Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

The beauty of slow cooker chicken taco soup is its simplicity. Just throw a handful of ingredients in a pot and walk away. My version keeps it simple but adds a few tweaks to make a creamy chicken taco soup that’s packed with 10 grams of fiber, 23 grams of protein, and some bonus veggies.

Who says you can’t have easy and nutritious meals at the same time?

Ingredients for Creamy Chicken Taco Soup

You’ll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post. If you have an ingredient substitution question, however, I’ll include all my ideas between here and there.

The Core Ingredients:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs – Chicken breast works fine, but you need to be a bit more diligent about cooking time to not overcook and end up with tough chicken.
• Canned Black and Pinto Beans – Feel free to use any type of canned beans. I don’t drain beans to retain all the nutrients in the can. The liquid also helps thicken the soup, making it creamier.
• Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes – Go with Mexican style or tomatoes with diced green chiles or garlic if you can find it.
• Fire Roasted Corn (frozen) – I used the Trader Joe’s frozen corn from my cowboy caviar chicken dip. Drained corn from a can works fine as a substitute.
• Taco and Ranch Seasoning – Inspired by my famous high protein beef taco soup, this combo provides just the right amount of onion, garlic, and tangy buttermilk flavor.
• Chicken Broth or Water – Bone broth, while expensive, would be a great way to add more protein and micronutrients to your chicken taco soup.

The optional ingredients:

• Frozen Chopped Spinach – I love incorporating “hidden” or convenience veggies where I can. My famous taco soup incorporates frozen onions, peppers, broccoli, AND cauliflower, for example. And my highly reviewed taco chili uses a bit more inconspicuous chopped spinach. It’s a great way to sneak more veggies into your diet.
• Cream Cheese – You’ll find a note in the recipe card below about swapping cream cheese for chopped corn tortillas. The starch in the tortillas does a great job at thickening, but it’s hard to beat dairy if you want a truly creamy chicken soup. A high protein cream option is fat free Greek yogurt, but I recommend serving it with each individual bowl so it doesn’t curdle.

Final Thoughts on Making Taco Soup with Chicken

I used a 6.5-quart Ninja Foodi for slow cooking. Any slow cooker or crock pot will work, though cook times may vary slightly. Luckily, we’re all accustomed to cooking time ranges when slow cooking!

If you’re in a hurry and wanted to make this creamy chicken taco soup in a pressure cooker, my Mexican chicken soup has a similar amount of chicken and cooking liquid and cooks for 15 minutes on high pressure with a quick release. That’s another great chicken soup recipe, by the way! It has an awesome homemade spice blend and incorporates a beer (non-alcoholic or traditional cerveza) into the cooking liquid.

Okay, you should be ready to rock. Drop any questions you might have about the recipe in the comments at the bottom of this post. And don’t forget to come back and leave a recipe review if you love it!