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.
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Notes
Nutrition
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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!
I just went back for seconds. Amazing. Very easy.
Just made this tonight…it was great (especially since my sinuses are messed up)…I served this with some cheesy corn bread (next time I’m adding jalapenos to the corn bread). The only thing I changed about this recipe was that I added some frozen corn at the end as well as some black beans, then I just heated the soup through a little bit more after shredding the chicken as well as the extra veg and it was PERFECT…:) Love your recipes girl!
I love love love this recipe! I always add a can of black beans to help bulk it up. A dab of sour cream makes it so creamy/delicious!
Just made this soup and it’s amazing. Think I’ll add black beans and corn next time to make it a little more hearty
This was my first recipe I’ve made from your website and holy schmoly was it good! I’m sick with a cold or allergies, I’m really not sure which one it is, so I’m congested. I figured I might as well find something with some kick to see if it helped.
Well this did! I followed the recipe exactly other than adding 3 chicken breasts total as I needed to use them up but this was delicious and I’m going to make it over and over!
So good! Just made this and OMG !! Thank you for the recipe. I added corn and more lime. Delicious!
This was a hit. I didn’t add the jalapeno, though– plenty of heat without it!
I made this in the slow cooker today. Truly great. I added the lime juice about 30 minutes before eating it and added the cilantro at the very end. Before I added the lime juice and a bit of salt, the soup was REALLY hot…too hot. With the juice and salt, it had a milder heat. I had to have a bowl before I even made my flour tortillas to go with the soup (Rick Bayless’s recipe, and they are easy and good).
This soup is amazing. Made it yesterday for lunch, then the family and I finished it off for dinner. Now, I’m making another batch for lunch today! So good. Thanks for giving us such amazingly delicious and economical recipes!
Hi Beth, new to the site and loving it! It’s snowy and blustery out- too cold to trek to the store for one ingredient. Perfect soup weather ;)
So….do you think I can sub my home-made salsa for the can of diced tomato w. green chili’s?
(Granted it has gone thru the food-processor and isn’t chunky, but made with diced tomato & green chilis, among other things. It’s the pioneer woman’s restaurant salsa for any of you salsa lovers, stuff is ADDICTIVE)
Thanks for your advice, and keep up the great blog!
Probably! I think that sounds really good :)
I just wanted to let you know that this soup is amazing!!! Even my picky eaters ate their share and wanted more, next time I will either double the batch. Well, if I want left over I might have to triple it! (I have teenage boys that love to eat!)
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I’m glad I doubled the recipe. I added canned black beans to give it more bulk, but that was the only change I made. So easy. Healthy and low-calorie, too!
I just made this using the slow cooker. I used about 8 cups of broth and just threw all of the ingredients in (minus the avocado, cilantro, and lime, which I added at the end). I also added uncooked brown rice and carrots to the slow cooker. Didn’t use cumin. Left a few of the jalapeño seeds for spice. Came out great!
I only have vegetable broth on hand. Do you think this is ok to use or should I run out for chicken broth? Excited to try this!
Vegetable broth (to me) has a much stronger flavor. I think the chicken broth works much better here.
Made this last night and added rice. I wish i had not cause it soaked up too much of the broth, but next time would chose instead to put in corn. It was challenging, i dont cook with onions often and cried like a baby, then i cut up the jalapeno and accidentally scratched the inside of my nose and rubbed my eye even though i washed my hands. It still burned something fierce. most painful meal i have cooked but still tasty. I loved it.