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Gluten-free Chicken Tortilla Soup is perfect for a busy weeknight! Start to finish is 30 minutes! Best part about this is that it can be easily customized for picky eaters or flavor preferences by letting each person add on their own toppings!
If you’re looking for an easy, but healthy meal the whole family and guests will enjoy, this gluten-free tortilla soup is a great choice!
I often get requests from people wanting more recipes and ideas for family meals. I well remember that after my diagnosis, one of the big questions I had was, “What am I going to feed my family for dinner?”
Over the years, I’ve adapted a lot of recipes to suit our gluten-free household. I’ve posted many gluten-free main dishes. My gluten-free soup recipes are the most popular meals on my site, and all of them are family favorites too.
I thought it was time for a new soup recipe to add to our rotation of family friendly soups. I remembered having a chicken tortilla soup years ago, which was good, albeit a bit simple/boring. I thought I might be able to use that as a base recipe and then add additional seasonings and ideas I’ve picked up along the way that could improve the soup.
While I’d previously had this soup with crunchy corn tortilla strips, this time I wanted to see if I could use gluten-free flour tortillas. My only concern was that flour tortillas mightget mushy quickly. I’m happy to say that I discovered a method that works perfectly and results in crunchy flour tortilla strips that are just perfect mixed in with the soup.
The gluten-free tortilla strips are made by brushing the gluten-free tortilla with olive oil and sprinkling with salt, then slicing with a pizza cutter into strips. Then the strips are baked in a hot oven until crispy.
Notes on ingredients for this Gluten-free Chicken Tortilla Soup:
- Tortilla – I used Mission Gluten-free Soft Taco Tortillas but other brands of gluten-free tortillas will work well too. I only needed one large tortilla to make enough for our 4 servings of soup, but if you’re doubling or tripling the recipe, you’ll want to do the same with the tortilla strips.
- Chicken Broth- Be sure to use a chicken broth that is clearly labeled gluten-free, or use your own homemade chicken stock. I use Pacific Foods Organic Chicken Broth. If you opt for a low-sodium chicken broth, be sure to taste your finished soup to make sure you don’t need to add a bit of salt for flavor.
- Diced Tomatoes – I prefer the petite diced tomatoes instead of the regular sized chunks. This would be great made with Ro-tel diced tomatoes and green chiles.
The soup itself is gluten-free and dairy-free. You can use dairy-free cheese and dairy-free sour cream alternative on top if you need to be dairy-free, or just omit them. The soup is quite flavorful enough without them too.
This is truly a 30 minute meal! I was running a stop watch while I cooked and prepared to serve. Even with writing the recipe down and adjusting seasonings as I worked, I still got it done in 30 minutes!
Another easy soup recipe for a weeknight is this easy turkey soup – I love how it sneaks in a lot of veggies!
If you have a little more time for a soup dinner, check out this Caldo de Pallo recipe. It takes a couple hours to cook but is super easy. If you love using an Instant Pot, you should try this recipe for Creamy Enchilada Soup in the Instant Pot. With both of these recipes, you can use my recipe to make the tortilla strips to have with them!
If you make this soup and enjoy it, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.
Recipe for Gluten-free Chicken Tortilla Soup:
Yield: 6 servings
30 minute Chicken Tortilla Soup {Gluten-free, Dairy-free option}
This gluten-free chicken tortilla soup is a quick and easy weeknight meal!
Only the toppings for this soup have dairy, so you can easily omit them or use dairy-free versions of the cheese and sour cream as needed for your dairy-free family. We aren't dairy-free, so we had real cheese and sour cream.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Ingredients
- 32 oz. gluten-free chicken broth
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken tenders (uncooked)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp. chili powder
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 cup corn (frozen or canned-drained)
- 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 tsp. turmeric
Toppings:
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese (dairy or non-dairy)
- 1/2 cup sour cream (optional, dairy or non-dairy)
- 1/2 avocado, sliced and diced
- 1/2 lime, sliced
- Fresh cilantro (just a pinch or two depending on preference)
Tortilla Strips:
- 1 large gluten-free flour tortilla
- 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Before you begin cooking, turn your oven on to 400˚. Get all ingredients out before you begin. You can do the tasks such as shredding cheese and slicing avocado and lime while the soup is cooking.
Soup:
- To a dutch oven or large pot, add the chicken broth, raw chicken, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, and paprika. Turn heat to high to bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking for 10 minutes, prepare tortilla strips. See below for instructions.
- Turn heat to lowest setting. Remove chicken from pot onto cutting board. Shred the chicken meat with two forks. Return chicken to soup pot and turn to high heat.
- Add diced tomatoes with juice and corn to soup mixture. Boil on high heat for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice, pepper and tumeric. Scoop out a bit to cool and taste. You may desire to increase any seasonings or add some salt if desired. I didn't need to, but know everyone has different tastes!
Tortilla Strips:
- Lay one tortilla on a piece of parchment paper on a cutting board. Use a brush to spread olive oil over the tortilla. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over tortilla. Use a pizza cutter to slice into strips that are about 1/8" to 1/4" in width in one direction. Then slice four cuts in the other direction. Slide entire sheet of parchment onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake in 400˚ oven for 10 min. Remove from oven when done and set aside until ready to serve.
To serve, ladle into soup bowls and add desired toppings: tortilla strips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, lime, cilantro.
Notes
Optional: You can also add a small can of diced green chilis if your family likes those! For a little more heat, you can also use a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles or jalepenos instead of just the plain diced tomatoes.
If using canned corn, drain the water from it first.
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I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as mine did!
