Meals · Soups & stews

Chicken tortilla soup

Name: Chicken tortilla soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil; 1 yellow onions, diced; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1 jalapeño, minced; 1 tbsp chili powder; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1/2 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes; 6 cups chicken broth; 2 breasts chicken breast; 1 can black beans, drained; 1 cup frozen corn; 1 tsp salt; 6 tortillas corn tortilla, cut in strips; 1 avocado, diced; 1, in wedges lime; a handful fresh cilantro

The Tex-Mex standard: chile-tomato broth full of chicken and beans under a landslide of toppings — crispy tortilla strips, avocado, lime. The toppings are the dish.

Time: 45 min (15 prep + 30 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 368 kcal
Protein: 27 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tbsp canola oil20 g
1 yellow onions, diced150 g
3 cloves garlic, minced12 g
1 jalapeño, minced20 g
1 tbsp chili powder8 g
2 tsp ground cumin4 g
1/2 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes400 g
6 cups chicken broth1400 g
2 breasts chicken breast500 g
1 can black beans, drained240 g
1 cup frozen corn150 g
1 tsp salt6 g

Toppings

6 tortillas corn tortilla, cut in strips150 g
1 avocado, diced150 g
1, in wedges lime30 g
a handful fresh cilantro10 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Soften the onion in the oil; add garlic, jalapeño and the spices for a minute.
Tomatoes, broth and the whole chicken breasts; simmer 20 minutes, then shred the chicken back into the pot with the beans and corn.
Crisp the tortilla strips in a 200°C oven (or a dry pan) until golden, about 8 minutes.
Bowl, then bury: strips, avocado, cilantro, a hard squeeze of lime. The lime is not optional — it's the ignition.

Why this score

solidly filling

Low energy density — a lot of food for the calories.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

29% of kcal

79% water

25 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2209 kcal goes into the pot, 3250 g of ingredients comes out as ~2300 g of food → 96 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 96
Protein: (29%); 7 g
Fat: (32%); 3 g
Carbohydrates: (39%); 9 g
of which sugar: 2 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 407 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.