Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup (2024)

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5 from 48 votes

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 Total Time: 55 minutes minutes

Published: December 16, 2022Updated: February 25, 2023

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This creamy chicken enchilada soup is cheesy, comfort food made on the stovetop or in your slow cooker or instant pot for an easy, family-friendly meal the whole crew will love!

Looking for more easy, healthy, and crazy delicious recipes? Try these posts: Slow Cooker Beef Roast, Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef, and Slow Cooker Chicken Marsala.

Why This Recipe Works

Simple ingredients — The ingredients in this enchilada soup recipe couldn’t be any simpler. Chicken, a few spices, some cream cheese, canned beans and corn, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, and chicken broth — that’s about it and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand right now!

Kid-approved — My kids can be picky but this is not a soup they’ll turn away. In fact, sometimes I get a bit miffed when they eat more than one serving because that just means less for me tomorrow!

Customizable — I mentioned my kids love this dish, and that’s mostly because it’s tasty but not spicy. That’s where the customization comes in. I keep it mild for them but then add crushed red pepper flakes and hot sauce to mine. Sliced jalapenos work well too. You can also change up the kind of beans you put in, skip the corn, use a can of chili-ready tomatoes, try out some chipotles — really, anything you like to make it yours.

Ingredients

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts — You can also stir in leftover shredded chicken or rotisserie chicken if you prefer.
Chicken Broth — I think low-sodium chicken broth is the way to go, then just add salt later to taste.
Cumin and Cayenne Pepper — For flavor!
Cream Cheese — I use light cream cheese to lighten the fat content of this dish a bit but you could also use full-fat cream cheese too.
Black Beans — Any kind of canned beans is great in this chicken enchilada soup recipe. You’ll want to pour them out and rinse them off first before adding to the slow cooker.
Yellow Corn — I use a low-salt version of canned corn kernels. Again, rinse and drain before adding to the soup.
Enchilada Sauce — One 15 ounce can of enchilada sauce.
Tomato Sauce — Any kind of name brand tomato sauce is great in this recipe.
Chicken Broth — Chicken broth will be more flavorful in this recipe but you can also substitute water if you don’t have any broth on hand.
Optional Toppings: And now for the best part of any soup: the toppings! My favorites to add to this cream enchilada soup include tomatoes, shredded cheese, tortilla chip strips, avocados, and cilantro.

Here’s How You Make It

Heat the oil in a large lidded saucepan or Dutch oven set over a medium high heat. Fry the onions until soft but not yet starting to color with a pinch of salt. Stir in the minced garlic. Cook for a further minute, then add the cumin. Cook for a minute more. (photo 1)
Add the remaining ingredients (chicken broth, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, black beans, corn and the cayenne pepper). Stir, then add the chicken breasts. Bring the soup to a simmer, then cook on medium with the lid on for 20 minutes. (photo 2/3)
Remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with two forks. (photo 4)
Whisk in the cream cheese until melted into the soup and return the shredded chicken. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the chicken is heated through. (photo 4)
Season to taste with fresh lime juice and salt before serving with your choice of toppings. (unpictured)

Expert Tips and Tricks

As I mentioned above, you can use a 15 ounce can of enchilada sauce or you can make your own homemade enchilada sauce.
This creamy enchilada soup will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Shredding chicken tip: Use a hand mixer! If you find shredding with two forks too tedious, then you can take the chicken out of the slow cooker, put it in a deep bowl and use a hand mixer to shred it, then place it back into the slow cooker. Just be careful though — the chicken is hot!

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Freeze Enchilada Soup?

Yes, you can freeze chicken enchilada soup. But, any cheese you add to the soup when cooking tends to separate in the freezer. For this reason, I suggest you make the enchilada soup recipe as directed but omit the cream cheese. Freeze. Then, when you’re ready to eat the soup, simply thaw and add the cream cheese to the soup when you reheat it, making sure to stir it in thoroughly.

More Delicious Soup Recipes

Vegetable Beef Soup
Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Easy Creamy Potato Soup
Instant Pot Chili

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Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup Recipe

This creamy chicken enchilada soup is cheesy, comfort food made on the stovetop or in your slow cooker or instant pot for an easy, family-friendly meal the whole crew will love!

5 from 48 votes

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Ingredients

▢ 1 tablespoon olive oil
▢ 1 yellow onion - diced
▢ 1-2 teaspoons salt - to taste
▢ 2 teaspoons minced garlic
▢ 1 tablespoon ground cumin
▢ 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
▢ 1 15-ounce can mild enchilada sauce
▢ 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
▢ 1 15-ounce can black beans - drained and lightly rinsed
▢ 1 15-ounce can corn - drained and lightly rinsed
▢ pinch of cayenne pepper
▢ 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
▢ 8 ounces cream cheese - softened
▢ juice of 1 lime
▢ tortilla strips, sliced avocado, cilantro, shredded cheese or crumbled queso fresco, sliced jalapeno - optional toppings

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large lidded saucepan or Dutch oven set over a medium high heat. Fry the onions until soft but not yet starting to color with a pinch of salt. Stir in the minced garlic. Cook for a further minute, then add the cumin. Cook for a minute more.
Add the chicken broth, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, black beans, corn and the cayenne pepper. Stir, then add the chicken breasts. Bring the soup to a simmer, then cook on medium with the lid on for 20 minutes.
Remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with two forks.
Whisk in the cream cheese until melted into the soup and return the shredded chicken. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the chicken is heated through.
Season to taste with fresh lime juice and salt before serving with your choice of toppings.

Notes

For the Slow Cooker: Cook the onions, garlic and cumin as usual, and transfer to the slow cooker. Alternatively, cook these straight in the slow cooker insert if you have a sear-and-stew model or on sauté if you’re using the slow cooker setting of a multi cooker. Add the chicken, only 1 cup of broth, the enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, black beans, corn, cayenne and chicken. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through. Finish the recipe as usual.

For the Instant Pot: Perform step 1 in an Instant Pot set to SAUTE. Add ingredients as in step 2 then cover with lid, turn vent valve to SEALED position and set to pressure cook (or “manual”) for 13 minutes. Turn valve to VENT to release pressure, then proceed with shredding the chicken and whisking in cream cheese as written in step 4.

Spice it up: Try it with medium enchilada sauce for a bit more heat.

No tomato sauce: If you are following this recipe where plain canned or jarred tomato sauce is not available 15 oz of passata can be easily substituted.

Veggies: Frozen corn or pre-cooked dried beans can easily be substituted without any changes to the directions.

Leftovers: This recipe doesn’t freeze well with the cream cheese, but the leftovers heat up well and will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 219 kcal, Carbohydrates: 5 g, Protein: 12 g, Fat: 17 g, Saturated Fat: 8 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6 g, Trans Fat: 0.01 g, Cholesterol: 62 mg, Sodium: 574 mg, Potassium: 290 mg, Fiber: 0.5 g, Sugar: 2 g, Vitamin A: 534 IU, Vitamin C: 2 mg, Calcium: 57 mg, Iron: 1 mg

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Author: Tiffany

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