This easy to make Creamy Green Chili Chicken Soup is perfect for a hearty dinner or meal prep! With green chilies, salsa verde, chicken and veggies, it’s a lightened-up comfort food.
It’s also gluten and dairy free, although you’d never suspect it!
Green Chicken Chili Soup
This creamy green chili soup is pure comfort food in a bowl. Mexican-inspired flavors like green chili, salsa verde, and lime are combined in an easy-to-make soup. We opted for cashew cream to make this soup creamy without cheese or dairy, and it really brightens the whole thing up.
This soup is perfect for using leftover chicken or shredded rotisserie chicken to make a weeknight dinner. And you can add your favorite toppings to customize it!
What you need to make it
Scroll down for the full ingredients list!
- Cooked shredded chicken (see notes below)
- Canned green chillies
- Bought salsa verde
- lime juice
- Onion
- Green paprika
- carrots
- potatoes
- White beans
- chicken soup
- salt + cumin
- cashew cream (see notes below)
- avocado
- coriander
What kind of chicken to use
This recipe calls for cooked shredded chicken. You can use a rotisserie chicken, leftover chicken from another meal, or if you need to make it fresh, use this recipe to make shredded chicken in the Instant Pot or slow cooker!
TOP: Or, if you don’t want to make a separate recipe, you can dice and sear the chicken breasts first, then start at step 1.
Simple button!
Get a fried chicken from the store!
Here’s how to customize it
As with all soups, customizing the contents of this soup is pretty easy!
The key flavors here are the canned green chillies and salsa verde. So try not to skip these. But the veggies, potatoes, and beans are pretty easy to swap out for what you have on hand! Do you need to change the beans or leave them out? That’s okay too.
You can also add other vegetables to your liking, such as:
- Corn
- Green beans
- Various peppers
- zucchini or summer squash
Would you like to make this a plant-based dish?
Skip the chicken and stock up on the veggies!
What is cashew cream?
This soup uses our favorite dairy-free trick of adding cashew cream to make it creamy, with no added dairy. Cashew cream is simply soaked cashews that are blended until smooth and creamy.
We love that it tastes delicious, is easy to make, and adds more nutrients to the soup in the form of healthy fats and protein.
PS You make it yourself! Follow my guide to making cashew cream!
Do you want to use dairy products?
Don’t have a problem with dairy products or don’t want to use cashew cream? Simply replace 1:1 with whipped cream!
What to serve with this soup
You can add anything you want here!
These are some of my favourites:
- tortilla chips
- plantain chips
- Diced avocado
- Additional salsa verde
- spring onions
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Pickled or fresh jalapeno
- coriander
Can this soup be frozen?
We do not recommend freezing this soup because of the added cashew cream.
If you want to freeze it, do so without the cashew cream.
Once you’ve reheated it from the freezer you can add the cashew cream/cream. For more tips on freezing food, check out this frozen meal guide.
reader review
“Made this evening – exactly as directed in the recipe (with whipped cream). Excellent! I will definitely do it again!”
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- 2 teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 medium onion finely diced
- 1 green paprika rolled
- 2 carrots finely diced
- 2 medium yellow potatoes peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
- 1 4 ounce can mildly diced green chilies
- 1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (optional)
- 1 Cup store-bought salsa verde
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken Fried chicken works well here
- 6 cups chicken soup
- 1 teaspoon sea-salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅓ Cup cashew cream or cream
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 avocados rolled
- ¼ Cup chopped coriander
- Sliced Limes for garnish
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Heat oil in a large Dutch oven. Once hot, add onions, peppers, and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 10 minutes.
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Add potatoes, green chiles, beans, salsa verde, shredded chicken, broth, salt, and cumin, and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat until potatoes are tender and soup has reduced slightly, about 20-25 minutes.
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Stir in the cashew cream, lime juice and coriander. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more salt or lime juice as needed.
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Serve hot with desired side dishes.