I’m a soup-all-year-long type of person. Soup is tasty. Soup is filling. Soup freezes well. And this Chicken and Lime Soup is where it’s at. The clear broth is light enough for summer, and has a deliciously spicy, sour, and salty broth that will keep you coming back for more, and more, and MORE. If you want to change up your chicken soup game, this Chicken and Lime Soup is the way to go!
This Chicken and Lime Soup was inspired by a trip to a Mexican restaurant where I had the most amazing tangy Caldo Xochitl. I added more lime because I’m a lime fiend, and it gave the soup the perfect mix between spicy, salty, and sour – that same famous combo that makes Chinese hot & sour soup so delish. There’s just something about that flavor combination that tickles all the right parts of your tongue!
Make Your Chicken and Lime Soup Mild
The recipe as written is fairly spicy. The heat comes from the jalapeño pepper and the diced tomatoes with green chiles. If you’d like to make your Chicken and Lime Soup mild, simply skip the jalapeño pepper and use a 15 oz. can of regular diced tomatoes, or fire roasted diced tomatoes, in place of the tomatoes with green chiles.
Diced Tomatoes with Green Chiles Substitutes
If canned diced tomatoes with green chiles are not sold in your area, you can use a 15 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes plus one 4 oz. can of diced green chiles. Or, leave the green chiles out and use a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. You can also dice up a fresh hatch green chile and sauté that with the onion, celery, and garlic in the beginning of the recipe.
Use More Chicken if Desired
Using only a small amount of meat in my recipes is kind of my calling card, so that’s what I did here. One chicken breast, shredded so you get a little bit in every spoonful, is all I needed. If you prefer more meat in your dishes, you can use two chicken breasts in this recipe without having to make any other adjustments.
Topping Your Chicken and Lime Soup
For me, topping soup with lots of stuff is half the fun, and you have a lot of topping options with this one. I wrote avocado into the recipe because I really feel like that topping is critical and really makes the soup flavors well rounded, but the rest are totally optional. When I have tortilla chips on hand, I like to use those like I would crackers in other soup, crushing them up so they can soak up that awesome broth. A little dab of sour cream would be awesome, as would a few pickled red onions.
Chicken and Lime Soup
Servings 6 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.21)
- 3 ribs celery (about 1/4 bunch) ($0.37)
- 1 jalapenño ($0.17)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 3/4 lb.) ($2.32)
- 6 cups chicken broth* ($0.78)
- 2 10oz. cans diced tomatoes with green chiles (Rotel) ($0.90)
- 1 tsp oregano ($0.10)
- 1/2 Tbsp cumin ($0.15)
- 1 lime ($0.22)
- 1/2 bunch cilantro ($0.40)
- 1 avocado ($1.50)
Instructions
- Dice the onion, celery, and jalapeño (scrape the seeds out of the jalapeño before dicing). Mince the garlic. Add the onion, celery, jalapeño, garlic, and olive oil to a large soup pot and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add the chicken breast, chicken broth, diced tomatoes with chiles (with juices), oregano, and cumin to the pot. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to high, and bring the broth up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let the pot simmer for 45 minutes.
- After simmering for 45 minutes, carefully remove the chicken breast from the pot and use two forks to shred the meat. Return the shredded meat to the pot. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the soup (2-3 Tbsp juice).
- Rinse the cilantro and then roughly chop the leaves. Add the chopped cilantro to the soup, give it a quick stir, then serve. Slice the avocado and add a few slices to each bowl.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Video
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chicken and Lime Soup – Step By Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, three ribs of celery, and one jalapeño. Mince four cloves of garlic.
Before dicing the jalapeño, slice it in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scrape out the white ribs and seeds. These are the hottest parts of the jalapeño, so removing them first will give you a little more jalapeño flavor and a little less heat.
Add the celery, onion, jalapeño, and garlic to a large soup pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.
Add one boneless, skinless chicken breast to the pot (about 3/4 lb.). Then add 6 cups chicken broth (I use Better Than Bouillon so I can mix up any amount needed at any time).
Next, add two 10 oz. cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles. If you can only find 15 oz cans, you can use one. Or, if you can not find canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, you can either use diced tomatoes and one 4 oz. can of green chiles, or just use fire roasted diced tomatoes.
In addition to the diced tomatoes with green chiles, also add 1/2 Tbsp cumin and 1 tsp dried oregano.
Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to high, and allow it to come up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let the soup simmer for 45 minutes (lid on).
