Chicken Enchilada Soup has all of the flavor you love in the classic enchilada! It's so easy to make, comforting as can be, and bursting with bold enchilada flavor.
Preheat a large Dutch oven or a soup pot over medium heat as add oil. Add sliced onions and sauté for a couple of minutes, until fragrant.
Add water, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to boil and you can scald the tomatoes at this point, to make it easier to peel the skin off. Do that before adding the chicken. To scald the tomatoes: Make a crisscross cut at the bottom of each tomato, just enough to slice the skin. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water and let them boil for just about 45 seconds. You will see that the skin will start to come off. Take the tomatoes out with a slotted spoon and set the aside.
Add chicken breasts to the pot, lower the heat to almost low and cook the broth for about 1 1/2 hours. (White foam-like substance will appear at the top, in the beginning, just take it off with a spoon and discard.)
Chicken Enchilada Soup:
Take the chicken breast out of the pot, place them into a bowl, and shred using two forks (you can also dice shredded chicken for a smaller, bite-sized pieces). Set aside.
Pour the broth through a strainer and discard the cooked onions and bay leaf.
Return the pot to the heat, set the heat to medium, and add some oil.
Add diced onions to the pot and sauté until starts to golden. Add diced tomatoes and diced chili pepper and cook until starts to soften. Make a little well in the middle of the veggies and add minced garlic. Sauté until fragrant.
Add shredded chicken chicken and mix. Stir in the broth, tomato paste, and seasoning. Stir well and bring to a simmer.
Lower the heat so the soup is cooking on a slow and gentle simmer and let it cook for about 15 minutes.
Add the lime juice and freshly minced cilantro and cook for a few seconds. Add in heavy whipping cream, let it heat through, and take off heat.
Top each serving bowl of soup with any of your favorite toppings.
Notes
Want to thicken the soup? If you prefer your soups more thick rather than brothy, you can thicken it by simply adding some flour. Depending on how think you’d like it, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour to the veggies in the pot after they’ve softened (right between steps 4 and 5). Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and mix well until veggies are coated. Slowly pour in the chicken stock ad you stir. Once combined, add in the shredded chicken and seasoning. Keep stirring until the soup starts to thicken.
Make it spicier? This soup is pretty mild but if you wish, it’s pretty easy to adjust spice level. To make it more spicy, you can add another 1/2-1 teaspoons of chili powder and/or, add a fresh chili pepper with or without the seeds. Remember that chili peppers store most of their spice in the seeds and membrane.