Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup can officially go down as one of my favorite meals ever! I have always been partial to this soup on restaurant menus & one of my very favorites has always been Chili’s version of this recipe.

Many years ago I found a make alike recipe that helped me “crack the code” on how to make this yummy soup. For some strange reason, this soup I love so much got put on the figurative “back burner”.

Really more than the back burner, I have no idea where that recipe went and haven’t made it since, but I still recall two key ingredients: masa harina & Velveeta.

Now – many years later, I decided to make my own version of Creamy Tortilla Soup.

I started by making my homemade chicken stock using rotisserie chicken bones I have been saving & freezing.

Once the stock was finished simmering away, I added just a few things to make this yummy soup:

• evaporated milk
• my homemade taco seasoning 
• cream cheese ((light works great))
• rotisserie chicken

• celery, carrots & onions
• diced tomatoes

• masa harina

I heated the veggies and taco seasoning first. This allowed the natural oils from the spices to release and the veggies to sweat a little. Be careful at this stage – stirring frequently. The spices can burn easily and that is bad ((trust me I know)).

I was so distracted after burning my first batch of seasoning & veggies that the next picture I snapped was when I added some salt and masa to the soup. After the veggies and seasoning did their thing ((which wasn’t the part where they burned)), here is what happened next, I added: 

• Homemade stock to my pot, leaving about 1½” of space from the top.  ((This is a 7qt pot))
• One can of evaporated milk ((there are 2 pictured but I only used one)). Using evaporated milk in place of cream & calories cuts the fat by a lot!
• 1 to 1½ c masa harina ((Start out with 1 cup and add more if necessary)).
• 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt, or season to taste. ((I used salt-free homemade stock and salt-free taco seasoning, so the amount of salt I used may differ from what you need.))

Give it all a good stir & allow the masa grains to soften and work some thickening magic. At this point, you may want to add another ½ c or so depending on your desired thickness. What is nice about using masa is it adds that yummy corn tortilla flavor & thickens the soup all at the same time. As a bonus for my GF friends, this allows this thick & creamy soup to be gluten-free.

As the sun lowered outside, I finally switched the lights on inside! What a difference the interior lights make! I allowed the soup to simmer away for 45 minutes or so before adding the chicken & softened cream cheese. I stirred continuously until the cream cheese was completely incorporated in the soup.

I garnished the soup with some fresh cilantro and served it with my homemade oven roasted salsa. Wow, it was so good! Creamy & spicy and the masa added that yummy corn tortilla flavor I always hope to find in tortilla soup. The homemade chicken stock and added veggies screamed homemade goodness.

I am so happy the kiddos loved it — they called it queso soup. Hey, it does resemble queso which helped the carrots and celery go down a lot easier. Hopefully I can keep track of this recipe — it needs to be on repeat status for sure!