Mexican Sweet Potato Chicken Soup
18
Published Nov 13, 2023
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This hearty Mexican sweet potato chicken soup is loaded with veggies, lean protein and has a smoky, sweet flavor from dried guajillo Mexican peppers.
Introducing your new favorite soup… Mexican sweet potato chicken soup.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Hearty & Healthy: Packed with lean protein from chicken and a bounty of vegetables, this soup is both filling and nutritious.
- Flavorful: Aromatic spices and guajillo peppers provide a rich and warming flavor that’s perfect for any season.
- Versatility: Customize with your favorite toppings like avocado and radishes for a personalized touch.
- Comfort in a Bowl: It’s the kind of soup that offers comfort on a chilly day, with every spoonful more inviting than the last.
- Easy to Make: Simple steps and straightforward cooking make this a stress-free recipe for any level of home cook.
Ingredients Needed
- chicken breast – boneless, skinless chicken breast is seasoned and chopped into cubes for this soup.
- vegetables – yellow onion, garlic, sweet potato, baby spinach, cauliflower.
- guajillo Mexican peppers – I got mine from nuts.com!
- chicken broth – the liquid base of this soup, provides tons of flavor! You can also use vegetable broth.
- olive oil – to simmer the chili pepper puree and vegetables in.
- seasonings and spices – dried oregano, sea salt, ground pepper, cumin and cloves.
- optional toppings – avocado, radishes, cilantro, lime juice, etc.
How to Make Sweet Potato Chicken Soup
Season Chicken – Season chicken with oregano, 1 teaspoon sea salt and black pepper. Cut into cubes and set aside.
Rehydrate peppers – Remove the stems and dump out all the seeds from inside the peppers. Place the peppers in a saucepan with water. Bring them to a boil and simmer for about 10 mins or until they’ve softened. That’s it! At this point they’re rehydrated and ready to be used! Be sure to save the water for the next step.
Blend – Add peppers and ¾ cup water from the pot into a high-powered blender. Add onion, garlic, cumin, cloves and ½ teaspoon salt and then blend until smooth.
Simmer – Add oil to a large saucepan on medium heat. Add chili pepper purée into the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add broth, seasoned chicken cubes, sweet potato and cauliflower into the saucepan. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through and sweet potatoes are fully cooked, this should take about 10-15 minutes. Stir in baby spinach until wilted and season with additional salt, if needed.
Serve – Portion soup into bowls and top with toppings of choice. I love serving mine with avocado, sliced radishes, cilantro and a lime wedge for squeezing over the top.
Substitutions & Notes
- Chicken: If you prefer, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs for a juicier meat option.
- Guajillo Peppers: If guajillo peppers are unavailable, try using ancho peppers for a similar mild heat and sweet flavor.
- Broth: Both vegetable and chicken broth work well. For a deeper flavor, bone broth can be an excellent substitute.
- Sweet Potato: Butternut squash or carrots are great alternatives for a different kind of sweetness and texture.
- Cauliflower: Broccoli can be used in place of cauliflower if preferred.
- Spinach: Kale or Swiss chard can stand in for spinach, just give them a bit more time to cook down.
- Olive Oil: Any neutral oil, like avocado or canola oil, can be used instead of olive oil.
- Toppings: Feel free to omit or add additional toppings like cheese, sour cream, or tortilla strips for extra crunch and flavor.
- Extras: You could add or swap the veggies with something that aligns with your tastebuds. Some good options with this soup could be corn, celery, diced tomatoes, black beans, and brown rice.
Tips for the Perfect Soup
- Pepper Prep: When handling guajillo peppers, consider wearing gloves to avoid skin irritation, and don’t touch your eyes.
- Blending: Be cautious when blending hot liquids; always allow steam to escape to prevent pressure build-up.
- Simmer for Flavor: Let the guajillo purée simmer until it thickens to deepen the flavor base of the soup.
- Chicken Check: Cut into the largest chicken piece to ensure it’s fully cooked; it should be white all through with no pink.
- Vegetable Timing: Add the sweet potatoes first and let them start softening before adding the cauliflower to avoid overcooking the florets.
- Spinach Last: Stir in the spinach at the end, as it only needs a minute to wilt and retain its vibrant color.
- Season to Taste: Always taste before serving and adjust salt if necessary; the right seasoning brings out all the flavors.
How to Serve Soup
This soup is a hearty enough recipe to be a meal in one! Having said that, I love eating it with my pumpkin cornbread muffins. It’s also delicious served with bread, crackers (I love my almond crackers) or even tortilla chips. It can also be served with a salad… I have a ton of salad recipes to choose from, but something light and fresh like this garlicky kale salad would be perfect.
How to Store Leftovers
Let the soup cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. Store in your refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you need to store it longer, let the soup cool completely in the fridge and then transfer to the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Soup Recipes to Try
- Taco Soup
- Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Healthy White Bean Chicken Chili
- Slow Cooker Quinoa Vegetable Soup
- Vegetable Soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Mexican Sweet Potato Chicken Soup
- Easy Black Bean Soup
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Sausage Kale Soup
- Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili
Be sure to check out my full collection sweet potato recipes as well as all of the soup recipes here on EBF.
