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!
Just made this tonight. It’s SO good. My husband really loved it too.
I made this yesterday for a baby shower. The mom to be is diabetic, so I went looking for low card soups. So glad I found this. It was wonderful & extremely easy to make. I took some shortcuts (pre-chopped veggies) that weren’t budget friendly but I was under a time constraint. The soup came together quickly and was delicious; it is even better today! Thanks!
I was wondering if you had a calorie count for this yummy soup…. I tried calculating it my self but I gave up lol. Very yummy!
This is so flavorful and delicious. I lost my jalapeno but I had some habanero hot sauce that I substituted which was good. Who knew such a simple to make meal could be so delicious! Oh I also added some white rice while everything was simmering to add some extra substance and it worked out very well.
This was amazing! The broth I used was really salty, but it did bring out the flavors of everything. Another awesome recipe!
Can you add pasta like a rotini to the soup to make it a bit heartier? I’ve made it several times as is and it’s awesome! I’m wondering if adding pasta might throw off the flavors.
Personally I don’t think a thick pasta like rotini would “match” this soup. Maybe a thin, short pasta like what I used for this Sopa de Fideo?
Try white or brown rice!
What is a serving size? Thanks.
About 1.25-1.5 cups each.
I made a double batch, since I need to make lunch of a week in advance. Only thing is, don’t use twice the Cilantro. I did and it looked weird. I know, it’s only an aesthetic thing, but still. Other than that, it turned out great.
Oh, also smashed a piece of avocado and added it to my bowl to see what it’d be like. IT WAS AWESOME!! The zesty lime. The tomatoey tomato. The buttery avocado. MMM.
I made this for dinner tonight and it is delicious! I only had regular diced tomatoes on hand so I doubled the jalapenos. It was really good, and now I have leftovers for the rest of the week.
This is a fantastic soup! well done.
I really love roasting a chicken for dinner the day before then using the bones and left over old root veggies in a crock pot ($15 from value village) over night to make chicken broth then make soup the next day. Nothing like a super low sodium home made chicken or beef broth :) Healthy, makes your house smell delicious and a great way to use up those wilting old onions, celery, potatos, garlic etc. :)
So this looked absolutely delicious and I had to try it…, but I am currently testing FODMAP sensitivities and can’t have garlic, onion, or celery. I changed a few things around though (extra chiles, double spices, smoked turkey, kale, double cilantro, and extra lime zest), and the result is delicious. Thanks for this! Makes eating on a small budget so much easier.
I noticed on a few posts you liking challenges. If you ever run out of them, try a low FODMAP challenge like the SNAP challenge. Maybe not as difficult, but garlic and onions are so delicious they’re hard to avoid.
(I feel like I can’t rate since I changed it so much… =/ )
This soup! So good and a snap to put together. Very nutritious and flavorful, it has a lot of personality and on an unpleasantly cold night like we had tonight, it was warming in every way and made us happy! We sat around the kitchen table feeling grateful for this delicious hot soup and had a fun time! Thank you Beth for another outstanding budget byte.
I randomly google searched for a chicken cilantro type soup and I found this one a year ago. I have not stopped loving it and making it! Thank you! It’s my favorite soup recipe.
I stumbled across some of your recipes on imgur which led me to your site and I’ve got to say that I’m so glad I found it! I love cooking but I often struggle to find exciting weekday meals that don’t need a thousand ingredients or twelve hours to prepare. All of your meals look exciting and tasty yet they’re simple and also cheap!
I’ve bookmarked a load of your recipes and I can’t wait for the week ahead to try a load of them out!
Anyway, this recipe was the first one I tried and it was amazing! I kinda made it into a Mexican chicken noodle soup by adding some nests of fine egg noodles for the last few minutes whilst I was shredding the chicken. I also added some cayenne pepper for a little more heat and I added some Soy too for seasoning.
I’m planning on doing another version of this but with left over pulled pork as well as the noodles, I can’t wait!
Just made this tonight..Big hit with everyone! It has great flavor, is filling and easy to make:)