Review: NEW Chick-fil-A Chicken Tortilla Soup

As many of y'all know I basically grew up working at Chick-fil-A.  I started when I was 14 years old cleaning the dining room on Saturdays. I worked my way up the fast-food ladder, becoming a manager and eventually Unit Marketing Director until I started at Clemson eventually getting the Chick-fil-A team member scholarship and establishing life-long relationships. Being around the organization for such a long time I am super critical EVERY single time we eat at a Chick-fil-A.  I appreciate when everything,ranging from cleanliness to food quality, is spectacular.  Similarly, I can pinpoint the weaknesses when things aren't working out so well.  What can I say? I had a pretty good teacher.  Anyway, Chick-fil-A just rolled out some new menu items including the chicken tortilla soup and I wanted to go and see what all of the fuss was about.  Let me start by saying that I LOVE Chicken Tortilla Soup, so much so that I have been known to walk into Panera Bread just to see if it's a soup of the day.  In my mind Panera Bread's Chicken Tortilla soup is the best, hands down.  Unfortunately, it's seasonal so it's not always available.  I was excited to hear that Chick-fil-a added it to the menu to close those gaps when it's not available at PB.



Pros:

• Calories. It's only 260 calories for a medium bowl. That's a lot of bang for the caloric buck.  
• Sizing.  The medium bowl (which is the smallest size) is HUGE.  It is actually almost ridiculous.  I ordered the soup with a chargrilled sandwich thinking that I'd have the soup as a side item andin the end it was just too much.  I only managed to eat half of the bowl. 
• Seasoning. The soup has the perfect amount of spiciness.  I am not a big fan of tear-inducing spicy food.   The soup was spicy enough to be authentic and nothing more. 

Cons: 

• Consistency. The soup was too thick making it almost chowder-like.  Typically, tortilla soup has a thinner chicken-broth base.  I am not sure if the consistency I encountered was supposed to be intentionally thick OR if it had more to do with the fact that I ordered soup at 8 pm on a Tuesday night when the high of the day was 65 degrees.   My personal rule of thumb is to not order soup after 7 pm from any fast food establishment period.   I will definitely try soup again during the lunch rush to see if it's different. 
• The tortilla strips.  I know it's tortilla soup and tortillas are necessary, but the strips that it came with were covered in a spicy seasoning because they go with the Spicy Chargrilled Salad.  While they work with the salad I think they are too much for the soup. In my opinion, the soup doesn't need them. 

Final thoughts: 

I would definitely order the chicken tortilla soup again.  It was good and filling and is perfect for those cold winter nights when you just want something warm.  I maintain that Panera Bread's version is better but I think it's a very nice addition to the menu.