Taco Soup Recipe: Easy One-Pot, Slow Cooker or Instant Pot

Easy taco soup, seasoned from scratch in one pot

Taco soup is an American one-pot soup built from taco-night ingredients: ground beef browned with taco seasoning, canned beans, corn, tomatoes with green chiles and broth, simmered briefly and topped the way you top a taco, with cheese, sour cream, avocado and crushed tortilla chips. It is not a Mexican dish and does not claim to be; it is a Tex-Mex home-cooking staple of church suppers, school lunches, potlucks and game days, loved because it is fast, cheap, feeds a crowd and freezes well.

This is the easy stovetop version, done in a little over an hour with one pot and no draining of cans. It makes about 12 1/2 cups (3 liters), 8 bowls of about 1 1/2 cups (360 ml). Three things set it apart from the usual dump-and-stir recipe. The beef is browned properly, with a quarter of it seared hard for flavor. The seasoning is made from scratch, so you get the flavor a taco packet and a ranch packet give without most of their salt. And the soup is finished with lime and dill, which play the part the ranch packet plays in the classic Texas version.

The same pot of ingredients works in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot, it converts easily to chicken or to a vegetarian soup, and it is one of the best soups there is for freezing. All of that is below, along with the history that no other taco soup recipe gets right.

Where taco soup came from: 1977, not the 1950s

Search for where taco soup originated and you will read that it was born in the Southwestern United States in the 1950s, as a mild alternative to chili. We found no source for that anywhere: not in the Internet Archive’s cookbook full text, not in the Google Books record, and not in Texas and Oklahoma newspaper archives. The most respected reference answer, the Food Timeline, says taco soup recipes began appearing in American publications in the early 1990s and that the oldest it found was Campbell’s, dated 1993. Printed cookbooks put it at least 15 years earlier.

The earliest printed taco soup we found is in Uncle Ben’s Rice Cookery, a brand cookbook published by H.P. Books in Tucson in 1977. It sits on a “Monday Night Football” menu beside guacamole, corn chips and cole slaw, with the promise: “After the game or theater, you and your guests can enjoy spicy Taco Soup. And it’s easy to prepare, too.” In 1980 the syndicated diet columnist Barbara Gibbons printed a “Mex-Tex Taco Soup” in The Light and Easy Cookbook. In 1982 it appears in Time to Enjoy, a recipe booklet from Rival, the company that made the Crock-Pot, as “The taste of tacos in a soup... a great way to warm up on a chilly evening.”

Then it went into community cookbooks. The Pella Collector’s Cookbook (Central College Auxiliary, Pella, Iowa, 1982) has Maxine Huffman’s taco soup made with a ham bone, hominy and corn, garnished with cheese, lettuce, green onions and Doritos: proof that early taco soup meant taco toppings on a soup, not a fixed formula. The Faith Lutheran Church Women Cook Book, printed in 1982, has the version we still make: Sally Nash’s pound of hamburger (450 g), a packet of taco seasoning, kidney beans, stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce, with avocado, chips, cheese and sour cream set out in separate bowls. The toppings bar was there from the start. On 27 July 1983, the Lawton Constitution in Oklahoma reported that Routh Becker’s Taco Soup had taken third place for main dishes in its readers’ recipe contest, which drew more than 330 entries: the earliest newspaper sighting we found.

The earliest ranch-packet version we found is Texan. The Eyes of Texas Cookbook (KPRC-TV Houston, published in Fredericksburg, 1987) has a taco soup of ground beef, a taco seasoning envelope, hominy, pinto beans, canned tomatoes and an envelope of ranch-style salad dressing mix. By 1990 A Taste of the Country, from Reiman Associates, the Wisconsin publisher of Country Woman magazine, summed the dish up as “like chili, but without the wait”, and by 1995 a Rotary club cookbook in Flushing, New York, was calling taco soup “this Texan recipe”. Campbell’s printed its own Taco Soup, made with condensed tomato soup, in 1992.

No single inventor is on record. Every early community-cookbook version carries the name of a home cook, and the dish could only exist once its shortcuts did: Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles, canned in Elsa, Texas, since 1943 by the company’s own account; taco seasoning packets, which Lawry’s sold from 1967 and a Texas grocery ad was selling by March 1969; and Hidden Valley’s ranch mix, sold by mail and in local stores in packets from the late 1950s, to be stirred into buttermilk and mayonnaise, and taken national by Clorox, which bought the brand in 1972. Tipping that packet dry into a soup pot was a home cook’s idea. Taco soup’s real parent is chili con carne, and its cousin is Mexico’s sopa de tortilla, which shares the crisp tortilla, cheese and avocado garnish but not the beef.

Taco soup with ranch: what the packets actually do

The famous version of taco soup, the one often called seven-can soup, is a dump recipe: brown a pound or two (450 to 900 g) of beef, then add a packet of taco seasoning, a packet of dry ranch dressing mix and cans of beans, corn and tomatoes with green chiles, undrained. It works, and it is worth understanding why, because each packet does a specific job.

The taco packet brings salt, chile, cumin and cornstarch. Old El Paso’s original mix lists cornstarch as its first ingredient, and the starch is what makes packet taco meat saucy; in soup it adds slight body. The ranch packet is the clever part. Hidden Valley’s original mix is maltodextrin, buttermilk, salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG), garlic, onion, lactic acid, spices and citric acid. That is three flavor tools in one envelope: acid (tang), MSG (savory depth, the taste called umami) and a little body from maltodextrin and gums. That combination is why ranch-packet taco soup tastes rounder than taco seasoning alone.

The cost is sodium. One 1 oz (28 g) McCormick taco packet has about 2,300 mg and one 1 oz (28 g) Hidden Valley ranch packet about 2,160 mg, from their labels: about 4,500 mg together, or about 560 mg in each of 8 bowls before the beans and tomatoes add theirs. This recipe keeps the flavor jobs and drops most of that salt. The homemade blend and measured salt replace the taco packet; dill replaces the ranch herbs; lime juice in the pot and a lime crema on top replace the acids and buttermilk. If you want the packet’s savory pop, 1/4 tsp MSG in the pot does it with about a third of the sodium of the same weight of salt.

To make the classic ranch version instead: skip the salt, spices and dill, stir in 1 packet of taco seasoning and 1 packet of dry ranch mix with the tomatoes, use regular beans drained and rinsed, and add about 2 cups (480 ml) more broth or water to replace their liquid. Draining and rinsing canned beans cuts their sodium by about 41% (Duyff and colleagues, 2011), which offsets some of the packets’ salt.

Crock pot taco soup and Instant Pot taco soup

Slow cooker (crock pot) taco soup: brown the beef, soften the onion and bloom the spices and tomato paste exactly as in steps 2 to 4, in the Dutch oven or a large skillet. Pour in 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the broth and scrape up the browned bits, then tip everything into a 5 to 6 quart (4.7 to 5.7 liter) slow cooker with the tomatoes, beans, remaining broth and corn. The full batch fills a 6 quart (5.7 liter) cooker about halfway, inside the half-to-two-thirds range USDA FSIS recommends. Cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours or HIGH for 2 to 3 hours, with the first hour on HIGH if you can. Stir in the lime and cilantro just before serving.

Should you brown the beef first? USDA FSIS does not strictly require it, as long as the meat is thawed. But slow cookers never brown anything, raw ground beef packs into a dense mass that heats slowly, and its fat does not cook off; it floats on top. Browning first gives you flavor, lets you pour off the fat and gets the meat safely out of the danger zone at the start. Because everything in the pot is already cooked once the beef is browned, the slow cooker’s job is only to meld the flavors, which is why taco soup does not need 8 hours.

Instant Pot taco soup: an 8 quart (7.6 liter) pot takes the full batch; in a 6 quart (5.7 liter) pot, hold back 1 cup (240 ml) of the broth and all of the corn until after cooking (see the fill note below). On Sauté, brown the beef as in step 2 and spoon off all but 1 tbsp of fat. Cook the onion and jalapeño 3 minutes and the garlic 1 minute, then add the spices and tomato paste for 45 seconds. Press Cancel, pour in 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the broth and scrape the bottom completely clean. Add the rest of the broth (less the held-back cup in a 6 quart pot), the beans with their liquid and, in an 8 quart pot, the corn, then pour both cans of tomatoes on top and do not stir. Seal, cook at high pressure for 5 minutes, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then turn the valve to Venting with a long spoon, keeping your face and hands away from it. If soup sputters out, close it and let the pressure finish dropping on its own. Stir in any held-back broth and corn on Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, add the lime and cilantro, and taste. Add a masa slurry only after cooking, never before pressure.

