Chicken Sweet Potato Soup is incredibly easy! Just add everything to a slow cooker for a comforting and filling meal.
Pair this hearty soup with crusty bread or crushed chips and a simple kale salad!
Chicken Sweet Potato Soup
I love a hearty slow-cooker meal, and creamy soups are my ideal comfort food, but you don’t see many broth-based, slow-cooked soup recipes on the internet.
That’s where Chicken Sweet Potato Soup comes in! It’s broth-based and anything but bland. This soup bursts with texture and flavor. It’s packed with protein from black beans, quinoa, and chicken, and loaded with veggies from tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Seasoning it with a chili mix means this soup is prepped in no time. You won’t believe how quickly this meal is ready to eat!
Chicken Sweet Potato Soup Notes
- Chicken: This recipe originally called for chicken breasts, but I’ve switched to boneless, skinless thighs. They’re tender, easier to shred, and less likely to dry out if cooked all day.
- Rinse: Rinse quinoa before adding it to the slow cooker to remove its bitter coating, saponin. Use a fine mesh strainer and rinse under cold water for 30-60 seconds.
- Cook time: Quinoa expands and absorbs liquid as it cooks. After about 3-1/2 to 4 hours, this soup thickens to a stew-like consistency. If your cooker runs hot, it may be done even sooner.
- High heat: Cooking on low doesn’t work well; the quinoa cooks unevenly and absorbs too much liquid. Sweet potatoes and black beans can also get too soft.
- Small pieces: Dice sweet potatoes to 1/2-inch to ensure they cook evenly with the other ingredients.
- Spice levels: This soup is mild as written, but you can increase the heat by adding 1-2 tablespoons of diced jalapeños and extra chili powder.
- Seasoning: Adjust salt and pepper to taste; it can make a big difference in flavor.
Homemade Chili Seasoning
I shorten prep time by using a packet of chili seasoning. After trying many, I recommend McCormick’s® Chili Seasoning (not sponsored). Some packets lack flavor, but this one delivers. Sometimes it pays to go with the national brand!
If you prefer homemade seasoning, here are the ratios I recommend:
- 1 tablespoon chili powder (McCormick is very mild)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon roasted garlic powder
- Optional: 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (add slowly; cayenne pepper adds a lot of spice!) Alternatively, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes could be used.
- Salt and pepper to taste (I add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper)
Quick Tip
Looking to save even more prep time? Buy pre-diced sweet potatoes. Many stores sell peeled and diced sweet potatoes in the produce section.
Toppings
While this soup is great as is, toppings can add even more flavor and texture. Here are my favorite additions:
- Sharp or extra-sharp Cheddar cheese: Grate the cheese directly onto each bowl and let it melt for a minute before stirring it into the soup.
- Ripe avocado or guacamole: For extra creaminess, top the soup with ripe avocado slices. Not sure about avocado but still want a creamy element? Try plain Greek yogurt or sour cream.
- Fresh lime juice: A few squeezes of fresh lime heighten the flavors and add a burst of brightness.
- Chips: Crushed tortilla chips (or strips) add a satisfying crunch.
- Fresh cilantro: If you love cilantro, it adds freshness and a nice citrusy flavor. Not a fan? Try chopped parsley instead.
More Quinoa Recipes
- Quinoa Chili with sweet potatoes
- Southwest Quinoa Salad with a cilantro-lime vinaigrette
- Avocado Orange Quinoa Salad with a citrus dressing
- Quinoa Salad with avocado and a lemon dressing
- Quinoa Enchilada Bake with sweet potatoes
Chicken Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 pounds (24 ounces) boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 cup quinoa
- 3 and 1/2 cups diced sweet potatoes (2-3 large sweet potatoes)
- 1 can (15.25 ounces) black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.25 ounces) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 packet (1.25 ounces) chili seasoning mix (Note 1)
- 5 cups chicken broth or stock
- Optional: fresh cilantro or parsley
- Optional toppings: tortilla strips, sharp cheddar cheese, fresh lime, sour cream, diced avocado
Instructions
- PREP: Spray the slow cooker with nonstick spray. Remove the fat from the chicken breasts or thighs. If using large chicken breasts, cut them into 3-4 pieces so they'll cook more evenly. Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh sieve. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes into small 1/2-inch cubes.
- ADD TO CROCKPOT: Add the chicken thighs or cut chicken breasts into the slow cooker. Add the rinsed quinoa (See Note 2), diced sweet potatoes, drained and rinsed black beans, undrained diced tomatoes, minced garlic, packet of chili seasoning, and chicken broth or stock to the slow cooker.
