Easy Slow Cooker Three Bean Taco Soup

I love slow cooker recipes because I don’t have to really tend to it. You just throw everything into the crockpot in the morning and come home to a delicious meal.

I am a stay-at-home mom and usually find the time to stand in the kitchen for an hour or two to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for my family, but some days are filled with appointments, social obligations, playdates, etc. and I just don’t come home early enough to cook dinner so that it is done by the time my husband comes home from a long day of work. There are also days when I just simply don’t feel like cooking time-consuming meals.

Election Day was that kind of day.

There was heavy rain all day long, too much traffic and stress due to the day, a two-year-old that already woke up grumpy and full of sassy attitude, a six-year-old who decided to throw his listening skills out of the window before it was even 7am, and my motivation had quietly packed its bags somewhere in between all this.

Once the first one was in school, and the second one decided to let go of the sass for 5 minutes and watch some Octonauts, I picked up my phone and scrolled through Pinterest for easy crockpot recipes that don’t require me having to go to the store for ingredients.

I felt like something Mexican but didn’t have everything needed for Bacon & Bean Soup at home. After a while, I came across a bunch of Taco Soup recipes that seemed pretty simple and I had most ingredients for it at home to be able to come up with something that would work.

Long story short, I looked at like 5 different recipes and decided to just wing it with what I got at home. And that's how we ended up with a delicious Three Bean Taco Soup for dinner.

Husband liked it so much that we've decided to keep it as a monthly or biweekly dish on the dinner plan.

I’ve been writing for Reviews, Chews and How-to’s for a while now, and if it has taught me one thing, it’s that no matter what I come up with in the kitchen, art projects, etc. ALWAYS take pictures and make notes. You never know, it might just turn into something awesome that I could share with our readers.

And in this case it did!

Slow Cooker Three Bean Taco Soup

Here is what you will need:

Crockpot / Slow cooker
Spatula (or something to stir it with)
Strainer

1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can cannellini beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans (I bet pinto beans our also taste amazing!)
12oz bag of frozen corn
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
3tbsp Taco seasoning (I used my homemade blend) 
1 12oz can of beer or 12oz chicken or vegetable stock
3-4 chicken breasts
1 small can of diced, green chilies (optional)

Here’s how you do it:

Start by chopping the onion and mince the garlic. Dump it into the crockpot.

Drain all the beans and dump them in the strainer; rinse them thoroughly then add them to the crockpot as well.  As for the beans, I think it would probably taste even better with pinto beans but hey, I had to work with what I got and there were only kidney beans left!

Add in the corn, Rotel tomatoes, tomato sauce. Give it a good stir.

After that I just sprinkled it with 3 tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning. You can also just use a package of store bought taco seasoning I guess. (but make your own - it's better!)

Give it a good stir to mix in the seasoning.

At this point, I added half a 24oz bottle of beer. Now how did it get to this? Good question.

I opened the fridge, saw the Heineken and realized it would probably be very inappropriate to drink a 24oz can of beer when it’s not even 10am (plus I need to drive later to pick up my son. Drinking and driving is a big no no), so I decided to just pour half of it into the crockpot and see what happens. I need to say, it added a great touch to the soup, but I am sure chicken stock or vegetable stock works just as well.

(Please don’t judge me. It was a rough day. Election day, remember?)

Now, after you add the beer or stock,  just give it another good stir, then submerge the chicken breasts into it and cook on high for about 4 hours.

Once it is done, just take the chicken breasts out and either cut or shred them. I did a combination of both.

Return the chicken to the soup, and serve with some cheese, sour cream and cilantro.

As a side I decided to make my easy homemade bread with it (that’s where the other half of the beer ended up. I promise!), or you could heat up some tortillas and put out a bowl of tortilla chips.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as we did!