Winterify Your Taco Tuesday With This Cheesy, Tortilla-Topped Taco Soup

Every now and then, a Tex Mex-style ground beef taco really hits the spot. It was a move my mom used to make from time to time, throwing a packet of taco seasoning into some ground beef and serving the meat mixture with hard taco shells, and fixings like diced tomato, lettuce, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, and shredded cheese. It was a satisfying dinner perfect for a weeknight. Here we’ve spun the nostalgic Taco Tuesday–style taco on its head with our easy recipe for a deeply comforting, savory taco soup that hits all the notes of the classic. 

Our Birmingham, Alabama-based colleague Elizabeth Mervosh developed this thick and hearty taco-inspired soup, which features ground beef, corn, and pinto beans swimming in a flavorful purée of canned fire-roasted tomatoes, charred onion, garlic, jalapeño, and cubanelle peppers. Before being served, the soup is laddled into individual bowls, topped with cheese and tortilla chips and broiled until it’s crispy and melty on top. It’s a definite step up from the average Taco Tuesday dinner.

A first glance at this taco soup’s ingredients—ground beef, beans, chiles, canned tomatoes—might make you wonder how this soup is different from chili. But while there is certainly some overlap, this soup is much brothier and thinner than the average chili, meaning you could serve both in the same week without anyone feeling like they're eating the same thing for days in a row (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Technique Tips for an Unparalleled Taco Soup Experience

Add deep flavor with a charred tomato purée base. To make this soup really special, it's worth taking just a few minutes to char the onion, garlic, and chiles (a combination of sweet Cubanelles or banana peppers and mildly spicy jalapeños) in a dry skillet before blending these aromatics with canned fire-roasted tomatoes. Charring the vegetables for the soup before blending them adds a slight smoky flavor and also brings out the sweetness in the Cubanelle pepper. Make sure to cook the vegetables until they are blistered and have brown spots all over. This ensures they develop a robust flavor that will permeate the broth.

Bloom the spice mixture in oil. For a true Taco Tuesday experience, you’ve gotta include taco seasoning, and we made sure to use a generous amount to achieve that distinctive flavor. We recommend using our homemade taco seasoning recipe, but your preferred taco seasoning blend will work just as well (I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Old El Paso’s taco packets).

For the best flavor, make sure to bloom the spice mixture in the oil until it’s fragrant and fully coated in the oil before adding the ground beef. The ground spices in the seasoning blend have flavor molecules that are largely fat-soluble, which means they will dissolve more readily into the oil than they would into a watery broth base. At the same time, as the taco seasoning heats and toasts in the oil, its flavor will become more fragrant and complex. Just make sure to add the meat before the taco seasoning scorches—be sure to have the package opened and ready to add to the pan.

Simmer the soup for just a few minutes. It might be tempting to slowly simmer a big pot of soup on the stovetop for a long period of time with the mindset that the longer the soup simmers, the more flavor will develop. But this is not the case with taco soup. Instead, limiting the simmering time to about 10 minutes helps you avoid overcooking the ground beef, which can easily turn dry, pebbly, and unpleasant to eat if simmered for too long. 

Finish with a cheesy, crunchy topping before serving. It wouldn’t be a taco soup without the tacos. For the “taco” element in this soup, Elizabeth uses store bought tortilla chips in two different ways. First, she stirs crushed tortilla chips into the soup’s broth to help thicken the soup and add savory, toasted corn flavor.

In addition to the crushed chips in the broth, you'll also layer tortilla chips and then cheese over the individual soup bowls and broil until the cheese is just melted. This creates a great crunchy, cheesy taco-like topping. 

Finished with an easy fresh salsa, this soup has all of the textures and flavors of a great ground beef taco in one big bowl of comforting soup.

For the Soup: Halve onion. Cut 1 onion half through root end to create two quarters. Set aside remaining onion half. 

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high until hot and just smoking. Place the 2 onion quarters, Cubanelle chiles or banana peppers, garlic, and 1 of the jalapeños in hot skillet; cook, turning occasionally, until onion, garlic, and chiles are blistered and charred in spots, 3 to 8 minutes for garlic and onions and 5 to 10 minutes for chiles. Use tonga to transfer to a plate as they finish cooking; set aside, and let cool slightly, about 10 minutes. 

Peel garlic and discard skins. Remove and discard stems, skins, and seeds from chiles. Transfer the charred onion, peeled garlic, and peeled chiles to a blender, along with 1 can of the tomatoes. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds; set aside. 

In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add taco seasoning; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant and sizzling, about 45 seconds. Add ground beef, and increase heat to high. Cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 3 to 6 minutes. Add tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly, until tomato paste fully coats and slightly thickens beef mixture, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in stock, puréed chile-garlic mixture, beans, corn, crushed tortilla chips, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt, and remaining 1 can tomatoes. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium, and cook, maintaining a simmer and stirring occasionally, until flavors meld, about 10 minutes. Season with additional salt to taste, if desired.

For the Salsa: While soup is simmering, adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat broiler in oven. Chop the remaining onion half to equal 1/4 cup; finely chop remaining jalapeño chile to equal 1 tablespoon. (Reserve any remaining onion and jalapeño chile for another use.) In a small bowl, stir together measured chopped onion, jalapeño chile, fresh tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

Using a ladle, divide soup evenly among 6 broiler-safe soup bowls, and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Top each bowl with a few whole tortilla chips and 1/4 cup cheese. Broil until cheese is melted, about 2 minutes. Top with prepared tomato-chile salsa before serving. 

Special Equipment

Large cast iron skillet, blender, large Dutch oven, 6 broiler-safe soup bowls

Make-Ahead and Storage

The soup can be cooked through step 4, cooled and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. To serve soup, reheat until simmering on the stovetop, then continue with step 4 in the recipe.