Creamy Southwest Chicken Soup with Black Beans and Sweet Potatoes

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The perfect recipe to warm you up on a cold day, this creamy southwest chicken soup is one of our family favorites! Filled with shredded chicken, black beans, and sweet potatoes this easy recipe is both nourishing and delicious.

It is currently April on our homestead and I’m watching the snow fall out our window. We are a soup all-year-round sort of family but comforting and hearty soups are especially appreciated on days like this!

Every week, we slow cook a whole chicken and make chicken broth. So, we are always looking for new and creative ways to use up that leftover chicken and broth. 

This creamy, cheesy soup is frequently requested from our whole family. Especially when bowls of soup are served alongside a pan of cornbread!

Southwest Creamy Chicken Soup Ingredients (Including substitutions and optional additions)

To satisfy the tastes of even the pickier eaters in our family, we tend to keep this soup recipe mild with ingredients that are well loved in our home. But, the possibilities of add-ins and spices you can include in this recipe are endless!

What Do You Need?

Yellow Onion

Garlic Cloves

Cooking fat to make the roux. We usually use lard but olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, or butter would be good options too!

Chicken stock or vegetable broth would be a good substitute here.

Chicken. We like to use shredded chicken leftover from an already cooked rotisserie chicken. But any sort of diced chicken breasts or thighs will work.

Black Beans. We use dried black beans that we soak overnight and then slow cook to add to this creamy southwest chicken soup recipe. But you could use strained canned beans or even a different type of bean like pinto or white beans.

Sweet Potato. It may sound strange but we love the combination of sweet potato with black beans. We’ll often make tacos with a ground beef, black bean, and sweet potato filling. If sweet potatoes aren’t your thing, you can replace them with diced carrots, butternut squash, or even canned, frozen, or fresh corn.

Flour or Tapioca Starch. Tapioca starch is our go-to flour to use to make a thickened, creamy sauce. But you could also use all-purpose flour, wheat flour, or cornstarch.

Minced Kale or Dried Nettle (optional). We try to add extra nutrients in wherever we can. So, I almost always add dried nettle to our soups. I love the extra color and nutrition it gives without altering the flavor much at all.

Spices. In this recipe, we added paprika, ground cumin, oregano, and sea salt to give it a mild southwest flavor. For some extra flavor and heat, you could add cayenne pepper or jalapeno pepper or substitute the individual spices for chili powder or taco seasoning.

Cream. In a pinch, we’ve substituted sour cream or even whole milk in place of the cream and the end result has been delicious every time.

Optional Add in’s: Corn kernels, green or red bell pepper, diced tomatoes or rotel tomatoes with green chiles.

Toppings: Shredded cheese, avocado, and a dollop of sour cream are our favorites. To make more of a creamy chicken tortilla soup recipe, you can top with tortilla chips.

How to Make Creamy Southwest Chicken Soup

Our favorite way to make this is in our dutch oven or large soup pot on the stove top. But it would be easy to adapt this recipe to make in a slow cooker or pressure cooker.

Begin by making a roux by heating cooking fat over medium heat in your dutch oven or large pot.

Add onions and garlic to pan and cook until soft.

Then add diced sweet potatoes and flour to the vegetable mixture. Stir everything together until the flour is no longer visible.

Add broth, chicken, beans, and spices and bring to a boil.

Then bring to a simmer and cook for at least 30 minutes until sweet potatoes are soft and the flavors have had a chance to meld together. 

Pour in cream and mix before serving.

Serve with your favorite toppings (i.e. shredded cheddar, avocado, sour cream, tortilla strips, fresh cilantro).

Creamy Southwest Chicken Soup Recipe

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

¼ cup fat (lard, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, etc)
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sweet potato, diced
6 cups broth
4 cups black beans
4 cups chicken, diced
¼ cup flour (tapioca starch or all-purpose gluten free flour would work too)
¼ cup dried nettle or minced kale (optional)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp salt
1.5 cup of heavy cream

Directions:

1. Sauté garlic and onion in fat over medium-high heat until soft.

2. Add sweet potato and flour and mix together until no flour is visible.

3. Pour in broth, chicken, beans and spices.

4. Bring soup mixture to a boil.

5. Once boiling, move to a simmer and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes (at least) until sweet potatoes are tender and the flavors have had a chance to come together.

6. Before serving, stir in heavy cream.

7. Top as desired.

Tip: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Like most soups, this creamy soup gets even better the next day. If I’m able to plan ahead, I like to cook soup a day or two before we actually eat it for maximum flavor.

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Other similar recipes:

Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Chicken
Butternut Squash Chili
Family Favorite Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole

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