The deglazing and the tomatoes on top are what stop the BURN notice. Thick, sugary tomato sitting on the hot pot floor scorches before the cooker builds pressure; with thin broth on the bottom and tomatoes on top, it cannot. If BURN appears anyway, cancel, release the pressure as the manual directs, scrape the base clean, add 1/2 cup (120 ml) broth and start again. The full batch reaches just past the 1/2 line of a 6 quart (5.7 liter) Instant Pot, and Instant Pot says bean soups must stay at or below that line, which is why the 6 quart version holds back broth and corn until after pressure.

Chicken taco soup and vegetarian taco soup

Chicken taco soup: replace the beef with 1 1/2 lb (680 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs (juicier) or breasts, left whole. Soften the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil, since chicken gives you no rendered fat, bloom the spices and tomato paste, then add the tomatoes, beans and broth and lay the chicken in the liquid. Simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the thickest piece reaches 165°F (74°C). Lift the chicken out, shred it with two forks, and return it with the corn. In a slow cooker, the whole raw thighs (thawed, never frozen) can go straight in: 4 to 6 hours on LOW, until the thickest piece reads 165°F (74°C), then shred. Ground chicken or turkey works like beef: brown it in 1 tbsp oil and cook it to 165°F (74°C).

Vegetarian taco soup: leave out the beef and add a fourth can of beans, or 12 oz (340 g) of plant-based ground meat browned in 1 tbsp oil (in an Instant Pot, cut the pressure time to 3 to 4 minutes). Use vegetable broth, and add 1 tbsp soy sauce (it contains soy and wheat; tamari is usually wheat-free) or 1/4 tsp MSG for the savory depth the beef supplied. Check your labels: plant-based grounds often contain wheat gluten and soy; Worcestershire sauce, which some recipes add, usually contains anchovies, and a ranch packet contains buttermilk, so a ranch-packet soup is vegetarian but not vegan. Our main recipe is a beef soup, so it is not marked vegetarian.

Taco soup vs chili

Taco soup is chili’s quick, brothy younger relative, and a 1990 cookbook put it perfectly: “like chili, but without the wait”. The difference comes down to four things. First, the seasoning. Chili is built on chiles: a Texas bowl of red starts from whole dried chiles, toasted and puréed, and braised for hours. Taco soup is seasoned with a ready-ground blend of chili powder, cumin and oregano, the same mix as taco meat. Second, the liquid and the time: taco soup is a soup, with more broth, and it is ready in about 30 minutes of simmering because every ingredient is already cooked. Chili is a thick braise.

Third, the markers. Corn, hominy, a ranch packet and a pile of crushed tortilla chips all say taco soup; you rarely find them in a pot of chili. Fourth, the beans: they are essential to taco soup, while many Texas cooks make chili without them. If your taco soup comes out thicker than you like, it is drifting toward chili; add broth. If you want it closer to chili, simmer it uncovered for 15 more minutes and add the masa harina.

Freezing taco soup, and making it ahead

Taco soup freezes better than almost any soup, because beans, corn and ground beef come through freezing with their texture intact. Cool it quickly (see the safety notes), then ladle it into freezer containers or flat freezer bags in 3 cup (720 ml) portions, two bowls each, rather than one solid block, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of headspace, since water expands by about 9% as it freezes. Freeze it without toppings: chips go soggy, and sour cream and avocado do not freeze well. Label and date it, and use it within about 3 months for the best quality.

To serve, thaw it overnight in the fridge, or use the microwave’s defrost setting, then reheat on the stove until it comes to a boil, well past 165°F (74°C), adding a splash of broth or water, because the beans keep absorbing liquid and the soup thickens as it sits. Soup thawed in the fridge can go back into the freezer, USDA FSIS says; UK Food Standards Agency advice is stricter: eat defrosted soup within 24 hours, don’t refreeze it, and reheat it only once. So freeze it in two-bowl portions and thaw only what you need.

Taco soup also tastes better on the second day, when the spices have soaked into the beans. For a party, make it a day ahead, cool and refrigerate it, and bring it back to a boil on the stove before moving it to a slow cooker on WARM for serving. (In the UK, that reheat is its one reheat: discard what is left after the party.)