Easy Instant Pot Taco Soup

This Instant Pot Taco Soup uses fresh or frozen ground beef, tomato sauce, beans, and corn for a healthy and amazingly fast weeknight dinner. 

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: This recipe is super adaptable, uses pantry-ready ingredients, and is totally family-approved. It tastes like your favorite tacos, in a comforting soup!

We’re all about easy weeknight recipes made in the pressure cooker, and this taco soup is a must-have in the rotation. It’s on page 118 of our Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook.

We’ve updated it with instructions for cooking from fresh or frozen, because we make it with frozen beef all the time.

This is one of our favorite Instant Pot soup recipes because it’s so fast and easy. If you’re looking for more Instant Pot ground beef recipes, try our Easy Instant Pot Ground Beef Tacos, Instant Pot Greek Beef Tacos, and No-Grill Instant Pot Hamburgers.

INGREDIENTS YOU NEED

Grab these pantry-friendly ingredients to make Instant Pot taco soup:

• Ground beef. We use lean ground beef, but any kind will work.
• Dried onion. Look for onion flakes or freeze-dried onions. They’ll rehydrate in the pressure cooker. 
• Taco seasoning mix. If you don’t have your own taco seasoning mix, I like the one we use in our ground beef tacos.
• Chili powder. Use any kind of chili powder you like. 
• Tomatoes. This soup uses both diced canned tomatoes and canned tomato sauce. 
• Beans. I love the combination of black and pinto beans, but feel free to use your favorite beans, or a mixture. 
• Corn. I usually skip the canned corn and instead add about a cup of frozen corn after pressure cooking. That’s because I always have frozen corn on hand and rarely buy canned corn. It works both ways!
• Diced green chilies. You can use less if you’re sensitive to spice. I usually buy mild green chilies, but if you prefer it hotter, go for it!

How to Make Taco Soup in an Instant Pot

✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.

If you’re starting with fresh ground beef:

Sauté the ground beef, stirring regularly to break it up into small pieces. Then add the dried onion, taco seasoning, chili powder, and salt. Stir this mixture well until it’s all the same color. Add the water,

If you’re starting with frozen ground beef that’s been frozen flat:

Place the frozen ground beef right on the bottom of the pot, then add the water, dried onion, chili powder, and salt, and stir until well combined. Add the canned beans, canned corn, and green chilis.

Layer on the taco seasoning, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.

Lock the lid onto your pressure cooking pot, then select High Pressure and a 5-minute cook time. When the cook time ends, unplug the pressure cooker and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Finally, finish with a quick pressure release. 

When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. Serve the hot taco soup with your favorite toppings, such as corn or tortilla chips, sour cream, or shredded cheese.

Important Tips for Making Taco Soup

• To cook this taco soup using frozen beef, the meat needs to be frozen flat. Otherwise, it will not cook evenly. After you add the ground beef to the pot, add the tomato sauce on top.
  
• Be sure to drain and rinse the beans first because the liquid from the beans contains starches that can sometimes settle to the bottom and cause a burn notice. (If you haven’t had a problem with it in the past, you probably won’t in this one either. Though not rinsing will increase the saltiness of the soup.)
  
• If you have a little extra time and are cooking from fresh ground beef, try our trick of adding baking soda to the ground beef before cooking. (We first learned this from our fancy homemade chili and use it in our ground beef recipes as often as possible.)
  
  Simply let the beef sit with a tablespoon of water, ¾ teaspoons salt, and a heaping ¼ teaspoon baking soda for 20 minutes, then continue with the recipe as written. 
  
  If you do this, you don’t have to drain the ground beef or brown it in batches.

Frequently Asked Questions about Taco Soup 

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes

If you love this taco soup, try these other comforting soups for fall and winter:

• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup is perfect to nurse anyone back to health, or just warm them up!
• Old-Fashioned Instant Pot Beef Stew has tender and hearty chunks of beef, carrots, and potatoes for a one-pot meal. 
• Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup with Chicken and Orzo is a creamy and silky vegetable-based soup with shredded chicken for protein. 

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Taco Soup

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

This Instant Pot Taco Soup recipe is loaded with two kinds of beans, corn, and ground beef for a hearty and cozy dinner.

Print

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup dried onion
• 1 package taco seasoning mix
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups water
• 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 2 cans (15 oz, each) black beans, drained and well rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and well rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) corn, with liquid
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies, with liquid
• Soup toppings: tortilla chips, sour cream, diced tomatoes, avocados, shredded cheese, sour cream, as desired

Instructions

Cooking from fresh ground beef

1. Select Sauté to preheat the pressure cooking pot. When hot, add the ground beef and cook until beef is browned and crumbled, about 5 minutes. If desired, drain your ground beef.
2. Stir in the dried onion, taco seasoning, chili powder, and salt until just combined. Add the water, black beans, pinto beans, canned corn, and green chilis. Stir to combine. 
3. Top with the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, and DO NOT STIR. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 5 minutes cook time.
4. When the cook time ends, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. Give the contents of the pot a good stir until well combined.
5. Serve with your favorite toppings, such as corn or tortilla chips, sour cream, or shredded cheese.

Cooking from frozen-flat ground beef

Note that this method increases the cook time, omits the sauté step, and changes the order you add the ingredients, including the beans and corn.

1. In the bottom of the pressure cooking pot, add the water, dried onion, taco seasoning, chili powder, salt, and green chilis. Stir to combine. Add the frozen ground beef. Top with the tomatoes and tomato sauce, and
   DO NOT STIR.
2. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 8 minutes cook time. (Note that the pot will take longer to come to pressure when cooking with frozen ground beef.)
3. When the cook time ends, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
4. Give the contents of the pot a good stir. Use a wooden spoon or hamburger separator and break up the ground beef in the cooking pot until small and well-combined.
5. Add the black beans, pinto beans, and canned corn and allow to heat through.
6. Serve the taco soup with your favorite toppings, such as corn or tortilla chips, sour cream, or shredded cheese.

Notes

*The cook time is calculated for cooking with fresh ground beef. Add another 10 to 15 minutes if cooking from frozen.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
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  6-Piece Stainless Steel Measuring Spoon Set

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 316Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 938mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 7gSugar: 11gProtein: 23g

Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.

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