Easy Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup (Instant Pot) Low Carb Recipe

This Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup is a great way to enjoy healthy soup made with fresh ingredients! It’s made in the Instant Pot, is gluten free, and can easily be made dairy free as well. It’s perfect for your whole family, too, even if they don’t follow a low carb diet!

This keto chicken tortilla soup tastes amazing on cold Winter days, and it’s the perfect weeknight dinner recipe! We love this version of chicken tortilla soup because it fits into a keto diet and is considered a low carb soup!

This keto chicken taco soup is delicious, healthy, and also gluten free!

Our keto tortilla soup is like a taco made into soup. It’s great for all year round, and it’s easy to make in the Instant Pot. You can also make this in bigger batches and is perfect for a family since it’s easy to customize for everyone in the family!

Read on for how to make this delicious Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup and tips on how to adjust this recipe to fit different tastes and food allergies. 

How to make keto chicken tortilla soup in the Instant Pot

Our low carb chicken tortilla soup recipe is pretty easy to make in the Instant Pot.

Here are the steps for making this soup (don’t forget the full recipe card is at the end of the blog post):

1. You’ll place all of your ingredients (except the cream and the tomato paste) in the pressure cooker and cook for 9 minutes. Don’t worry about browning the chicken before cooking it in the Instant Pot!
2. Once it’s cooked, you’ll need to allow some natural pressure release (about 20 minutes) before quick pressure release.
3. Shred the chicken and add the cream and tomato paste. 
4. Scoop into bowls and top with your favorite keto tortilla chips, avocado, tomato, cheese, and more.

If you’re looking for an Instant Pot, we recommend this Instant Pot Duo Nova in 6 or 8 quarts.

One of my favorite things about this low-carb tortilla soup recipe is that you don’t need to worry about browning the chicken first before cooking it in the pressure cooker. Some Instant Pot meat recipes call for browning the meat before cooking it, but for this recipe it’s not necessary.

I’ve found that most of the chicken recipes I’ve made in the pressure cooker the chicken doesn’t really need to be browned first. We have tried several recipes with both browning the chicken first and not browning it first, and for this type of recipe, it didn’t make a difference.

So we save the time and don’t brown the chicken first, and for a lot of pressure cooker chicken recipes it’s an unnecessary step (but don’t skip browning large cuts of meat that are going in the slow cooker!). 

If you can’t find smoked salt or smoked paprika, you can use regular salt and regular paprika. But if you can find it, I highly recommend using the smoked version of both for added flavor in your recipes! I use the Maldon smoked sea salt since it’s pretty reasonably priced and it tastes amazing.

Once your soup is all made and ready to serve, top it off with your favorite store bought low carb tortillas cut into strips and baked till crispy. Or make some of your own keto tortilla chips that go perfectly in this tortilla soup!

Making keto tortilla soup for a family

Our keto chicken tortilla soup recipe is perfect for your whole family, even if not all of them are following a low carb diet!

If you’re cooking this meal for family members who don’t eat keto or low carb, you can make this recipe fit everyone by adding black beans, corn, or brown rice to their bowls along with this soup if they want some complex carbohydrates.

It’s really easy to customize our chicken tortilla soup to everyone’s preferences. I don’t make this soup very spicy, so my husband added jalapeños to his bowl of soup, and my kids added lots of avocados to theirs along with some rice.

My whole family loved this soup since it’s easy dress it up differently for everyone.

You can make a big batch by doubling this recipe, but keep in mind that the soup will take a bit longer to naturally release pressure when there’s more of it in the pot.

So doubling the recipe will add a little more time to your overall cooking time and you’ll want to release pressure a bit longer as well so soup doesn’t get into your pressure valve.

You may also like our low carb recipes or our quick start keto guide if you’re meal prepping for the week.

How to make Keto Tortilla Soup dairy free

Since most of my family is dairy free, we used the Silk heavy whipping cream in our version of this recipe. But if you can have dairy, you can easily just use the regular heavy whipping cream or half and half in this recipe.

The nutrient info in the recipe card is also just an estimate and does not include the keto tortilla strips or toppings like avocado or jalapeño. The nutrition info for the tortilla strips will depend on which recipe or product you choose, so make sure that you take that into consideration as you plan your toppings for this soup.

How to Store Keto Tortilla Soup

You can store this keto chicken soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days. The comfort food is an a great main dish, and we love that it makes leftovers too!

Check out our other great keto Instant Pot recipes or great keto desserts for more ideas!

Another keto-friendly option is this homemade chicken noodle soup recipe! You may also like our keto turkey recipes!

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Yield: 7 servings

Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup (Instant Pot)

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This Keto Chicken Tortilla Soup is a great way to enjoy healthy soup made with fresh ingredients! It's made in the Instant Pot, is gluten free, and can easily be made dairy free as well. It's perfect for your whole family, too, even if they don't follow a low carb diet!

Gluten free, low carb, high protein, dairy free option.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 9 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 44 minutes

Ingredients

• 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1-1/2 cups chicken broth (or chicken bone broth for more protein)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1-3 teaspoons Mexican hot sauce (depending on how spicy you'd like your soup)
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked salt (or regular salt if you don't have smoked salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (or Silk dairy free heavy cream)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• Keto tortilla chips**
• Toppings: sliced green onions, avocado, chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh cilantro, sour cream, jalapeno slices, cheese

Instructions

1. Place the chicken thighs in the Instant Pot/pressure cooker. Set aside.
2. Chop the bell peppers and the onion and place on top of the chicken in the pressure cooker.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, smoked salt, black pepper, garlic, lime zest, hot sauce, and other seasonings.
4. Pour the broth mixture over the chicken and vegetables, put the lid on the pressure cooker, lock the lid, and close the pressure valve.
5. Cook on "manual" on high for 9 minutes if using the Instant Pot, or "steam" on high for 9 minutes if using the CrockPot Express ("manual" on the Instant Pot is the same as "steam" on the CrockPot Express).
6. Once the soup is done cooking, turn off the "keep warm" feature if it automatically turns on and let the pressure naturally release for about 15-20 minutes, then quick release the rest of the pressure.
7. Shred the chicken either in the pot or removed from the pot and shredded on a cutting board.
8. Whisk together the tomato paste and heavy cream and pour into the soup and stir till combined.
9. Serve immediately topped with keto tortilla strips, avocado, cheese, and anything else you love!
10. For family members who aren't eating keto, you add black beans, corn, or rice to their soup bowls if they'd like.

Notes

**Here's a great recipe for homemade keto tortilla chips!

If you double this recipe, the soup will take a bit longer to come to pressure and release pressure, so doubling the recipe will add more to the overall cooking time.

The nutrient info is an estimate and does not include the keto tortilla strips or toppings like avocado or jalapeno. The nutrition info for the tortilla strips will depend on which recipe or product you choose.

Recommended Products

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• 
  Instant Pot Duo Nova Pressure Cooker 7 in 1, 6 Qt, Best for Beginners

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

7

Serving Size:

210 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 219Total Fat: 13.9gSaturated Fat: 5.9gCholesterol: 97mgSodium: 454mgCarbohydrates: 5.4gNet Carbohydrates: 4.12gFiber: 1.2gSugar: 2.9gProtein: 19.7g

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Sarah Jane Parker is a food and healthy living blogger at The Fit Cookie, an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, YogaFit Level 1 certified yoga instructor, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist.