Instant Pot Taco Soup is packed with flavor and oh so easy to make! With simple ingredients and a quick cook time, there’s no reason not to make this insanely delicious taco soup for an easy weeknight dinner!
Why You’ll Love This Taco Soup Recipe
Texas is our home state, which means we love that Southwest flavor! This soup is rich with that down home taste. Each spoonful really packs a punch of savory goodness – it’s impossible to not go for seconds! Here are just a few reasons why you’ll love this easy taco soup as much as we do!
- Kid Friendly: Having three kids in the house, we always make sure our recipes can be enjoyed by everyone. This Instant Pot taco soup is no exception! The kids always get excited when they see the Instant Pot being used, especially if they know it’s for this soup.
- Customizable: This taco soup recipe is a huge family favorite at our house and we love how customizable it is. For those that love heat, you can add things like cayenne pepper, jalapeños or hot sauce! But if left out, it’s great for the kiddos too!
- Sneaky Veggies: We already mentioned taco soup is super kid friendly. But it’s also an easy – and sneaky – way to get picky eaters to eat veggies like corn, beans, tomatoes and avocado!
The last thing left to do now is serve up your Instant Pot taco soup with all of your favorite toppings and watch it disappear. When it comes to easy and delicious dinners, you’ll find that this one is pretty hard to beat. Try it tonight and find out why we it’s a family favorite!
What You’ll Need
The ingredients for Instant Pot taco soup are simple, delicious, and affordable. Scroll down to the recipe card for exact amounts.
- Ground Meat: You can use a lean ground beef, turkey, chicken, or pork based on your preference.
- Beans: We’re going to use red kidney beans, black beans, and pinto beans in this taco soup recipe! We recommend draining and rinsing before use.
- Veggies: Corn (frozen or canned), onion, and fresh garlic.
- Taco Seasoning: We like to use our homemade taco seasoning, but a store brand is fine as well.
- Olive Oil
- Rotel
- Canned Green Chilies
- Chicken Broth
- Limes
How to Make Instant Pot Taco Soup
The Instant Pot makes cooking this easy taco soup a breeze. With only 10 minutes of prep time, the Instant Pot does all the heavy lifting! Check out the recipe card for detailed instructions.
- Sauté: Set the Instant Pot to simmer and let it heat up for a minute. Add the olive oil and sauté the onion for about 2 minutes, then add the ground meat and cook until it’s no longer pink. Finally, add the garlic and taco seasoning and sauté for another 30 seconds. Go ahead and turn off the Instant Pot.
- Combine: Add all the beans, corn, Rotel, green chilies, and chicken broth to the pot. Stir to combine and put the lid on the pressure cooker.
- Pressure Cook: Select ‘manual’ and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. Once the cook time is finished, let it naturally release pressure for 15 minutes. Then, turn the steam release knob to ‘venting’ to release any remaining pressure.
- Finish: Add some fresh lime juice, give everything a good stir, serve, and enjoy!
Tips for Best Results
All of our Instant Pot soup recipes are pretty foolproof, but we always like to include some tips and variation ideas to ensure your taco soup turns out perfectly every time.
- Crockpot: We often get asked if this recipe works in the crockpot. It does! You’ll need to brown the meat, onions, and garlic before adding them to the slow cooker, but that’s about it. Add everything together, cover, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. So easy!
- Ground Meat: You can work with any ground meat you have on hand – they all work in this easy taco soup. And it can be really fun to change up the flavor profile by using ground chicken one day, spicy ground pork another, and ground beef or bison another!
- Go Vegetarian: With all the beans already included in this soup, it would be very simple to just omit the meat and use a veggie stock in place of the chicken broth. You could also add some lentils for some great texture and flavor.
How to Serve This Easy Taco Soup
This Instant Pot taco soup is delicious all on its own and it’s a really satisfying meal. However, serving it up with some hot cornbread (or our favorite sweet potato cornbread!) on the side is absolutely heavenly. There are some culinary combos that just can’t be beat, and taco soup with cornbread is definitely one of them!
As for toppings, there are so many options to choose from! We love to add any (or all!) of the following: freshly squeezed lime, sliced avocado, sour cream, cilantro, jalapeno (fresh or pickled), cotija cheese, corn chips, and diced tomatoes.
The sky is really the limit here. If you have any picky eaters in the house, it’s a fun idea to set up a toppings bar. That way, everyone can make sure their bowl is perfect!
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
One of the best part of making taco soup is the leftovers. There’s something about how the flavors continue to meld overnight that make the flavor even more amazing the next day. Here’s how to handle them:
- Refrigerate: Keep leftovers in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container.
- Reheat: You can use the microwave or the stovetop to reheat the soup. We’ll often use the microwave for a single bowl, and the stovetop if we’re having it for dinner again the next day. Either way, give it a good stir throughout the heating process so it heats through. If it’s a little thicker than you’d like, feel free to add a bit more chicken broth to thin it out.
- Freeze: Taco soup freezes incredibly well. Just make sure to store it in a freezer friendly container or bag and remove all the extra air. We personally like to use freezer friendly ziplock bags and lay them flat to freeze to save space in the freezer!
More Instant Pot Soup Recipes
Instant Pot Taco Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey or lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1 oz package low-sodium taco seasoning
- 1 16 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 16 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15.25 oz can whole kernel corn, drained (or frozen corn)
- 1 10 oz can rotel (do not drain)
- 1 7 oz can diced green chiles (do not drain)
- 2 cups 16 oz chicken broth
- Juice of 1 lime
optional toppings:
- freshly squeezed lime
- sliced avocado
- sour cream
- cilantro
- jalapeño: fresh or pickled
- cotija cheese: or any shredded cheese
- corn chips: or tortilla chips
- diced tomatoes
Instructions
- Set instant pot to simmer. Let heat for a minute, then add olive oil and onion. Sauté for 2 minutes, then add ground meat and break it apart, stirring often, and cook until no longer pink. Add garlic and taco seasoning to instant pot, and sauté for 30 seconds. Turn off instant pot.
- Add red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, corn, rotel, green chilies and chicken broth to instant pot. Stir together to combine.
- Seal the pressure cooker with the lid. Select Manual (or Pressure Cook button depending on your instant pot model) and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. Don’t forget, it will take about 10 minutes for the instant pot to come to pressure and then the timer to start counting down.
- When the cook time finishes, let the pot sit undisturbed for a 15 minute natural release (meaning do not touch the instant pot for 15 minutes after it says it’s done cooking).
- Then turn the steam release knob to Venting to release any remaining pressure and open the lid. Add lime juice to soup and stir to combine.
- Serve hot with desired toppings and enjoy!
Equipment
- Instant Pot
