This Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup is packed with shredded chicken, tomatoes, avocados, and served with keto tortillas to complete the dish.
» Looking for more great soup recipes? Try these 10 Homemade Keto and Low-Carb Soup Recipes.
While I love ordering chicken tortilla soup at any Mexican or southwestern restaurant, I know that none of them are keto friendly. This chicken tortilla soup is as close to the version I love, without the extra carbs. This low carb green enchilada chicken soup has some of the same flavors and is very easy to make.
Generally, masa (corn flour) is added to tortilla soup to give it that delicious corn flavor and thickness. Unfortunately, masa isn’t keto approved. So making keto chicken tortilla soup requires some adjustments.
In this recipe, I’ve left out the masa, but I’ve added keto tortillas, which give the soup a similar texture and satisfies that tortilla soup craving, without adding flour to the soup.
Ingredients You’ll Need
While this recipe calls for quite a few ingredients this soup is cooked in one pot as sort of a dump and go recipe. You will love how quick and easy it comes together.
For the soup:
- Olive oil – Using olive oil will add healthy fats to the soup. You can use avocado oil or any other cooking oil as well.
- Onion and garlic – You can use red or white onion for this recipe and 1 clove of freshly minced garlic.
- Canned tomatoes
- Chicken broth
- Chicken breast – Cooked and shredded.
- Herbs and spices – Cilantro, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and chipotle powder.
- Optional garnish – Avocado and jalapeno peppers.
For the tortillas:
- Almond flour – Finely ground almond flour.
- Xanthan gum – Xanthan gum is a popular food additive that is commonly used as a thickener. It has no flavor and is used in such small quantities that is doesn’t affect the taste of a recipe. It is very keto friendly as it has 0 net carbs.
- Baking powder
- Garlic powder and salt
- Apple cider vinegar
- Egg
I use almond flour from WholesomeYum, which you can buy directly through that link (it’s our affiliate link). It’s the best almond flour I’ve found. It’s a blanched finely ground almond flour with a great texture and flavor, with just 2 grams or net carbs per serving.
How to Make Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup
This is an easy soup to make and doesn’t require hours of cooking. If you want to stew the soup for longer to develop flavors, you certainly can, but it’s not necessary.
If you haven’t already cooked the chicken, start out by simmering 2 chicken breasts in a medium pot for 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Once cooled, shred the meat and set it aside.
Step One
Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Be sure the heat isn’t high enough to burn the garlic.
Step Two
To the pot, add the tomatoes, chicken broth, shredded chicken, cilantro, and all of the spices. Stir to combine. Simmer the soup over medium heat for at least 10 minutes. You can simmer it for up to 2 hours to develop more flavor, if you want.
Step Three
Make the tortillas. Here is our full guide on how to make keto tortillas. It takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. This can be reduced to 20 minutes if you don’t rest the dough in the refrigerator, which is recommended, but not required.
Cook the tortillas until crispy, like tortilla chips. You can then cut each tortilla into chips to serve with the soup.
Step Four
Serve the soup with a tortilla, fresh avocado and chopped jalapenos, if you want to add some heat.
Garnish with avocado and jalapenos, if desired.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Freeze Chicken Tortilla Soup?
Yes, this soup can be frozen. It makes a great meal prep soup because of how well it reheats after being frozen. So you can make a large batch and divide it into servings to put in the freezer.
To reheat, just add the soup to a pot and cook over medium heat. You can also reheat in the microwave.
How Many Carbs Are In This Soup?
This version of chicken tortilla soup has 5 net grams of carbs per serving. There are carbs in the tomatoes, onions, avocado and the tortillas. With those ingredients come quite a few grams of fiber, so while the total carb count is higher, the net grams remains relatively low.
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Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 8 ounces canned chopped tomatoes
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 6 ounces shredded cooked chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1 avocado chopped
- Chopped jalapeno pepper
For the tortillas
- 2/3 cup almond flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, shredded chicken, cilantro, and spices. Stir to combine. Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the tortilla ingredients in a food processor until a dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Cut the dough into 4 balls. Flatten with a tortilla press, or roll flat between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut into tortilla chip shape. Lightly oil a skillet and place it over medium heat. When hot, add the tortilla. Cook for 5 minutes per side, until crispy.
- Serve the soup with tortilla chips, avocado and jalapenos, if desired.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Laura is dedicated to a low-carb lifestyle after losing 52 pounds on the keto diet. As many of us do, she struggles with her weight and has found that one of the only diet lifestyles that allows her to maintain a healthy weight is a low-carb diet. She shares her favorite low-carb recipes here that are both easy to make and full of flavor, so you don’t even miss the carbs.
This is one of my favourite soups, and this keto version looks delious.
Looks so good! I know my family will love this!!
Chicken tortilla soup is my favorite. I love to load mine up with cheese too! Yum
A great meal prep soup and it tastes dang good. The chicken turned out super moist and the keto chips are genius!
Thanks for your comment, Ben. Glad you liked it.
This might be my most favourite soup lately. I also love that you can freeze it! Thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
This soup is DELICIOUS!! I used 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper instead of chili powder and Chipotle powder just because cayenne pepper was what I had on hand. Also added cheese, avocado & used store bought tortilla chips for toppings! Made homemade chicken broth in the instant pot using Laura’s instant pot beef broth recipe and altering for chicken. I will be making these recipes again!
We are happy that you liked it Karina. Thanks for sharing your substitutions. It’s always good to hear how a recipe can change and adapt.