Cafe Rio Tortilla Soup

5 from 41 votes

If you love Cafe Rio's Chicken Tortilla Soup, but don't want to go out - don't worry! We've got you covered with this AMAZING copycat recipe!

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Simmering time2

Total Time35

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Mexican/Spanish

Keyword: Cafe Rio Soup, chicken tortilla soup, Copycat Recipe

Servings: servings

Calories: 642kcal

In a small skillet, saute onion in oil until onion becomes slightly soft. Stir in cumin, cayenne, and chili powder. Saute an additional 1-2 minutes.
Crock Pot Method: Transfer seasoned onions to a small-medium crock pot. Add chicken broth, cilantro, lime juice, pepper, and pinto beans to onions and simmer on low heat for at least 2-3 hours.
Stovetop Method: Transfer seasoned onions to a large pot or saucepan. Add chicken broth, cilantro, lime juice, pinto beans, and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then simmer on low heat for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, when you are close to serving, combine taco seasoning and paprika. Brush chicken with oil and rub with seasoning mixture.
Grill chicken over medium heat until cooked through. (Try to turn only once during the grilling process.)
Remove from grill and shred.
In small individual bowls, layer chicken, a few tablespoons pic de gallo, ⅓ cup diced avocado, and ⅓ cup pepper jack cheese.
Ladle about 1 ½ cups of broth directly over the layers. Top with tortilla strips and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

You can cook this soup in a slow cooker instead of simmering it on the stove. Put the sauteed onions and the remaining soup ingredients in a medium-sized slow cooker on low for at least 2-3 hours. You can throw the chicken in the slow cooker with the broth and it will taste rich and delicious but personally, I love the smoky grilled chicken taste. Grill it if you can.
I added pinto beans to this recipe. It's not Cafe Rio's original way of doing things, but it is totally worth doing. The meaty beans give it a deeper flavor and actually make the soup go further. If you want to keep it exactly like Cafe Rio, feel free to leave them out.
Instead of adding a scoop of guacamole as I know Cafe Rio does, I just diced avocado, which saves the time of having to make a separate little thing of guacamole. Plus I love having the chunks of cool avocado in there.