6-Ingredient Slow Cooker Taco Soup with Ground Beef

This slow cooker taco soup is the weeknight dinner I keep coming back to — six simple ingredients, barely any prep, and it tastes like it’s been simmering all day. Because it has. It’s cozy and hearty, somewhere between chili and tacos, and it fills the house with that smell that makes everyone wander into the Kitchen asking when supper’s ready.

Why You’ll Love It

Only 6 ingredients — pantry staples you probably already have on hand
The slow cooker does the work — start it in the morning and come home to dinner already done
Feeds a crowd — scales easily and everyone can customize their own bowl
Big, familiar flavor — tastes like a cross between chili and tacos, cozy and satisfying
Great for leftovers — keeps well in the fridge and freezes beautifully

A Few Notes on the Ingredients

The taco seasoning — I use whatever’s on sale, honestly. Store brand, name brand, doesn’t matter much. If you’re salt-sensitive, there are lower-sodium versions.
The chili beans in sauce — don’t drain those. The sauce is thick and seasoned and adds a lot to the broth. Draining them makes the soup noticeably thinner and a little flat.
The diced tomatoes with green chilies — leave all the juice in. That juice is flavorful. If your family is genuinely spice-averse, you can use plain diced tomatoes instead and it’s still very good.
For corn, canned and frozen are about the same. It doesn’t make a difference in a slow cooker where everything simmers for hours anyway.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning (the standard 1-ounce size)
1 can chili beans in sauce, 15 ounces — do NOT drain
1 can black beans, 15 ounces, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, 15 ounces, drained (or about 1½ cups frozen corn — I eyeball it)
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, 14.5 ounces, with all the juice

How to Make It

Brown your ground beef in a skillet over medium heat, breaking it up as you go. This step takes maybe ten minutes and it’s the only thing you’ll do on the stove. Drain off the grease — I tip the pan and use a Spoon, I don’t have a fancy strainer for this — and then sprinkle the whole packet of taco seasoning right over the meat in the pan. Stir it around until the beef is coated, which takes about thirty seconds.
Then everything goes in the slow cooker. The seasoned beef. Both cans of beans — chili beans with their sauce, black beans rinsed. The corn. The tomatoes with their liquid. Give it all a gentle stir, mostly just to distribute things evenly. Put the lid on and walk away.
LOW for six to eight hours, or HIGH for three to four. I almost always do LOW because I usually start it before I leave for work, or before I have to take someone somewhere, and I want it to cook slowly all day. When I come back the house smells like dinner and I feel unreasonably proud of myself given that I spent maybe fifteen minutes on it.
Before you serve it, taste it. Sometimes I add a pinch of salt. Sometimes it doesn’t need anything. Ladle into bowls and set out whatever toppings you’ve got — cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, chips, a squeeze of lime if you have limes rolling around in the crisper drawer.
We like it with cornbread, when I have the energy to make it. Or buttered saltines, which is very Midwestern of us and I make no apologies. A green salad on the side is nice if you’re trying to make it feel like a full production, but really, this soup is a full production on its own.

Variations

I’ve made this with ground turkey instead of beef, and it’s good — leaner and a little lighter, which sometimes is what you’re after. It also works well with leftover shredded chicken if that’s what you have.
If you want it brothier — more soup, less stew — stir in a cup or two of beef broth or tomato juice before you cook it. This is especially useful if you’re stretching it to feed more people or if you want to serve it over rice.
Kidney beans or pinto beans in place of the black beans — perfectly fine. I’ve also made it with all chili beans and no black beans because that’s what I had, and nobody said a word. That’s the thing about pantry soups. They’re forgiving in a way that baking simply isn’t, and I appreciate that quality deeply.
If your family likes onion, you can chop half an onion and throw it in with the beef while it’s browning. Same with a diced bell pepper. That nudges you past six ingredients, technically, but sometimes rules are made to be nudged.

Storage

This soup keeps in the refrigerator for four or five days, maybe longer. It also freezes wonderfully, which is one of its best qualities. Let it cool completely, then ladle it into quart containers or gallon freezer bags — the bags lay flat, which saves space — and label them with the date and contents. From the freezer, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove or in the microwave. It tastes just as good as it did the first day, possibly better because the flavors have had time to really settle in.