🍲 What Makes This Recipe So Good
This recipe is a PERFECT copycat for McAlister’s chicken tortilla soup. Creamy and deliciously cheesy, with a little touch of spice and juicy rotisserie chicken. Pair it with a giant sweet tea and you’d never know the difference! Soup makes a wonderful meal prep or freezer meal. It’s so easy to portion into individual containers and reheat when you’re ready to eat. You can refrigerate the cooled soup up to 4 days, or you can freeze it in containers or freezer bags up to 3 months. Just let it defrost in the fridge overnight and then reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop until it’s heated through. If you compare the nutrition information between this soup and an actual bowl of McAlister’s chicken tortilla soup, ours comes out ahead in several areas! The calories are roughly equal (McAlister’s is slightly lower), and ours does contain more grams of fat per serving than their version. Ours has a higher protein count and a much lower carb count, though. There’s also less sodium in our version.
👩🏼‍🍳 Chef’s Tips
There’s a decent amount of dairy in this recipe, and when you’re adding dairy to hot liquids, there are some real must-dos to… well, do. It’s really important that the heavy cream and the cheese are at room temperature when you start the recipe. If they’re too cold, they’ll curdle or separate when they’re added to the hot broth mixture. If you forget to take them out of the fridge early enough, you can warm them very gradually, but be careful not to get them too hot or heat them too fast. Rapidly heating dairy products can also cause them to separate. Another must-do that’ll help ensure the dairy products incorporate smoothly is to move the stockpot off the heat and let the broth cool slightly before adding the cream and cheese. The lower the temperature difference between the broth and the dairy products, the less risk there is of curdling. We’re only using 1 cup of rotisserie chicken, which keeps the recipe similar to McAlister’s chicken tortilla soup. You’re absolutely welcome to double or even triple the amount of chicken for a soup with more protein. You also don’t have to use rotisserie chicken if you’d prefer not to. If you’ve got boneless, skinless chicken breasts on hand, check out my recipe for the absolute BEST shredded chicken EVER.
Try These Soup Recipes While You’re Here
Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta Soup Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup Pork Stew Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Soup Instant Pot Clam Chowder Creamy Keto Taco Soup Instant Pot Cajun Chicken Pasta Soup Whole30 White Chicken Chili Oyster Brie Soup (from Hollywood Brown Derby) Homemade Southwest Chicken Soup (Chili’s Copycat) Buffalo Chicken Soup Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup
