• Add all of the soup ingredients to your crock pot. Note: there is no need to chop the chicken into bite sized pieces first, as we will be shredding it later.
• Give everything a big stir until the ingredients are well-distributed.
• Secure the lid on your crock pot and cook on High heat for 4 hours or Low heat for 6 to 8 hours. The cooking time on this slow cooker soup can be reduced to 3 hours on high if you're using pre-cooked chicken.
• Once the soup has finished slow cooking, transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board and use two forks to shred chicken to your desired consistency. Note: If you would prefer to chop the chicken ahead of time versus shredding it after cooking, feel free to do so!
• Transfer the shredded chicken back to the crock pot and stir the soup well.
• If you’re serving the chicken tortilla soup with homemade tortilla strips, see instructions below.
• Serve soup in big bowls with tortilla strips (or chips), and your choice of toppings such as shredded cheese (such as Monterey jack cheese, cotija cheese, cheddar cheese, etc), sour cream, cilantro, green onions, fresh limes, diced avocado, and more.

Homemade Tortilla Strips:

• Stack 6 to 8 corn tortillas on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut them into thin strips, about ¼-inch to ½-inch wide.
• Heat ¼ cup of high temperature cooking oil such as avocado oil, canola oil or vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Wait a few minutes for the oil to heat up and become sizzling hot. Carefully add 4 to 6 strips of corn tortillas at a time to the oil. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until the strips are golden brown and have reached your desired level of crisp.
• Transfer the crispy tortilla strips to a plate lined with a paper towel and repeat the process for the rest of the tortilla strips.
• You can either stir the crispy tortilla strips into the whole batch of soup or have everyone serve themselves individually by adding their desired amount of strips to their own bowls.