONDERFUL surprise. It added a bit of heat and it worked out perfectly. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I let it sit in the crockpot for about an hour on high, then went to the gym, walked the dog and came home to a glass of wine, some Scandal and this lovely warm soup.
The recipe was really easy and the soup was delicious. I did add chili powder and a little lemon pepper for extra seasoning.
This soup is VERY good! Followed recipe exactly EXCEPT I did not buy the BIG bag of Masa Harina (what else would I use it for?) I discovered that you can put 2 torn up CORN tortillas into a food processor and grind until fine! I measured out 1/2 cup and added that instead of the Hasa Marina. Very good! Served it with quesadillas and a Mexican Caesar Salad. YUM for a cold night :)
I bought Masa Harina a year or more ago, just freeze it.
I also have used the torn up corn tortillas in a pinch when I didn’t have any masa on hand but if you ever do decide to go for the big bag of masa, homemade corn tortillas are super easy and a great way to use it. :) Plus it does keep in the freezer like other reviewer mentioned.
Loved this! The masa is perfect for thickening – I have passed the reviews around, everyone who has made it -loves it! And who, I ask you, doesn’t luuurve a 20 minute dinner? ?
I’ve been making soup on Sundays off and on for the past three years. This soup been on my list for a while, but I never pulled the trigger because I have a killer tortilla soup recipe that I would always opt to make instead. That said, tonight was the night I finally made this recipe (with the homemade enchilada sauce) and man, this is the first soup in a long time that I can say with certainty I will make again, and again and again. Wish I had tried it sooner! Subbed the chicken for corn since I live with a vegetarian. So yummy!!!
Very tasty. I think the masa harina gives it a great flavor. I will make this again.
This is delicious! I used canned enchilada sauce. I can’t imagine it being any better! We loved it!
This recipe is DYNAMITE! I’ve made it a few times and it is one of my go to dinners! Super delicious!! And the homemade enchilada sauce is a MUST!
Love love love this soup!! We make it all the time ?
This was the easiest soup i’ve ever made and to top it off, it was one of the best i’ve ever tasted!
I made this and followed the recipe but also added corn. It was absolutely wonderful.
love this recipe, super easy to follow and i’ve made it twice now! Passed it along to several friends and family members!
This was a great quick dinner. I used the enchilada sauce recipe, about 2/3 of a rotisserie chicken, a drained can of corn, a couple shakes of cayenne (because I found the flavors maybe just a tiny bit mild for my taste) and served it with a couple of spoonfuls of rice on top, like an enchilada gumbo. Perfect!
I made this tonight and followed the recipe exactly. My family loved it! Perfect for a cold, snowy evening!
This soup is soooo good! It tastes so much like Chili’s Chicken Enchilada Soup (which is a favorite of mine) only I think this one is so much better and obviously better for you because it uses real ingredients (no preservatives) and made at home. I made it today for lunch (along with the homemade enchilada sauce — which was also super easy, quick, and delicious) and I couldn’t be happier. It literally couldn’t be easier and was the perfect lunch for a cold day. The only change I made was to withhold the cheese from the actual pot of soup and just have it shredded on the side so that people could put as much or as little as they wanted into their soup…helps it be a little more calorie-friendly for those who are watching how much they eat. I will definitely be making this again and throwing away all of my other chicken enchilada soup recipes because this one is perfect! Thanks so much for sharing it!
I made this for my whole family and they even got seconds! It was super easy and it tasted amazing! We might have to double the batch next time for more leftovers. I put my chicken in the food processor to make things faster and it still tasted good. I also added lime juice. Thanks for an easy recipe!
I’ve made this twice and it was excellent both times. I have to admit that the homemade enchilada sauce makes it even better!
AMAZING!! Made this for the first time for my first in-laws Christmas Eve soup cook off. Based off the reviews, I took the chance (as I have never cooked for the ENTIRE in-law family) and made this soup. There were 6 soups brought in all and I won people’s choice award for the evening! So glad this risk paid off! It was the only soup that the entire stock pot was cleaned out on. The only additions I did was half a can of corn and some chili powder to add a little heat for a family that loves heat! I did use your suggestion of roasted diced tomatoes, and on a short notice opted for store bought enchilada sauce, as I already had it in the pantry, but can’t wait to try out your homemade recipe for that. It will definitely be a staple for me from now on! Thank you for such a wonderful and delightful recipe!