Mexican Sweet Potato Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, chopped into bite-size cubes
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt, divided into 1 teaspoon and ½ teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 5 dried guajillo Mexican peppers, stems and seeds removed
- ½ yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 32 oz carton vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks
- ½ small head cauliflower, broken into bite-size florets
- 1-2 cups baby spinach
- for topping: avocado, radishes, cilantro, lime
Instructions
- Season chicken with oregano, 1 teaspoon sea salt and black pepper. Set aside.
- Add dried guajillo peppers into a saucepan and cover with water (at least 1 cup). Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the peppers have softened.
- Add peppers and ¾ cup water from saucepan into a high-powered blender. Add onion, garlic, cumin, cloves and ½ teaspoon salt; blend until smooth.
- Add oil to a large saucepan on medium heat. Add chile pepper purée into the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add broth, seasoned chicken cubes, sweet potato and cauliflower into the saucepan. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through and sweet potatoes are fully cooked, this should take about 10-15 minutes. Stir in baby spinach until wilted and season with additional salt, if needed.
- Portion soup into bowls and top with avocado, sliced radishes and cilantro. Serve with a lime wedge for squeezing over the top.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Dried peppers can sometimes be a little dusty. I like to clean them before using them, especially if you use the soaking water as you do in this recipe. I sometimes wipe them with a damp cloth. If they are really dirty I rinse them in cold water after de-stemming, de-seeding, and de-veining them i(f you want them to be a little more mild, since a lot of the heat is in the seeds and veins). Rather than boiling the peppers, I pour boiling water over them and cover them until they soften. I think this prevents some loss of flavor. This soup sounds yummy, and the sweet potato and cauliflower are unique additions.
This soup looks amazing. I don’t like soup too spicy so these peppers sound perfect. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing.
I tried it and it’s delishes! I made a few modifications… I was trying to see if sweet potatoes could be used in a “caldo de pollo”. My mom is diabetic and am trying to find authentic Mexican recipes without so much of the carbs and starch. I knew sweet potatoes are a good super food. Instead of canned broth I cooked a chicken breast with bone in skinless. My mom insists the bone and skin give it the rich flavor but since we are health conscious now we compromised with skinless and bone in. I timed so as the chicken cooked I was able to add the veggies and the Chile purée to the pot. In addition to sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and spinach I also added chayote which is a type of squash that you normally find in authentic Mexican chicken soup (caldo de pollo). And also threw in Mexican squash. It’s like zucchini just lighter green and spotted and fatter. And I threw in the cilantro sprigs like normally with a caldo de pollo in the last 5 minutes of cooking. That cilantro cooked with the soup gives it that awesome home made flavor and scent. Mmmmm…. next time I’ll be straining the Chile purée through a hand colander to get rid of the skin. I do that when I make the purée I just don’t know why I skipped this time. And for garnish I’ll use the next time some thin sliced raw cabbage. The lime is a great addition too as it counters the sweetness of the potatoes and the avocado adds that nice creamy texture. Great recipe! I’ll definitely be adding this to the familia recipes at Casa Olvera. Thumbs up!
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Has anyone tried using ground guajillo Chilis? I am.having a difficult time finding them in the full dried form. Thanks!
Hi, what substitute would you recommend for the chicken if you wanted the soup to be vegetarian?
Hi Britt – You could just add more veggies of your choice or chickpeas if you’re looking for something with a little protein. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out.
Do you have any recommendations for trying this in a crockpot with ground chicken?
Hey Lindsey! I haven’t made this in the crockpot before, but I’m sure it would work! Let me know if you end up trying it.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delightful!
I had some butternut squash I had to use up and some left over black beans that I threw in the pot too! I think this can work as a great “clear out the fridge” soup.
I also added half a jalapeño to the pepper purée, because I like a bit of heat.
Looking forward to the leftovers and dropping off some for my dad on the way to work tomorrow!
So glad you enjoyed this soup, Kariee!! Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a review. I so appreciate it. 🙂
I’ve tried a few of your recipes so far. We’ve enjoyed them all. I couldn’t make it to the hispanic market in time, so I used a few chipotles in adobo sauce. I’m excited to try it as written, but the way it came out was amazing! I’m not much of a soup person, but I loved every bite of this one. If you don’t mind dairy, a dollop of sour cream will make it out of bounds!
Yay!! So glad you loved this soup, Nick. Thanks for coming back to leave a review. I so appreciate it!
Hi! I was led here by your other post that suggests swapping out the cauliflower for broccoli stems (looking for ways to use up broccoli stems). It sounds like cauliflower would be great in this Mexican soup. Have you tried it with broccoli? They have such a different taste that I want to be sure it would substitute well.
Thanks so much.
I haven’t tried broccoli in this soup, but I bet it would work just fine!! You’ll have to come back and let me know if you try it. 🙂
I love this recipe, very flavorful and easy to make. I’m having a friend over for dinner and this is what I’m making, so good.
Woo! Happy to hear you’re a fan of this recipe, Peggy! Thanks for the review. I really appreciate it!
Delicious and a great way to add some variety into the soups rotation. There is plenty of protein in this recipe but I added some cooked garbanzos just to increase the fiber.
YUMM! Sounds delicious, Kathie. Glad you loved this soup and it turned out amazing for you. Thanks for sharing your review & star rating, I really appreciate it!