This Green Chile Chicken Soup with Beans uses warm spices like cumin and coriander to compliment green chiles for a hearty and flavorful soup. Packed with protein from chicken and beans, it’s a belly-filling bowl of goodness that the whole family will enjoy.
If you have leftover rotisserie chicken or turkey, this is a meal you can have on the table in no time! With pantry staples and fragrant ground spices, Quick Green Chile Chicken Soup with Beans has a bold flavor that's welcome any time of year. And if you have any tomato-haters among your crowd, have no fear. This soup has no tomatoes!
If you are looking to expand your repertoire of hearty soups, look no further! Try my Sausage, Kale, and Farro Soup or Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup and you're sure to find a family favorite.
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Ingredients
I include ingredient notes here when I think they’ll be helpful, including ways to source, any preparation tips, or why I've chosen a particular ingredient. Be sure to check out the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and their quantities!
- Cooked Chicken or Turkey: Use up leftovers from a rotisserie chicken or turkey breast and shred or dice them into small bite-sized pieces. Or use leftover shredded salsa chicken in this soup!
- Canned Green Chiles: You can purchase these in mild, medium, and hot levels. We use mild green chiles for the kids' sake. There's no need to drain the chiles before adding them to the soup.
- White Beans: Use any variety of canned white beans you like, I tend to use navy beans for their size. One can is drained and rinsed while the other is pureed to add body to the soup without flour or cream. This keeps the soup gluten-free and dairy-free in case you have a need to accommodate special diets.
- Diced Onion: Use any variety of onion you like, but dice it into small pieces so that it melts into the soup.
- Ground Spices: Chili powder, coriander, cumin, garlic powder, and oregano are common spices in our house and they add classic flavor with no heat.
- Chicken Stock or Broth: This batch used a rich homemade stock, but canned broth or stock work well too!
Preparation
Chop the onion and shred or dice the chicken. You can shred the chicken by hand or use a hand mixer to make quick work of a bulk of chicken or turkey breast. Gather up your spices and you're ready to cook!
Start by draining and rinsing one can of beans and set them aside. Puree the second can of beans along with their liquid using a stick blender, food processor, or blender.
Sauté the onion in the olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it starts to soften, about three minutes.
Add in the dried spices and salt and stir for 30 seconds. Cooking them in the oil for a short while before adding the stock or broth intensifies the flavors.
Add the stock, chicken, chiles, and the pureed and whole beans and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and allow the flavors to blend for at least 10 minutes. Taste for salt and adjust as needed. Different brands of beans have wildly different salt amounts, so you'll likely need to tweak things.
Add desired toppings and serve!
Serving Suggestions
This soup is delicious on its own, but my family loves to add *all* the toppings and garnishes. Our favorites are lime wedges, cilantro, and shredded cheddar cheese. I'm a big fan of stirring in a spoonful of sour cream, too, but it's not necessary if you want this soup to be dairy-free.
The kids think tortilla chips are a mandatory side and I don't argue with them. I just put out a big tray of all the toppings and bring bowls of soup to the table so that everyone can dress up their soup the way they wish.
Substitutions and Variations
The substitutions listed below have been tested in this recipe and work well. If you successfully make any other ingredient substitutions, let us know in the comments!
- Use Canned Chicken - Having canned chicken on hand makes for quick dinner prep and canned chicken can be used in place of teh shredded chicken or turkey. Canned chicken is used in the Pantry Friendly Chicken Tortilla Soup, too!
- Add More Vegetables - Add in some diced carrot, celery, or zucchini to pump up the vegetables in this soup. They can be sauteed along with the onions.
- More Topping Suggestions - You can dress this soup up with a scoop of salsa, hot sauce, avocado chunks, french fried onions, fresh tomato, and more.
- Spice it Up - Use hot diced green chiles or add ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the spice mix to make your soup the way you like it.
Equipment
Use a heavy soup pot or an enameled cast iron Dutch oven to prepare the soup.
Make This Recipe Kid Friendly
The key to making this an approachable meal for the kids at your dinner table is making the toppings DIY style and entirely optional. Give them some control over how their final bowl looks!
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to three days. This soup reheats beautifully for work week lunches. Keep any toppings separate from the soup so that you can preserve the texture contrasts.
Make-Ahead Options
This soup holds up well to freezing, so it's great to make ahead of time and have in your freezer stash. Thaw it in the refrigerator and reheat it on the stove at a gentle simmer so that you don't break up the beans too much. You can also double this recipe easily to make soup for a crowd. It's a great addition to a dinner buffet with plenty of toppings and a big salad.
FAQ
If you have access to fresh poblano or hatch chiles, they would be terrific in this recipe. Rinse your peppers and either cook them over an open flame on your grill or gas stovetop or set them under the broiler in your oven. Cook them until they are uniformly blackened, turning often with tongs. Place them in a sealed plastic bag to cool and then peel off the blackened skin and remove the stem and seeds.
If you’d like a thinner soup, do not puree the first can of beans and simply rinse them before adding to the soup along with the second can. If you’d like a thicker soup, puree both cans of beans and add them to the soup.
You can add canned or frozen corn, hominy, or extra spices to boost the flavor and texture of the soup.
More Tex-Mex Favorites
Try any of the recipes below to add some Tex-Mex flavor to your dinner table:
Try It and Share
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Recipe
Quick Green Chile Chicken Soup with Beans
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup onion (diced)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon cumin (ground)
- 2 teaspoon coriander (ground)
- 2 teaspoon oregano (dried)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups chicken stock (or broth)
- 14 oz. mild green chiles (undrained)
- 30 oz. white beans (canned cannelini, great northern, or navy beans)
- 2 cups cooked chicken (chopped or shredded)
- lime wedges, cilantro, shredded cheese, avocado, or sour cream (for garnish)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse one of the cans of beans. Set aside. Puree the entire contents of the second can in a blender and set aside.
- Add olive oil to the bottom of a heavy soup pot and heat over medium-high heat.
- Add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they begin to soften.
- Add in the chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, and salt. Stir for 30 seconds to bloom the spices until they are fragrant.
- Add in the stock or broth, green chiles, pureed and rinsed beans, and the chicken.
- Increase the heat and bring the soup to a boil. Then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed.
- Serve the soup and garnish with lime, shredded cheese, cilantro, avocado, and sour cream, as desired.
Nutrition facts are sometimes provided below and are calculated using an online calculator. With specific brands of ingredients and additions, omissions, or substitutions the nutrition facts may change. We encourage you to use your own nutrition facts caculator to obtain the most accurate nutrition facts for your meal.
Cassie @ Plan. Eat. Post. Repeat. says
Leave a comment here if you have any questions about this recipe!