Best Tortilla Soup Recipes: My Favorite Recipe For Healthy Tortilla Soup

There are a lot of tortilla soup recipes out there into infinity and believe me, I’ve tried quite a few. This one, however, is my all-time favorite and the one I always use.

If you are short on time and don’t want to go the route of making your own tortilla strips, just buy a pre-packaged bunch of them and add to the top of the soup.

Or just use tortilla chips although I like doing the tortilla strips from scratch as it cuts way down on the sodium content!

This recipe came from my Ultimate American Cookbook from years ago but I love this recipe!

Serves 4 -6

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive or canola oil – or vegetable spray
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or use equivalent of Roma tomatoes)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt – or to taste
• 2 quarts of chicken broth
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 1 skinless boneless chicken breast half, cooked and shredded
• 1/4 cup canned green chilies, chopped

GARNISH

• 4 corn tortillas
• Oil for frying (or bake the chips in the oven – see below)
• 1 small ripe avocado
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Fresh chopped cilantro
• Shredded Monterey Jack cheese

PREPARATION

1. Heat oil or use vegetable spray in a Dutch oven or large saucepan.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened over medium heat – 5-8 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes and salt – cook for 5 minutes longer.
4. Stir in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes.
5. In the meantime, you can make the garnish for the tortillas. Trim the tortillas into squares then cut them into strips.
6. Use 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet and heat until hot but do not allow to smoke. Add the tortilla strips in batches and fry until just beginning to brown – turning occasionally. (Or bake in the oven as directed below). The trick is to have the tortilla strips be crisp but not burned. Remove the tortilla strips and drain on paper towels. Set aside.
7. Add the carrot to the soup and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
8. Add zucchini, chicken and chilies – continue cooking uncovered until vegetables are tender – about 5 minutes more.
9. Peel and pit the avocado – chop into a fine dice.
10. Divide the tortilla strips among 4 soup bowls. Sprinkle with the avocado.
11. Ladle in the soup, then top with green onions and cilantro on top.
12. Serve immediately and sprinkle with Jack cheese if desired.

OVEN BAKED TORTILLA STRIPS

INGREDIENT - 4 corn tortillas - as above

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spread the strips on ungreased cookie sheet but keep 1/4-inch distance between them to keep them crispy.
3. Bake about 8-12 minutes but check them often after 7-8 minutes so as not to burn them.
4. If using an air-bake cookie sheet, bake at 350 for about 7 minutes.