Copycat Chili’s Southwest Chicken Soup is a mouth-watering one-pot comforting meal that tastes just as good as the real deal with little effort in the kitchen!
The combination of chicken sausage, black beans, corn, tortilla strips, tomatoes, and Mexican spice flavors results in a comforting and filling family meal that’s perfect for those chilly winter evenings or anytime of the year!
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Southwest chicken soup is a complete meal that you can bulk up even more with your favorite garnishes.
- This hearty soup can easily be made in advance and stored in the fridge for freezer - ready to be reheated and topped with garnish.
- This recipe tastes just as good as the real deal. It’s restaurant-quality at a fraction of the cost!
Enjoy one of Florida’s most famous soup dishes prepared in your own Crockpot, ready for family dinner at the press of a button!
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are listed in the recipe card below.
- coconut oil or vegetable oil
- onion
- fresh garlic
- chile powder
- ground cumin
- dried oregano
- dried basil
- brown sugar
- 6-inch corn tortillas -- for the soup and topping
- chicken sausage -- we bought Chipotle Monterey Jack Chicken Sausage from Walmart.
- canned black beans
- petite diced canned tomatoes
- can crushed tomatoes
- roasted red peppers
- chicken broth or chicken stock
- kosher salt
- ground black pepper
- frozen corn -- petite size
- Optional garnishes (sliced radishes, fried tortilla chips, sliced avocados, grated cheese, black olives, diced jalapeños, queso blanco, cilantro leaves.
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Mix coconut oil, onion, garlic, spices, basil, and brown sugar to a microwave-safe bowl.
- Cook on high power for 1 minute. Stir. Cook for another 3 minutes.
- Transfer mixture to a slow cooker.
- Cut stacked tortillas into thin slices.
- Place the slices into a bowl of chicken broth and cook on high in microwave for 5 minutes.
- Transfer strips and broth to the slow cooker.
- Add chicken sausage, black beans, tomatoes, red peppers, remaining broth, cilantro, and salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Add corn.
- Stir well.
- Prepare oven-fried tortilla chips with drizzled coconut oil.
- Bake the strips for 7-9 minutes, redistributing them on the tray after the first 3 minutes.
- Serve with garnishes of choice: oven-fried tortilla chips, sour cream, Greek yogurt, sliced radishes, sliced avocados, cheese, black olives, jalapeños, queso blanco, and chopped cilantro.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Crockpot or slow cooker
- Ladle
- Soup bowls or soup cups
- Can opener
- Measuring spoons
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making Our Chili's copycat Southwest Chicken Soup recipe.
This dish is worth about 250 calories per bowl of Chili's Southwest Chicken Soup.
14 grams of carbs account towards the total calories in Chili’s Southwest Chicken soup.
Black bean soup is a classic soup in Florida.
1 cup of this soup consists of about 110 calories made up of 14g carbs, 5g fat, and 4g protein.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- If you plan to store this Southwest soup in the freezer, first allow the soup to cool completely and then transfer the soup into Ziploc bags of individual portions for easy defrosting and reheating of the exact portions you require.
- This soup is already gluten-free. To thicken the soup, add a cornstarch slurry to the mixture to keep the dish gluten-free.
- Only add the corn at the end of the cooking time otherwise it will disintegrate from prolonged cooking.
📚 Variations
- Use dry beans instead of canned. To prepare dry beans, first, wash and rinse the beans and then add them to a pot of water where they are fully submerged. Bring the pot to a boil for a few minutes and then allow the beans to soak for at least an hour.
- This Southwest soup works well with black beans but you can also experiment with a variety of beans - Pinto, Great Northern beans, and Garbanzo work really well.
- Chicken sausage is best for this Southwest soup but turkey sausage can also be used.
- Use a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes instead of regular canned tomatoes for a little kick of heat. Jalapenos can also be added.
- Vegetable broth can be used instead of chicken broth.
- For creamy decadence, add some cream cheese into the soup mixture.
🥫 Storage
Once completely cool, store leftover Southwest chicken soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat single portions in the microwave or larger portions on the stovetop.
📗 Related Recipes
Chicken soup is good for the soul and easy on the budget! Here are some of my favorite chicken soups you won’t want to skip past:
- Buffalo Chicken Soup - This recipe is the soup version of your favorite Buffalo chicken wings, matching the spiciness of frank's hot sauce!
