Instant Pot Cowgirl Soup

Instant Pot Cowgirl Soup is a hearty, filling and tasty soup. It is chock full of ground beef, rice, ranch style beans and picante sauce. Don’t forget to top it off with chili cheese Fritos!

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Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions for cowgirl soup are in the recipe card below

Instant Pot Cowgirl Soup

There is Instant Pot cowboy soup so why not give the ladies a soup of their own? Cowgirl soup has so much goodness in one bowl! It’s a little like cowboy soup in that is starts with ground beef but the flavor is kicked up a notch with the addition of picante sauce, green chiles and chili powder. Instead of potatoes, traditional in cowboy soup, this soup has rice. Both are good but if you’re looking for a little kick then try cowgirl soup for dinner this week! You can prepare it in your Instant Pot or your Crockpot. It stays good on the keep warm setting for hours. It’s not fussy and kids and adults love it.

Ingredients and Substitution Ideas

• 1 pound lean ground beef–you can also use ground turkey, ground pork or or ground chicken
• 1 cup diced onion–don’t like chopping onions? Try using frozen diced onions. You can find them by the other frozen vegetables at your grocery store.
• 3 cups beef broth–or you can use 3 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of Better Than Bouillon Beef Base
• 1 Tbsp cumin–for flavor
• 1 Tbsp chili powder–for flavor
• 1 tsp garlic powder–for flavor
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce–you can also use a can of diced tomatoes or a can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup Pace Picante sauce–I like to use mild
• 1 (4 oz) can green chiles–I like to use mild
• 1 (15 oz) can ranch style beans or chili beans, not drained—I used ranch style beans with jalapenos. You can find ranch-style and chili beans by the other beans at your grocery store. When I buy chili beans I usually buy Bush’s brand. If you’re in a pinch you can use a can of drained and rinsed pinto beans or black beans. You might need to bump up flavor though.
• 1 (15 oz) can corn, drained–you can also use frozen corn (about 1.5 cups)
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced–I only used 1 carrot but you can add 2-3 carrots
• ¼ cup brown rice or white rice–I used long grain brown rice but you can also use long grain white rice, jasmine rice, basmati, etc.
• Toppings: Chili Cheese Fritos, shredded cheddar, sliced avocados–other options are a dollop of sour cream, chopped cilantro and pickled jalapeno

How to make cowgirl soup in the Instant Pot or Crockpot

Instant Pot Instructions:

1. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef and break it up. Add in the onion. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease.
2. Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
3. Add in the cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, tomato sauce, picante sauce, green chiles, ranch beans, corn, carrot and rice. Don’t stir (to prevent the burn error message).
4. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the SOUP button to 22 minutes for brown rice or 5 minutes for white rice (if you don’t have a soup button use the manual/pressure cook button). When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
5. Stir well. Ladle into bowls and top with Fritos, cheese and avocados. 

Slow Cooker Instructions:

1. Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add in the beef and break it up. Add in the onion. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease. Add into the slow cooker. (Some slow cookers* have a saute or stovetop setting where you can brown the meat right in the slow cooker!)
2. Add in the broth, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, tomato sauce, picante sauce, green chiles, ranch beans, corn, carrot and rice. Stir.
3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours, or until rice is cooked through. (Each slow cooker cooks differently and brown rice will take much longer than white rice to cook.)
4. Stir and ladle into bowls and top with Fritos, cheese and avocados. 

Additional Soup Tips

• I like to use a hamburger chopper tool* for breaking up ground meats. I use that same tool for mashing potatoes too.
• To drain excess grease I like to use this trick: Tilt the Instant Pot to one side while holding the ground meat against the other side with a wooden spoon. This should make most of the grease pool on the tilted side. Lower the Instant Pot down, the meat should stay to its side and the grease on the other. Place a couple paper towels into the grease and use the spoon to sop up the grease. Discard the paper towels.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can also make this soup in your 3 or 8 quart pot with no changes.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat thaw overnight and then add to a large pot and stir over medium high heat until heated through.
• To make as a freezer meal: Add a pound of browned ground beef to a gallon size zipper freezer bag. Add in all the ingredients except the beef broth and the toppings. Seal well and freeze in a shape that will fit in your Instant Pot or thaw overnight before cooking. Pour broth into Instant Pot and then contents of the freezer bag. Cook using the soup button for 22 minutes (for brown rice) or 5 minutes (for white rice) with a 5-10 minute natural pressure release.

What to serve with your soup

I served this soup with my favorite cornbread recipe and honey butter. Other choices are French bread or dinner rolls.

More Cowboy Recipes You’ll Love

Instant Pot Grieving Cowboy Casserole

Instant Pot Montana Cowgirl Surprise

Instant Pot Wyoming Stew

Instant Pot Cowboy Lasagna

A Cowboy’s Supper (Instant Pot Recipe)

Instant Pot Texas Caviar

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.