- Taco Bell recently released a blog detailing a recipe for a Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque.
- Rolled Chicken Tacos have been added to the Taco Bell menu again for a limited time.
- According to the brand’s website, the Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque is just one of the dishes the chain makes for Friendsgiving.
- I set out to try my hand at the Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque, and while I found it easy to make, the final product left a lot to be desired.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
You know that urge you get – usually late at night – to order tacos and blend them into a soup? Me neither. However, Taco Bell seems to think otherwise, according to a recent blog detailing a recipe for a Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque.
According to the brand’s website, the Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque is just one of the dishes the chain makes for Friendsgiving. Other dishes include Nacho Fries Au Gratin, Mexican Rice Arancini, and Sauce Packet-Flavored Compound Butter – though we didn’t see any blog posts about those.
I set out to try my hand at the Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque, and while I found the instructions straightforward and simple, the final product looked a lot better than it tasted.
I already had most of the ingredients for Taco Bell’s Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque in my kitchen, but I had to run out to the store for Mexican oregano, fresh cilantro, and heavy whipping cream.
I had to get the Rolled Chicken Tacos, which are available at Taco Bell locations across the country. You’ll also need a stove, a medium-sized stockpot, and a blender.
The full list of ingredients is posted on the Taco Bell blog.
The first step was to roughly chop a clove of garlic and to dice an onion.
I would usually crush the garlic underneath the flat of the blade, but I wanted to follow the instructions exactly, so I just gave the clove a few good chops.
Once my stockpot was hot, I added the vegetable oil, followed by the garlic and onion.
The trick is to get the bottom of the pot hot enough to bring out the flavors in the garlic and onion without burning them.
After sizzling for a few minutes, the onions and garlic became soft and cooked down a bit in size.
Make sure to constantly agitate the garlic and onion to prevent burning or browning, otherwise known as "sweating" the vegetables. The goal here is to soften the onion and release a little moisture.
Then came the diced tomatoes, with their juices, and the spice mixture. It was starting to smell delicious in my kitchen.
Don't hold back on the stirring here. It's important that the chili powder, Mexican oregano, and salt are evenly distributed throughout the soup as it simmers.
After a few minutes of stirring and simmering, the tomatoes started to soften and some of the juice began to cook off and reduce.
According to the recipe, you should continue to cook until "the mix is very aromatic."
The next step was to add a quart of broth. I used chicken broth, but vegetable broth also works.
At this stage in the cooking process, the mixture was starting to feel more like soup than a sauce or sofrito.
While the soup was coming to a boil on the stove, I took four of the Rolled Chicken Tacos from Taco Bell out of their bag.
The Rolled Chicken Tacos looked and smelled a lot like taquitos from 7-Eleven.
I cut the tacos into quarters, as the recipe suggests. Even with my freshly sharpened knife, the tacos were surprisingly difficult to chop.
Quartering the tacos allows for easier blending in the later steps.
After a few minutes, the soup came to a boil, so I reduced the heat to a simmer.
I found it helpful to skim off some of the foam that floats to the top of the pot as it boils.
I chose to add cilantro, which the recipe lists as an "optional step."
Cilantro isn't for everyone, so Taco Bell listed it as an optional ingredient.
I'm a huge fan of cilantro, so I added a fairly heavy-handed amount, but the recipe calls for about a cup.
After I added cilantro, I carefully lowered in the taco quarters, making sure to avoid splashing myself with hot liquid.
The tacos need to simmer for about 10 minutes so they get soft enough to blend smoothly.
After the soup had simmered for a while, I turned the heat off and let it cool down for five minutes before pouring the mixture into a blender.
Transferring the soup from the stockpot to the blender can be tricky, so if you have someone nearby to help you with this step, I'd recommend it.
After I added a cup of heavy whipping cream, I pulsed the blender on low for a few seconds, then on high for a while. The soup took on a consistency somewhere between a chowder and a milkshake.
Make sure to cover the blender tightly while you pulse to avoid any soup catastrophes.
During this step, you can also taste for salt and add as needed.
I garnished the finished product with two tacos, cilantro, and a lime, per the recipe's instructions. It looked pretty nice.
Plating the soup was a breeze. It turns a pale shade of orange, kind of like a pumpkin soup or gazpacho, which pops when placed next to the dark-green cilantro leaf.
The soup was completely pureed, devoid of any chunks or crunchiness. It smelled delicious.
Though its main ingredient was a fast-food taco, it smelled sort of like a respectable Mexican-style corn chowder.
Despite all of the added ingredients, however, the soup just tasted like a Rolled Chicken Taco, which isn't the best item I've ever had from Taco Bell.
Although it looked pretty, the taste wasn't there. If you've ever been to 7-Eleven and had a taquito, it's sort of like that. And while a soup made from a taquito doesn't sound horrible, the actual result is a little lackluster.
That being said, the soup acted as a solid dipping sauce for the two tacos used as a garnish. Additionally, I would definitely recommend adding some lime. The citrus does a good job of cutting the richness of the soup.
While the soup didn't taste great, it plates well and would certainly impress any friend that happens to be a Taco Bell fanatic.
Overall, the Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque was a fun and easy experiment, and will surely win over diehard Taco Bell fans if they're willing to put the work in.
However, if you're going to take the time to make a soup from scratch, why not use fresh produce and organic ingredients instead of tacos from Taco Bell?