Forget the soup at the restaurant and make your own Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Lime Soup. This soup is tart, sweet, spicy and is filled with shredded chicken, corn, avocado, rice and your favorite soup toppings.
I don’t know about you but I love a good soup recipe. Today’s Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Lime Soup, also known as sopa de lima, has been on repeat at my house for a while now. It is a great soup for meal-prep!
One of my favorite things when I eat out at restaurants is starting my meal with a cup of soup or a healthy salad. There is no better way to enjoy your favorite recipes than in the comfort of your own home.
The nice thing about making your favorite restaurant recipes at home is you control the ingredients, especially the amount of salt, which can sometimes be overwhelming at some restaurants.
This Mexican Chicken Soup is tart, sweet and spicy. It reminds me of this Green Chili Chicken Soup that I make often.
This Mexican Chicken Soup, also known as caldo de pollo, is tart, sweet and spicy. Of course you control the ingredients so you can customize the amount of spices and lime juice to your liking. I tend to like a lot of tartness in my soup so I add the full 1/4 cup of lime juice, but you can cut that down if you aren’t a huge fan.
At the end of cooking the soup you will add the lime juice and give it a good stir.
Check out my soup recipes here. If you like Mexican soup recipes try my Pork Pozole, Pinto Bean Soup, Chicken Enchilada Soup, Mexican Lentil Soup or this Chicken Potato Soup.
Recipe Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chicken: I used chicken breasts in this recipe but you can easily use chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins.
- Broth: This recipe uses chicken broth. If you want a homemade version try this Homemade Chicken Broth.
- Vegetables: The vegetables in this soup are diced onion, jalapeños along with the garnishes of avocado, red onion and pico de gallo.
- Spices: The spice mixture uses Mexican oregano and cumin.
- Lime: The lime juice is added to add a tangy, citrus flavor to the soup. You can use more or less depending on your tastes.
- Rice: When the soup is done cooking I like to add a scoop of cooked rice to the soup. You can add brown rice or white rice.
Please see the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts and instructions.
Recipe Modifications
- Vegetables: You can add a variety of other vegetables like diced zucchini, corn, bell peppers, cabbage, carrots, celery, diced tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes or poblanos.
- Beans: You can bulk up this soup with beans. Try black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans.
- Heat: If you like spice try adding fire roasted diced green chiles, chili powder, chipotle peppers, jalapeños, crushed red pepper, hot sauce or cayenne red pepper.
- Potatoes: Potatoes are a nice addition in this soup. I suggest dicing them small so they cook easily in the soup.
- Cheese: Cheese is a great addition. Try adding pepper jack, sharp cheddar, mozzarella cheese or cotija cheese.
How to Make Chicken Lime Soup
Step 1: Add Ingredients to Crockpot: In a large slow cooker add all of the ingredients except the lime juice.
Step 2: Slow Cook: Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours. When the soup is done coking remove the chicken and shred with two forks. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and add in the lime juice.
Step 3: Add Garnishes and Serve: Give it a good stir and taste the soup. Adjust seasonings by adding more salt or pepper, extra jalapeños, a sprinkle of cilantro or more lime juice. Serve in a soup bowl with 1/2 of a chopped avocado, fresh limes, tortilla strips, fresh jalapeño, sour cream, a scoop of rice, cilantro and diced red onion.
Recipe FAQ
Yes you can but for safety reason you need to thaw it first. If using frozen chicken, cook on high for at least 4 hours or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.
This soup is great as a spicy soup. You can add chopped jalapeños, a pinch of cayenne, or chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for a kick of heat.
This soup freezes really well! Let the soup cool completely, then store in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months. I would not add the rice to the soup and freeze it as it soaks up so much of the broth. I would wait and add the rice when you are ready to eat the soup.
What to Serve with Chicken and Lime Soup
- I love serving this soup with guacamole or a homemade salsa verde or restaurant style salsa.
- Quick pickled red onions would be a great addition on the side.
- Homemade tortilla chips would be great for dipping in the soup.
- This Mexican Street Corn Salad would be great on the side.
- Another nice addition would be Cowboy Caviar.
More Soup Recipes
Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Lime Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound or 2 chicken breasts {you could use chicken thighs}
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 of a sweet onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano {or regular oregano}
- 2 jalapeños, seeds removed, diced {optional for spice}
- 1/2 teaspoon salt {more or less to taste}
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup lime juice {more or less depending on how much tang you want}
Garnishes:
- White Rice, cooked
- Avocado, diced
- Red onion, diced
- Extra lime wedges
- Cilantro
- Pico de gallo
Instructions
- In a large slow cooker add all of the ingredients except the lime juice.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours. When the soup is done coking remove the chicken and shred with two forks. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and add in the lime juice.
- Give it a good stir and taste the soup. Adjust seasonings by adding more salt or pepper, extra jalapeños or more lime juice.
- Serve in a soup bowl with garnishes of your choice like a scoop of rice, avocado red onion, cilantro, pico de gallo and extra lime wedges.
Notes
- Add vegetables: bell peppers, poblanos, zucchini, diced tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes.
- Add chopped potatoes to your soup.
- Bulk the soup up with beans: black beans, pinto or kidney beans work great.
- Additional things I like to add include pico de gallo, diced chiles or chipotle peppers.
I made this today. My husband loves a chicken soup at our local restaurant. This seemed to be close. I modified it a little. Added more broth since he loves extra broth. I also added 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes. I’m really not a chicken fan, but this was delicious!
Thanks for sharing! I am glad you guys enjoyed it and I like the modifications.
This is so good!! I love the fresh toppings. I opted for a bit of spice with extra jalapenos. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! SO glad you liked it.
where is the recipe for Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Lime Soup???
It is at the bottom of the page. You can either scroll or there is a jump to recipe button at the top. Let me know if it isn’t showing up and I can email you.
This soup sounds great – I love limes too! I also love the Sam Adams Pumpkin Ale. Have you tried Souther Tier’s Pumking? It’s soooo good – my favorite!
Did you leave wordpress? I don’t see you come up in my reader anymore :(.
It’s a good soup- but you have to like lime! I haven’t had that beer- I am going to have to try it. I love finding new beers to add to my favorites.
I started hosting my website on bluehost- so I still kind of use the wordpress dashborad but it is hosted elsewhere. The transition was kind of difficult and my blog changed templates, ect but I like it so far. I wanted to be able to use plugins and all of that. Sad that it’s not showing up in your feed anymore. I wonder if there is another way for it to come up. Do you use google reader? I use that to read all of my blogs I like in one place. You can click on the RSS icon and it should get you to a place where you can sign up for those. Let me know what you figure out. You can also sign up to get emails I guess?
Julia