- COOK: Cover and cook on high for 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours (See Note 3)
- SHRED CHICKEN: Using tongs, remove the chicken to a small bowl. Using two forks, shred the chicken and then return to the slow cooker. Taste the soup and adjust for seasonings; I typically add an additional 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper here, but add until the flavors sing.
- SERVE: Ladle soup into bowls and top with your favorite toppings. I love fresh cilantro, fresh lime juice, and ripe avocado. My boys love sour cream and lots of Cheddar cheese.
- STORAGE: The quinoa continues to absorb liquid making it a thick stew, so if you store leftovers, add broth when reheating to keep the soup consistency.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is one of our favorite recipes lately! I use chicken thighs (husband request) and it turns out great! Thanks for the idea! I am a dietiitan and I often get asked for recipes and I often print this one out for my clients, from your site of course! I am starting a blog, and I have found you to be very inspiring! If you have time to give out any advice my email is attached 🙂
SO great to hear!! Thank you so much Ashley! 🙂 And you are so sweet, I so appreciate you sharing my recipe and site with your clients, thank you! 🙂 <3
Could I also cook this on low.in the crockpot for 8 hrs or so?
Thanks!
You can, it just turns out to be more like a stew than a soup — the quinoa continues to expand and absorb more and more of the liquid. It also makes for a slightly different textured quinoa.
What else can I use besides tomatoes…I’m not a fan of cooked tomatoes.
Hmm I’m not sure..how do you feel about tomato sauce? Maybe a little bit of tomato sauce and an extra can of beans?
Oh my this looks good. I’m wondering how well it’ll work with beef – I have several slighty freezerburned steaks that are currently slotted for soup or chili in the slow cooker so that I can chop off the freezer burned bits and cook them long and slow to help with the texture. That and my big bottle of chicken Better Than Boullion has gone missing – if you like using concentrate, I highly recommend that over the cubes.
Ooo, I’ll have to try that out, thanks for the tip! 🙂 I think beef would work well in this, it will just take a lot longer than chicken to become tender and cooked through in the slow cooker. My advice would be to cook everything (minus the quinoa and ~2 cups water) on low for 7-9 hours or until the steak is tender/cooked through. Then cook the quinoa separately and stir it in. I can’t say for sure if this will work out perfectly having not tried it myself, but hopefully that helps!
This is a great soup. It turned out perfect in 4 1/2 hours for me. We love sweet potatoes and chicken, so this was a no-brainer. My wife was impressed by my cooking ability (he he), so I’ll be making this again. Who doesn’t like a slow cooker?!
Could I put it in crockpot on low for 8 hours?
Just realized my post from yesterday posted! Sorry for the repeat! I would delete it if I knew how
So I made this soup the other day and I have to say I was underwhelmed. I love all the components but for some reason all together I was unimpressed. One thing I think could help would be cooking on low for 8 hours; the chicken seemed too tough on high for 4–maybe just tweaking my own crock pot. Another things that was off was the chili seasoning and chicken stock. Generally I imagine chili with beef; and the seasoning generally goes better with beef. Mixing the chili seasoning and chicken stock just didn’t work for me, I felt like I was cheating on one of them!
I really want to try this again but I don’t really know what to do to tweak it. Maybe using beef broth instead? Or extra chili seasoning and water instead of chicken broth??
Anyone who has made this have any suggestions?
Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. It’s one of my most popular recipes with great reviews, but not every recipe is for everyone I suppose 🙂 It does sound like your crockpot may cook slower than others, so perhaps doing a longer time would help. I can’t speak to other changes as I haven’t tried that, but hopefully someone else can answer your questions 🙂
I loveeedddd this idea. I added a few more things and made it more like stew and it came out absolutely delicious. I added more veggies like suggested (mushrooms, squash, zucchini, eggplants and raw onion) and a little flour with water and bouillon. It turned out really wel. This was my first experience with the slow cooker and the chicken breast over cooked a little. I was wondering if you had any suggestions to prevent this.
Thanks for your amazing recipe!!
Yay!! SO great to hear! I love all the veggies you added – it sounds like a delicious stew! 🙂 All slow cookers cook at different speeds so having overcooked chicken breast is likely that you left it in too long and/or your slow cooker is a faster cooker. If everything else is finishing faster than the chicken and then the chicken is getting over cooked then I would recommend cutting the breasts into a few pieces and then as soon as they are cooked through the soup should be done 🙂 Also perhaps place the chicken in the middle instead of on the edges of your crockpot. Hope that helps!
This soup is fabulous and so easy to make. We stirred a little plain greek yogurt into our bowls, it was delicious. Because of the chili flavoring there are a ton of topping that go well with it. I am making another batch today and will freeze some, hopefully it does well being frozen.
Oooo that does sound great!! Thanks so much for the comment! 🙂 (And I wish I could tell you how this freezes, but I’ve never tried it!)