After simmering for 45 minutes, the chicken should be tender enough to shred. Carefully remove it from the pot to a clean cutting board, then use two forks to shred the meat into small pieces. Return the shredded meat to the soup pot.
Squeeze the juice from one lime (about 2-3 Tbsp) into the broth. To get the most juice out of the lime, I like to cut it in half, squeeze as much by hand, then insert a spoon into the lime and twist to squeeze out the rest.
Rinse the cilantro to make sure there’s no sand hiding in there, then give it a rough chop. You don’t have to take the time to carefully remove all stems. Cilantro stems are tender enough to enjoy. Stir the cilantro into the soup.
Slice the avocado and add a few slices to each bowl just before serving! Enjoy!
Is one chicken breast enough to make six servings?
My recipes are typically not very meat-heavy, but you can always add more if you’d like. :)
When anyone in my house is sick, I make this soup. Very easy to tweak and make your own, but it’s also great as is. When my husband and I were first dating, this was the first meal I made for him. He had 3 bowls in one sitting :-)
Delicious, flexible, and quick to make. I add extra of all the spices, because why the heck not? Also, it’s already super healthy as it is, but I’ve gotten into the habit of adding kale at the very end to make it a wee bit heartier – it would definitely accommodate a plethora of other veggies if you felt so inclined.
Loved it! I didn’t have celery so I added carrots. Made it for my housekeeper, and she suggested throwing a can of pinto beans in which was delicious and then she said to pour it over rice. Easy-peasy! I’ll probably also add corn next time.
This recipe is so incredibly delicious. Do you think I could substitute red peppers for the tomatoes?
I’m not sure how much that will affect the flavor without trying it, but if you do decide to try it I would definitely also add a small can of diced green chiles. You don’t want to miss those or the flavor will definitely be affected!
This has become a staple for me! I make it about twice a month for meal prep, adding 2-3 sliced carrots with the onion and celery, a bay leaf or 2, a couple of diced zucchini about 10 mins before pulling the chicken out, and juice an extra lime. Anything left at the end of the week gets frozen in a large silicone muffin pan, then stored for dinners when I’m not up for cooking. Such a great recipe!
Any idea how to best adapt this for an instant pot?
I’d probably use the sauté function in the beginning and then once all the ingredients are added I’d use the poultry setting to make sure the chicken cooks to the point where it is shreddable. :)
This is now a staple dinner item in our family. We love spice and lime juice so I add a little extra of both. I make it in the crockpot and it turns out great! (I’m so lazy) If you don’t like spice, you’ll still love this recipe. I’ve made it with and without the kick and it’s fantastic.
Love love this!
I didn’t have everything in the recipe so I did #MakeDoRecipe by using chicken drumsticks (thighs would work also) as I don’t purchase breast meat. More cumin, onions, garlic less oregano. No jalapeño, so diced tomatoes and canned green chilies. Two corn tortillas sliced into bite sized pieces and quick fried.
ATM I am on the beach in the tropics rather than the PNW on a heavy fog.
The fragrance is delicious. Of course I didn’t wait to taste until dinner as I am not a masochist.
This soup is delicious! We like to add corn and black beans and extra lime. Excellent recipe!
This was super delicious!! I think next time I’ll cut the onion in half and also add some carrots to punch up the veggies. I did leave the seeds in the jalapeño and put in two limes’ worth of juice, but I really like lime juice. I also was able to get tenderloins cheaper than chicken breast so used that instead, which is a little bit of a pain to try to fish out with tongs but definitely was easier to shred and I felt like the chicken was able to absorb the flavors of the broth more. It was super delicious and it made enough for me to eat all week!
Just made this – it’s fantastic!
Does this soup freeze well?
Yes, it does! :)
I make this often! It’s sooo good and flavorful!! I add broccoli to mine 😋
Easy and delicious! We like it spicy so don’t remove seeds from the jalapeno. We fry up some strips of corn tortilla and sprinkle some lime salt (Tajin) on them then top the soup with them. Thanks for a winner!
Love this … simple, delicious and fast. We already had the homemade chicken broth and shredded chicken, so that made it extra tasty and swift. Some changes based on what we had in the kitchen: no celery, used 1 serrano chile pepper instead of jalapeño, used a 14.5 fired roasted tomatoes b/c didn’t have what the recipe called for. I’d like to try it spicier as the recipe calls for, just for comparison…but this was deelish even in its more milder version. Also, doubled the cumin and toasted it before adding to the soup.