Taco Soup in the Rice Cooker
Our rice cooker is the BOMB!!! Remember when I first bought it and we made oatmeal in it? Well, last night I made our entire dinner in it! It took about 10 minutes in prepping, ONE pot to clean, and our dinner was ready for us as soon as we got home from a little league baseball game. None of this 5 hour stuff like a crockpot (but I do love crockpots). And the best part… everyone ATE IT UP! No, seriously loved it! There were NO leftovers! They were scraping the bowl for more. (Tortilla chips do help with the wow-ness factor for them).
What we ate: Chicken Tortilla Soup
We were heading out to a ball game around 4pm. I chopped an onion and garlic, and put it at the bottom of a HOT rice cooker with some oil to get it to start browning.
- 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- ·1 TBL olive oil
While the rice cooker was heating up the onions and garlic, I chopped some chicken. Then, add chopped chicken to rice cooker and cook till browned.
Then add all at once:
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup chopped carrots (I left these somewhat large so the kids could pull them out if they wanted to, although no one did)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (with juice)
- ½ cup brown rice (uncooked)
- 1 can corn (drained)
- 1/2 cup black beans
Turn rice cooker on to ‘brown rice’ setting, if yours has that one. Or turn it on for at least 45 min-1 hour.
Once we returned from the ball game, the dinner was cooked and ready to eat! It was the perfect bridge between a slow cooked meal, and being present in your kitchen for an hour while you cook soup.
So, if you have only 45 minutes to an hour, you’re too late to start a crockpot meal, try using your rice cooker!
What I love about this meal:
- The beans, of course… super healthy
- The carrots, tomatoes, onion, garlic… gotta have our veggies
- The brown rice.. Superior in health to white rice
- The fact that I had all the ingredients
- That it was fast, easy, and low clean-up
!
Taco Soup in the Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound chicken breast
- 5 cup chicken broth, low-sodium
- 14 1/2 ounce diced tomatoes, canned
- 1/2 cup brown rice, raw
- 1 cup corn, canned
- 2 medium carrot
- 1/2 cup black beans, canned
Instructions
- Chop an onion and garlic, and put it at the bottom of a HOT rice cooker with some oil to get it to start browning.
- While the rice cooker is heating up the onions and garlic, dice your chicken.
- Add chicken to rice cooker and cook until browned.
- Add chicken broth, diced tomatoes, brown rice, and drained corn. Drain and rinse black beans, peel and dice carrots; add to cooker.
- Turn rice cooker on to “brown rice” setting, if yours has one. Otherwise, turn it on for at least 45 minutes-1 hour.
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
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That looks so good!!! I love hearty soups like that and so do my kids!
The other day I saw a recipe on a blog and I thought to myself that I should send you the link because you would love it…then I realized I was already on your blog and it was your recipe!! lol I think the Texas heat is getting to me!
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This looks yummy and easy! Can’t wait to try it!
Its really nice to see all natural ingredients going into this meal. I am hoping not use cans in my list and hopefully get most of these items fresh from my garden or greenhouse. I guess you can do this on a stove with a good pot too since it is only an hour to make. Could you do it with noodles if you added them at 20 minutes til the end?
I bet you could Preston!
Trying it right now! We’ll see in about an hour 😀 I’m using an electric skillet that we use as our rice cooker, tho 😉
That is a good recipe! In fact, I’m craving it right now 🙂
I am so excited to try this. I actually bought the same rice cooker just a few days ago and have been looking to make a whole meal in it. This will be perfect.
Sheri… The recipe actually came from the booklet the cooker came with! I made a couple of changes (like the brown rice), but not much. I LOVE this recipe!~
Too funny! I have yet to look at the recipes in it. Busy week here. Thanks!
I love making this. And my kids often ask for it. I use the low sodium V8 for the liquid. Then there is even more veggies in there! 🙂
I love it Emily! I actually have only bought V8 once in my life, so I will have to try it this way!!
Try Mrs. T’s Bloody Mary mix. It also adds a kick of spice with the extra veggies
I’m making this monday!! Subbing mock chicken for the real chicken as I’m a veggie 🙂 looks sooo good and easy!
Soooo delish!! I couldn’t get the items to sautee in the rice steamer so I did those on the cooktop, but the rest was perfect. Also with the left overs — I mixed with eggs and made a burrito sooo good!!
MMM… I’m in the mood for some eggs right now. I love the idea of adding eggs to this!
Do you know if anyone has tried this in a crockpot?
I don’t cook much, so have to ask a stupid question…is the chopped chicken already cooked? Or raw? Thanks.
I used raw chicken! It cooks in the rice cooker.
Has anyone tried this in the crock pot? If so any changes made?
I’ve done it Kati without making any changes. I just dumped everything in and left on low for a few hours!
Are the beans already soft from a can or cooked? Or dried beans from a bag?
Stacy- the beans are cooked before they go into the soup.
I made this successfully about a year ago, but my then 1-year old did not like onion(shocking!). Now he’s starting to like it, so I thought I’d try it again. Thanks, Amy.
You have blown me away! I didn’t know you could do a whole meal in a rice cooker. Dying to try this! How much chicken? Thanks so much for the recipe!
Yes how much chicken???
You can use any amount @martha. I’m sure we used one or two chicken thighs.
Do you think could use quinoa instead of brown rice?
Yes! That would be amazing!
What a boring sounding soup. Where exactly is the “taco” part of this? There is no seasoning at all. I get you want something easy, but does that mean it has to be flavorless?
You should try it first Jane. It might sound bland, but we love it!
I made this but changed it a bit. I browned the chicken with seasoning salt, garlic powder, and pepper, then onions and garlic in a pan. I put the broth in a casserole pan added taco seasoning and then all the other stuff, but the carrots. Put it in the over at 375 for 50 minutes. I stirred it every 20 minutes. It’s DELICIOUS!
Nice recipe! Pure clay pots are also great rice cookers — thanks to this tested and certified 100% non-toxic material. You get soft, fluffy and delicious rice every time without any additives. I’d like to post a link here with your permission, just in case anybody wants to know more about this healthy rice cooker: http://miriamsearthencookware.com/2013/04/25/how-to-delicious-fluffy-rice/
I didn’t have a rice cooker, so I just used a regular big pot with lid and it turned out great.
It was good i also don’t have a rice cooker so I used a instant pot. I used the sautee function for cooking the onion, garlic and chicken. The used the manual function for 22 minutes and 10 minutes for natural release.
Delicious. I used an Instant Pot. Sautéed in it and then pressure cooked according to brown rice settings. I made it vegetarian using vegetable broth and frozen Quorn chik’n tenders. I put the chik’n in frozen when ready to pressure cook.
This was so yum!!! I added a little cumin and sweet paprika and it was so good and soo easy!!
Thanks, I got a delicious soup
I’m making this now its smelling good. Lol didn’t realize I didn’t have corn, black beans, or chicken broth though so I had to drive up to the store while the chicken was cooking. Everything is smelling great now that I have it all coming together.