Recreate the beloved comfort of Luby’s famous cafeteria-style beef tortilla soup in your own kitchen with this easy 20-minute copycat recipe. This isn’t your typical chicken tortilla soup – Luby’s distinctive version features savory ground beef that creates deeper, more complex flavors while remaining approachable and mild for all ages. The secret lies in the unexpected combination of cream-style corn and American cheese, which creates the signature creamy texture and subtle sweetness that made this soup a cafeteria favorite
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Table of Contents
Why This Recipe Works
The genius of this recipe lies in using ground beef instead of chicken, which provides richer flavor that pairs beautifully with the chicken stock base. The cream-style corn adds natural sweetness and body, while the American cheese melts seamlessly to create that signature cafeteria-style creaminess. The cornstarch slurry ensures perfect consistency without flour’s raw taste. Hand-crushing the tomatoes creates the ideal texture – not too chunky, not too smooth – that defines authentic Luby’s style.
Why You Should Try This Recipe
Most Tortilla Soup recipes contain chicken, but using ground beef in combination with the chicken stock in this recipe creates deeper, more complex flavors that are still not too heavy.
Stop spending all day simmering soup on the back burner when you can prepare Luby’s Beef Tortilla Soup in about 20 minutes!
Ingredients For Tortilla Soup With Ground Beef
Soup Base:
- Chicken stock – Provides flavorful liquid foundation that balances the beef richness
- Whole peeled tomatoes – Creates fresh tomato flavor and perfect texture when hand-crushed
- Ground cumin – Adds warm, earthy spice essential to tortilla soup character
- Garlic – Contributes aromatic depth and savory complexity
- Salt and ground black pepper – Enhance and balance all other flavors
Creamy Components:
- Cream-style corn – Provides signature sweetness and creamy texture
- American cheese – Melts smoothly and adds mild, creamy richness
- Cornstarch – Creates perfect thickening without altering flavor
- Water – Used to create smooth cornstarch slurry
Protein and Vegetables:
- Ground beef – Delivers hearty, savory protein with deeper flavor than chicken
- White onion – Adds sweet, aromatic base that complements the beef
- Tortilla chips – Provides classic topping and textural contrast
Use cream-style corn in this recipe. Canned or homemade cream-style corn will taste great, but don’t pick up creamed corn by mistake. Creamed corn contains dairy, while cream-style corn does not.
How To Make Easy Tortilla Soup With Ground Beef
To make this Beef Tortilla Soup recipe:
- Pour the chicken broth into a large stockpot and bring it to a boil.
- Dump the whole canned tomatoes and the juice from the cans into a mixing bowl. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes into small pieces.
- Add the hand-crushed tomatoes to the chicken stock.
- Season the soup with cumin, garlic, and ground black pepper. Add the cream-style corn and shredded American cheese.
- Stir well and return the soup to a boil.
- Dissolve the cornstarch in a slightly below room-temperature water bowl to make a slurry.
- Stir the slurry into the soup.
- Reduce the heat until the soup simulates slowly, and cook uncovered for ten minutes.
- While the soup simmers, you have time to brown the ground beef and cook the onions in a pan over medium-high heat. Make sure to thoroughly cook the meat before draining.
- Add the drained ground beef and onions to the soup.
- Stir well. Top with tortilla chips and serve immediately.
Recipe Variations
Feel free to make a few changes to the recipe. Here are a few suggestions you may want to try:
- Double the amount of ground beef for a heartier soup. You can also use other ground meat such as turkey, chicken, or bulk sausage.
- Toss in a can of strained pinto beans before simmering the soup. You won’t have to add the cornstarch if you mash half of the beans.
- Use beef stock for a meatier flavor.
What Can You Top Beef Tortilla Soup With?
This soup is great with just about any of your favorite burrito or taco toppings. In addition to tortilla chips or strips, try garnishing your soup with chopped onions, shredded cheese, pickled jalapeno slices, salsa, sour cream, sliced avocado, and guacamole.
Add a dash or two of hot sauce for a bit of heat. Of course, you can’t forget a squeeze of fresh lime juice to really bring out the soup’s flavors.
What To Serve Beef Tortilla Soup With?
While this soup is light enough to get away with serving a cup as a starter, you can quickly turn this recipe into the main course by serving a bowl with crusty bread and maybe a side salad.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
- Protein Options: Double the ground beef for heartier soup, or substitute with ground turkey, chicken, or bulk sausage for different flavors.
- Bean Addition: Add drained and rinsed pinto beans during simmering. Mash half the beans to eliminate the need for cornstarch thickener.
- Stock Variation: Use beef stock instead of chicken for a more intense, meaty flavor.
- Spice Level: Add diced jalapeños with the onions, or include cayenne pepper for heat.
Love Soup? Try These Recipes!
- Campbell’s Vegetable Beef Soup
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Clam Chowder Soup
- Cream of Celery Soup
- Cream of Vegetable Soup
- El Torito’s Tortilla Soup
- Enchilada Soup
- Gnocchi Soup
- Panera Potato Soup
Favorite Mexican Recipes
Check out more of my easy restaurant soup recipes and the best Mexican food recipes on CopyKat!
Luby’s Beef Tortilla Soup – Easy Cafeteria Copycat
Ingredients
- 3 quarts chicken stock
- 22 ounces canned whole peeled tomatoes
- 2 3/4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground pepper
- 12 ounces cream style corn
- 2 1/2 cups shredded American cheese
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- sour cream to serve
- shredded cheddar cheese to serve
- tortilla chips to serve
Instructions
- Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a large pot.
- Crush the tomatoes by hand and add them to the pot along with their juices. Add the cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, corn, and cheese and return to a boil.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in 1 cup of cool water. Slowly add the cornstarch slurry to the boiling soup, stirring constantly. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- While the soup simmers, sauté the ground beef with the chopped onion in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drain off any grease.
- Remove the soup from the heat, add the sautéed beef and onions to the pot, and stir.
- Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips.
This is very close to the actual recipe. I have it from the cookbooks and also when it was printed in the San Antonio Express-News. The only thing this recipe is missing is the thickener. While the original appears to be half this recipe it has most of the same ingredients. The original calls for making your own tortilla strips from corn tortillas. It’s worth it as they are so fresh and flavorful. The thickener is 1/3 cup corn starch and 1/4 cup water. Also top with 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. It also has uncooked corn tortillas in the soup.
Luby’s Tortilla Soup
Vegetable oil 1 ½ cups shredded American cheese*
4 corn tortillas, cut in 1×3” strips 2 tsp. cumin
½ pound lean ground beef 2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup finely chopped onion 1 tsp. pepper
6 cups chicken broth 1 small clove of garlic, minced
1 (14 ½ oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes, 1/3 cup corn starch
Undrained and chopped ¼ cup water
1 can (12 oz.) cream style corn ¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
In small skillet, heat about ½” oil. Add half the tortilla strips and cook until crisp. Drain on paper towels.
In small skillet, brown ground beef with onion, drain.
In large saucepan or dutch oven, combine broth, tomatoes, corn, cumin, salt, pepper, and garlic. Bring to a boil.
In small bowl, mix cornstarch and water until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Gradually add to boiling soup, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in ground beef mixture, cheese and uncooked tortillas.
Ladle into bowls. Garnish with fried tortilla strips and, if desired, cilantro.
8 servings
* in place of American cheese you can use shredded cheddar or fiesta style shredded cheese.
it was good:0
This was so good!