Easy Instant Pot Chili With Canned Beans
Easy Instant Pot Chili with canned beans -- even better than the stove top version! It's so easy to cook up a satisfying batch of homemade chili in your electric pressure cooker...
Welcome to the December 25, 2016 edition of Sunday Scratchups: Your weekly recipe from scratch around grocery sales or affordable ingredients. Up this week: Easy Instant Pot Chili with canned beans! Because nothing's better to fill you up on a chilly chili day.
Instant Pot Chili with Canned Beans
This easy chili recipe with canned beans celebrates the fact that organic black beans are $.89 at ALDI every day -- but, it's mostly because cold weather always makes me crave a big pot of chili. I like to use either homemade fire roasted tomatoes or Muir Glen organic fire roasted tomatoes in my chili; it really does make a difference in the depth of flavor. (So good -- but if you don't have them on hand, any canned fire roasted tomatoes will do. 🙂 )
Alternative stove top directions
If you don't have an Instant Pot, you can also make this chili in a five quart or bigger Dutch oven on the stove top. After combining the ingredients, just simmer it over medium-low heat for at least an hour (preferably two) on low, stirring occasionally. Taste the chili after it has simmered a bit, and adjust seasonings as necessary.
*** If you got an Instant Pot for the holidays this year, though, this is an easy beginner-level recipe that lets you test out some of its features -- once you're ready to try out a full-fledged electric pressure cooker meal!
Easy Instant Pot Chili with Canned Beans
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
8 cloves garlic, chopped (or about 2.5 tablespoon minced)
OPTIONAL: 3 jalapeños or other hot peppers of choice, diced (I used two jalepeños and one cayenne I froze from my garden earlier this year)
1-2 lbs 80/20 or 85/15 ground beef
1.5 cups water
¼ cup chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Two 14.5 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, with liquid
6 oz can tomato paste
2 cans black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
Directions
Using the saute function of your Instant Pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Add onion and saute about three minutes, until starting to soften and brown. Add garlic and peppers and saute a couple more minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid scorching. Hit cancel on the Instant Pot.
Note: Avoid breathing in the steam from the peppers as they are sauteing. I also use a small food chopper to chop up the peppers and garlic -- it's a huge time saver, and also helps protect your hands if you have trouble dicing peppers without gloves.
While peppers and onions are cooking, brown beef on stove top in a large pan, then drain. (You could also do this in the IP, but I find it easier on the stove -- especially if you're closer to two lbs ground beef rather than one.)
Add browned beef, water, and all other ingredients to Instant Pot and stir to combine. Lock the lid onto your pot. Make sure the valve is set to seal, then hit the manual button. Use the + and - buttons to change the time to 10 minutes, then hit the manual button again to start cooking at high pressure.
When pot beeps, let it naturally release for 15 minutes, then open the valve to release the rest of the way. Open the lid, give a stir, and boom! Chili.
Serve topped with shredded cheese & crackers, over potatoes, or however you prefer a hearty serving of chili.
Instant Pot Chili is even better than the stove top version
You really can't go wrong with a big pot of chili, and our family of four gets at least two meals out of one batch. It took a couple of tries to balance out the flavors and cooking times in the Instant Pot version, but this recipe is now pretty much spot on for our tastes!
If you don't like spicier chili, you may wish to leave out the peppers. If you do like spicier chili, though, do be aware of the way in which the IP sometimes intensifies flavors and adjust accordingly. When I make chili on the stove, for instance, I'll sometimes use up to five jalapeños for my heat-loving family -- but three peppers were plenty here.
This Instant Pot chili recipe is thick, hearty, spicy, filling... and just the ticket for a cold winter's afternoon.
Easy Instant Pot Chili with Canned Beans, printable recipe
Easy Instant Pot Chili With Canned Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped (or about 2.5 tablespoon minced)
- OPTIONAL: 3 jalapeños or other hot peppers, diced (I used two jalepeños and one cayenne I froze from my garden earlier this year), diced (I used two jalepeños and one cayenne I froze from my garden earlier this year) of choice
- 1-2 lbs 80/20 or 85/15 ground beef
- 1.5 cups water
- ¼ cup chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon basil
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- Two 14.5 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, with liquid
- 6 oz can tomato paste
- 2 cans black beans, drained
- 1 can kidney beans, drained
Instructions
- Using the saute function of your Instant Pot, heat olive oil until shimmering.
- Add onion and saute about three minutes, until starting to soften and brown.
- Add garlic and peppers and saute a couple more minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid scorching. Hit cancel on the Instant Pot.
