This rich, creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup is easy, economical, and so satisfying! Serve it as a soup course, or as the main event. Takes just one pot and 30 minutes, stove to table.
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This spot-on copycat recipe for Chili’s Chicken Enchilada Soup is an all-time favorite at our house!
There is a lot to to love about this recipe. This easy, one-pot soup is rich and satisfying, and takes only about half an hour to make, start to finish.
What Goes into this Recipe
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
★ Enchilada Sauce: This recipe can be made with canned enchilada sauce; however, if you want to raise the bar a notch, make a batch of our easy to make Slow Cooker Enchilada Sauce. It's absolutely the best, and brings an extra layer of flavor to any enchilada dish.
★ Chicken Stock: Like the enchilada sauce, you can used canned stock, but I prefer to use homemade: it's just so easy to make, plus it freezes well, so you can always have some on hand. If you've never made homemade chicken stock, be sure check out our super-easy step-by-step tutorial.
★ Chicken: Enchilada soup is a great option for using up holiday leftover turkey! Just sub in chopped or shredded turkey for the chicken.
★ Pan-fried Corn: Corn isn't part of the original recipe, but I almost always add it; I enjoy the slightly sweet bite and texture it adds to the soup. (It's delicious in Chicken Pot Pie, too!)
To pan-fry frozen corn, simply heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Melt one tablespoon of butter, and then add frozen corn to hot butter and pan-fry, stirring constantly, until corn begin to turn golden brown. (About 5-7 minutes.)
★ Canned Tomatoes: You can use any store-bought or home-canned tomatoes. Personally, I use S&W Petite-cut Tomatoes, Diced With Sweet Onion & Roasted Garlic. (These are my absolute favorite canned tomatoes for cooking!)
★ Processed American Cheese: I am not a big fan of processed food. Not only is it filled with ingredients I don't like to put in my body, but it usually tastes like Box. However, after a lot of experimenting, I've come to accept that processed cheese has its place.
When I make this enchilada soup, I use original Velveeta, which I had found (after much trial and error) is the best thing to use to achieve the flavor and consistency we love so about the original Chili's Enchilada Soup.
If you just cannot bring yourself to buy Velveeta, a 1:1 blend (by weight) of cream cheese and grated cheddar make a passable substitute.
★ Masa Harina: Masa harina, the traditional flour used to make tortillas, tamales, and many other Mexican dishes, is the thickening agent in this enchilada soup recipe.
You can find masa harina in any Mercado, or in the Mexican foods aisle of your local grocery store.
How to Make One-Pot Enchilada Soup
First, heat a Dutch oven or heavy soup pot over medium heat. When the pot is heated, add a tablespoon of olive oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pot. Add the chopped onions, and sauté until they begin to turn golden brown; about 5 minutes.
Add mince garlic to the onions, and continue sautéing one additional minute.
Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the chicken stock, diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce, cumin, and chili powder to the sautéed onion mixture.
Simmer the soup mixture for 5 minutes.
OPTIONAL: For a smoother soup, we like to use an immersion blender to puree larger chunks.
In a larger measuring cup, whisk together the masa harina and water.
It is important incorporate in the masa harina into the water completely before adding it to the soup mixture. Adding it without fully mixing it into the water can result in lumpy soup!
Whisk the masa mixture into the soup, adding slowly and whisking thoroughly. Simmer soup an additional 5 minutes.
If the soup is thicker than you would prefer, simply add a little extra chicken stock or water at this time.
Add American and Jack cheeses, and stir until they have completely melted into the soup.
Stir in chicken and the (optional) pan-fried corn, and simmer an additional minute more to get everything up to heat.
Garnish with tortilla strips, grated cheese, cilantro, peppers, etc.
FAQs & Expert Tips
Despite the "chicken" element in this enchilada soup, it really couldn't be any easier to make it vegetarian-friendly.
To do so, simply substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. Serve the soup in bowls, and offer warm shredded chicken on the side for those who want it.
Masa harina is the traditional flour used to make tortillas, tamales, and many other Mexican dishes. In this recipe, it acts as a thickening agent.
Masa harina is made from field corn, which is dried and treated with a mixture of lime and water, loosening the hulls and softening the corn. The soaked corn (i.e., hominy) is then washed and ground into a dough, called masa. In a final step, the masa is dried and powdered, and resulting powder is masa harina.
(Masa harina is one of the secrets to making tender, crispy, no-grit Fried Green Tomatoes, too!)
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Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup
Equipment
- 1 10-inch Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven or large, heavy saucepan)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped; about 1 cup
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 15 ounces canned tomatoes
- 1 ½ cups mild enchilada sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 8 ounces processed American Cheese cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 ½ ounces pepper-jack cheese about ½ cup
- 1 cup masa harina
- 2 cups cold water
- 8 ounces shredded or chopped roasted chicken about 2 cups
- 1 ½ cup frozen corn OPTIONAL; about 6 ounces (See Pan-Fried Corn in Ingredient Notes.)
Instructions
- Heat Dutch oven or heavy soup to over medium heat. Add olive oil.Add chopped onion and sauté until it starts to turn golden brown, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and sauté one minute more.
- Reduce heat to medium-low.To the sautéed onion mixture, add chicken stock, diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce, cumin, and chili powder.
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- OPTIONAL: For a smoother soup, use an immersion blender to puree larger chunks, until it reaches the desired consistency.
- In a larger measuring cup, whisk together masa harina and water. It is important incorporate in the masa harina into the water completely before adding it to the soup mixture. Adding it without fully mixing it into the water can result in lumpy soup.
- Whisk masa mixture to soup, adding slowly and whisking thoroughly. Simmer soup an additional 5 minutes. If the soup is thicker than you would prefer, simply add a little extra chicken stock or water at this time.
- Add American and Jack cheeses, and stir until they have completely melted into the soup.
- Stir in chicken and (optional) corn.
- Simmer an additional minute more to get everything up to heat. Garnish with tortilla strips, grated cheese, cilantro, peppers, etc.
Notes
Nutrition
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Liz Lewis says
I absolutely LOVED this recipe. I'm a vegetarian and my (non-vegetarian) boyfriend had this soup at Chili's once. I had a little sip from his spoon (I didn't say I was a perfect vegetarian!) because it just looked so good and I knew I had to make a vegetarian version of it. I almost followed your recipe exactly, but used what I had on hand.
I blogged about it over at my blog, and I made sure to link back to your blog. Thanks so much!
http://www.liz-makes.com/2014/04/liz-makes-copycat-chilis-enchilada-soup.html
Cheers,
Liz
Renée ♥ says
Liz - I love your post!! To my knowledge, you are the first person who has ever written a post about one of my posts, and I am both honored and thrilled that you loved the recipe! Thank you so much for stopping back in to share your results!
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life says
Looks great! Pinned this one too! I love soup in the winter!
Sarah @ Will Run for Pasta says
Sounds delicious! I try not to eat a ton of processed stuff either, but sometimes Velveetea is just the only thing that will do, haha!
Emily says
I am so excited to try this it looks so good
Renée ♥ says
I know you'll love it! Thanks for stopping by, sweetie! ♥