- Southwest Chicken Tortellini Soup With Spinach - This quick and easy chicken soup is another Southwest favorite, loaded with tender pasta, baby spinach, chunky salsa, and chicken.
- Chicken Minestrone - Nothing beats a minestrone soup. I’ve added chicken to this meaty version for additional bulk and a balanced family meal.
🍽 Serve with
This Copycat Chili’s Southwest Chicken Soup is a complete meal, especially with all the garnish options. You can also enjoy this copycat soup with a side of cornbread, grilled cheese sandwiches, buttered dinner rolls, or homemade buttermilk biscuits.
If you can't resist a big hunk of cornbread with your Mexican flavored soups, then this Easy Skillet Cornbread Recipe is the one you want to make and serve.
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
If you’re a fan of Chili’s Southwest Chicken soup like I am then you’re going to love this copycat recipe! It’s so good, the family didn’t even notice the difference - restaurant quality without much fuss in the kitchen and simple Mexican-inspired ingredients that you probably already have on hand!
While I love warm and comforting soups during winter, this Copycat Chili’s Southwest Chicken Soup is one I keep on rotation throughout the year!
And speaking of Chili's love, you have to make the copycat Cajun Chicken Pasta recipe for your family. It's quick, easy, tastes delicious, and on the table in 30 minutes.
Tutti a tavolo, è pronto!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
Hearty like chili yet brothy like soup, this Copycat Chili’s Southwest Chicken Soup will soon become your favorite soup of the season! It’s loaded with chicken sausage, spice, veggies, tortilla strips, and tons of Mexican flavors. Enjoy this restaurant-quality soup with fluffy dinner rolls or garlic bread.
We love any recipe with creamy beans, especially cannellini beans. If you think like we do, you must try our savory baked bean recipe, Fagioli al Forno.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Chili's Copycat Southwest Chicken Soup
Ingredients
For the soup:
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil may use vegetable oil
- 1 large onion diced small
- 4 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1 Tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 6 corn tortillas 6-inch
- 12 ounces chicken sausage** precooked sliced in half lengthwise then cut into ½-inch half moons
- 45 ounces black beans 3- 15 ounce cans, drained and rinsed.
- 28 ounces petite diced tomatoes 2- 14 ounce cans
- 14.5 ounce crushed tomatoes 1 - 14½ ounce can
- 1 cup roasted red peppers diced
- 4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock divided
- ½ cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 14 ounce frozen corn thawed
For the tortilla garnish:
- 6 corn tortillas 6 inch
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil melted
Equipment Needed
Instructions
- In a medium-size microwave bowl combine the 1 Tablespoon coconut oil, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, basil, and brown sugar. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Cook on high power for 1 minute. Remove and stir.Recover and return to microwave and cook for another 3 minutes on high power. Carefully remove the plastic wrap. The contents are VERY hot. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker.
- Rinse the bowl - you'll be using it again. Stack 6 corn tortillas on a cutting board. Cut them in half and then cut the halves into thin slices.Place the tortilla slices int eh bowl with 2 cups of chicken broth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and cover on high power in the microwave for 5 minutes. Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the bowl. The broth is very hot. Add the tortilla strips and broth to the crockpot.
- Add the chicken sausage, black beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, remaining broth, cilantro, salt and pepper to the slow cooker.Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Add the corn, stir well and serve with your choice of garnishes. We suggest the following: oven-fried tortilla chips, sour cream, Greek yogurt, sliced radishes, sliced avocados, cheese, black olives, jalapeños, queso blanco, chopped cilantro.
Oven-fried tortilla strips:
- Preheat oven to 400℉ and line a sheet pan with foil (this is for easy clean-up).
- Stack corn tortillas on cutting board and cut in half. Then cut the halves into strips lengthwise or widthwise, any way you prefer. Place the strips on the prepared sheet pan and drizzle with the melted coconut oil. Toss well so that the strips are coated with the oil. Sprinkle with salt.
- Bake for 3 minutes then remove from oven and using a spatula or tongs, redistribute so they bake evenly.
- Bake another 4-6 minutes or until tortilla strips are a pale golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Notes
- If you plan to store this Southwest soup in the freezer, first allow the soup to cool completely and then transfer the soup into Ziploc bags of individual portions for easy defrosting and reheating of the exact portions you require.
- This soup is already gluten-free. To thicken the soup, add a cornstarch slurry to the mixture to keep the dish gluten-free.
- Only add the corn at the end of the cooking time otherwise it will disintegrate from prolonged cooking.
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