- Note: Avoid breathing in the steam from the peppers as they are sauteing. I also use a small food chopper to chop up the peppers and garlic -- it's a huge time saver, and also helps protect your hands if you have trouble dicing peppers without gloves.
- While peppers and onions are cooking, brown beef on stove top in a large pan, then drain. (You could also do this in the IP, but I find it easier on the stove -- especially if you're closer to two lbs ground beef rather than one.)
- Add browned beef, water, and all other ingredients to Instant Pot and stir to combine.
- Lock the lid onto your pot.
- Make sure the valve is set to seal, then hit the manual button.
- Use the + and - buttons to change the time to 10 minutes, then hit the manual button again to start cooking at high pressure.
- When pot beeps, let it naturally release for 15 minutes, then open the valve to release the rest of the way.
- Open the lid, give a stir, and boom! Chili.
- Serve topped with shredded cheese & crackers, over potatoes, or however you prefer a hearty serving of chili.
Notes
Recipes in the real world
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I bought an Instant Pot during prime days and the poor thing sat in a box for several months. It was pretty intimidating. I've finally started using it. I've made mashed potatoes, chicken noodle soup, baked potato soup, several cheesecakes, spaghetti and meatballs and two rounds of Mac and cheese. I can't wait to try your chili recipe! Thanks. I know you're blog is going a bit in another direction but I think so are many people. I started with coupons and stock piles and now I want to shop smart and use more local/fresh ingredients, lessen my carbon foot print and GARDEN. I can't keep chickens yet (and even if my village allows it my dogs won't) but I think people want to be a little more self reliant theses days. Thanks for keeping us along for your ride!
I was a little intimidated to use mine the first time as well -- but aren't they fun once you get past that?! Hope you enjoy the chili, and thanks for the support. 🙂
Are fire roasted tomatoes spicy? Also, I am gluten free, so I have to watch what I put in my chili, but am looking for a new recipe!
No, they are not at all -- They add more of a little smokey flavor to it. This chili is spicy from the hot peppers, though, so if you are sensitive to spicy you might want to omit those.
Ok, I may try this but I don't have the fire roasted tomatoes since I always thought they were spicy. My husband likes spicy but I do not.
Thank you for the quick response - I plan to make this for the weekend!
I don't like the heat either, but like a little more layer of flavor, I replace the hot peppers with chopped green bell pepper and a bay leaf or two. It makes a big difference if you take out the hot peppers because they really do add flavor aside from the heat.
Great idea -- I never think of adding green bell pepper since it doesn't agree with dh (and I don't care for it, lol). 🙂
Just bought my IP and will be trying your chili recipe. I usually put 1/2 cup Bulgur in my chili which makes for a nice thick chili. Do I need to increase the water, or perhaps not drain the 2 cans of tomatoes? It won't end up sticking/burning at the bottom would it due to being thickt? Thanks for your suggestions. Peggy
You don't drain the tomatoes anyway, just put the whole cans in there. I've never tried adding bulgur, but think there should be sufficient liquid because you have the juice from the tomatoes + the 1.5 cups of water.
Hi. Made this for lunch and already there's none left! This is great recipe which will be repeated often - thank-you! I added 1/4 c. bulgur, left out the optional peppers, seasoned the beef with worcestershire sauce, used 1 can mixed beans and 2 cans kidney beans. Served topped with Heluva Good Jalapeño Cheddar dip. Yummy Yummy Yummy!!!
Awesome -- glad you enjoyed it!
What is the small food chopper you use to chop the peppers? Is it manual or something like a mini food processor? Do you scrape out the seeds first? I like jalepenos & serranos but don't like handling them.
http://amzn.to/2xndXN7 <-- I use this little Ninja food chopper. LOVE this thing. You don't have to haul out the big food processor for little jobs -- I use it for peppers, garlic, etc all the time; I make salsa in it, marinades that include chopped peppers or chipotles, sometimes a small batch of salad dressing, etc. I do not scrape out the seeds because I like my chili spicy, but if you don't you could halve the peppers and scrape the seeds out before chopping.
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this! I had some ingredients left around from making a bunch of other things and decided I could throw them in my crock pot express (crockpot version of the instant pot) and make chili! I'm using only what I have on hand so it's a kind of Franken-chili!! I used sausage and cocktail wieners since I had them, 1 can of black beans, 1 red kidney, 1 white kidney beans, and 2.5 T of my chili seasoning blend as well as tomatoes with green chilis in them. ?? and it turned out soooooo good!