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 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
8 cloves garlic, chopped (or about 2.5 Tbsp 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
1/4 cup chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp 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

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Easy Instant Pot Chili With Canned Beans

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This is an easy beginner-level recipe that lets you test out some of the Instant Pot's features once you’re ready to try a full-fledged electric pressure cooker meal!

Course dinner

Cuisine chili

Keyword canned beans, chili, easy instant pot chili, instant pot chili

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 8 people

Author Rachel Singer

Equipment

instant pot

food chopper

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 8 cloves garlic, chopped (or about 2.5 Tbsp 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
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 Tbsp 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

Total recipe time includes the time to come to pressure and naturally release. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can also make this chili in a 5 quart+ Dutch oven on the stove top -- After combining the ingredients, just simmer at least an hour (preferably two) on low, stirring occasionally.

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