Colorful, delicious & EASY!
made this recipe but with a few changes. first of all i have to watch salt intake so i didn’t add salt. instead i added a container of salsa for extra flavor. also i added only about half the cheese called for. it was awesome!
This is a great recipe, especially if you make your own enchilada sauce. This first time I made it, I was in the store feeling rushed, and bought 110 oz of enchilada sauce instead of 1 10 oz can. When I got home I started dumping in and thought, this a ridiculous amount on sauce! I ended up only putting in maybe 20 oz. I felt pretty dumb when I looked at the recipe again to make it, so don’t make my mistake!
I made this recipe probably 10 plus times the past few years and it is amazing. I even made for a pot luck and people went crazy for it. This last time I made it I just cut up raw chicken breasts and cooked it in the soup also added a can of corn since I had it. It’s great for those cold zero below nights we’ve been having in the Northeast. Next time I’ll make the enchilada sauce. That’s the only thing I haven’t done yet.
Fantastic! Have made this soup several times and always get rave reviews.
Delicious! I used crumbled corn tortillas instead of the corn meal and put in a can of black beans with a scoop of frozen corn. It turned out great.
I made this over the weekend for my family. It was gone, we LOVED it. My husband’s mother has been making red chili enchiladas his entire life and he was hesitant about the red sauce, but he said it tasted wonderful!
This was a great recipe
I loved this recipe the ingredients mixed greatly
Does this recipe store well? Will it still be good served the next day heated in a microwave oven?
This was really good! I used 2 really large and thick chicken breasts (skinless) in mine and it came out more like a thick stew texture, but what great flavor! I substituted 1 jalapeno (fresh) for the canned green chiles (which I didn’t have on hand). I also used 1/2 sharp cheddar and 1/2 Mexican cheese blend plus 2 slices of American cheese that I cut up. it was perfect.
Very good. We don’t like heat so didn’t use the chilies, husband doesn’t like beans so didn’t use those. still very good.
Delicious! Cannot recommend using fresh grated cheese enough. In fact, that powder is called cellulose. It’s actually saw dust that prevents the cheese from caking. It’s some nasty cheese.
Absolutely delicious! Your enchilada sauce is the best, too. Thank you!
Delicious! I’m on a low carb diet so I didn’t use the masa flour or the beans. It still turned out great! I especially loved how fast and easy it was to make and almost no dishes. Yay!
Love this soup. I needed something to do with my leftover homemade enchilada sauce! I was able to use what I had on hand – pepper jack cheese (half the amount called for), and fire-roasted tomatoes. Served with wheat tortillas I had in the freezer. Very flexible and yummy!
It was a solid soup but after trying the slow cooker enchilada soup recipe first, I found myself craving the slow cooker version more! I will continue cooking the slow cooker version :) Something about the long stewing breaks down the ingredients and melts it together wonderfully!
I found this recipe earlier this week and finally made it tonight and boy am I glad I did!! This soup was so wonderful!! I tried Chili’s version a couple of months ago and it was pretty good, but it doesn’t even compare to this recipe. I was amazed at how fast it came together too. It was very affordable, super easy and ready in no time at all. I will absolutely be making this one again. Definitely a keeper!!
I found this recipe earlier this week and finally made it tonight and boy am I glad I did!! This soup was so wonderful!! I tried Chili’s version a couple of months ago and it was pretty good, but it doesn’t even compare to this recipe. I was amazed at how fast it came together too. It was very affordable, super easy and ready in no time at all. I will absolutely be making this one again. Definitely a keeper!!
WOW! Highly impressed with the way this turned out. It is soooooo good. My husband wants me to make it again already. Thank you for the suggestion. I can’t wait to try even more of your recipes!
This soup is so good, thank you for the recipe!
I added two cups of cooked brown rice because I love rice in soup lol and made the enchilada sauce from scratch per your other recipe. This is my third time making it; definitely one of my favorites. ❤️
When possible could you mention size of slow cooker
I accidentally bought green enchilada sauce instead of red, will that work as a substitute?