This Homemade Instant Pot Chili recipe can be made with your choice of ground meat ( beef, turkey or chicken) or vegan soy crumbles and dry black beans. A great way to use up all your pantry ingredients! Vegan and Gluten-Free adaptable! Serve it up with Zucchini Cornbread!
Here’s a hearty flavorful recipe for Homemade Instant Pot Chili that can be made in your Instant Pot pressure cooker using dry beans from and crushed tomatoes from your pantry. The best part? This recipe is very adaptable.
Make it with organic, lean ground beef or ground turkey or ground chicken, or keep it vegan by adding textured soy protein or “soy crumbles”. A quick and hearty chili with bold rich flavor! This recipe calls for dry pinto beans but black beans, and red beans will both work!
I love this hearty chili served up with this Zucchini Cornbread! So delicious!
Homemade Instant Pot Chili | 30-sec video
What is the chili setting on instant pot?
The default “chili setting” on an instant pot is set at 30 minutes at high pressure – the reccommended time- which does make a nice batch of chili. You can increase the time, or lower the time, depending on the bean type and whether the beans have been pre-soaked.
Pre-soaking the Pinto Beans:
I find that pre-soaking the pinto beans makes the beans cook more evenly and renders them more easily digestible. Pinto beans are a little larger than black beans, so they tend to cook a little unevenly if unsoaked. I don’t always presoak smaller beans like black beans, but I prefer to with larger pinto beans, and especially recommend this if your beans are older. Here we do a faux “presoak” with the Instant pot.
How do you keep the chili from burning in an instant pot?
- Make sure the underside of the pot and the heating element are clean and free from any debris.
- Always make sure the steam valve is closed to prevent too much liquid from evaporating.
- After sauteeing, always deglaze the pot, scraping up any browned bits.
- Always make sure there is at least one cup of liquid.
Five Chili TIPS:
- Giving the beans a quick 7-minute pressure cook, replaces the soaking time here and during this first phase, it is the perfect amount of time to prep the rest of the ingredients, allowing the recipe to go quite quickly!
- Using beef stock or broth adds a lot of depth here. If going vegan, this veggie bullion is the best!
- To thicken the chili sometimes I’ll add a couple of tablespoons of Masa Harina which also adds delicious flavor!
- Garnishes add a lot of flavor and texture! Top the flavorful chili with avocado or sour cream, fresh cilantro, scallions, jalapeño and hot sauce if you like extra heat!
- Yes you can use a slow cooker! Cook on high for at least 6 hours, or low for 8 hours. ( Make sure beans are soaked!)
Hope you enjoy this extra bold and flavorful Homemade Instant Pot Chili using dry beans, that is fully customizable – use lean ground beef, chicken, turkey or try soy crumbles for a completely vegan version! They are all good!
Other Posts you might like!
- Zucchini Cornbread!
- White Chicken Chili with Poblanos
- Vegan Chili Verde with Jackfruit
- Homemade Chili Seasoning
- Globally-Inspired Instant Pot Recipes from around the world!
- Clean- out-you- fridge Vegan Chili
Homemade Instant Pot Chili
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8
- Category: Instant pot, beef, vegan, vegetarian, healthy, turkey, Beans
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Description
Flavorful Instant Pot Chili made with Dry Beans that can be made with ground beef, or turkey or vegan TVP ( Soy crumbles). Vegan and GF adaptable! See notes for slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry pinto beans (or sub red beans or black beans) SEE NOTES.
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 pound ground organic beef, chicken, turkey or vegan TVP (1 3/4 cups dry and rehydrated) Textured Vegan Protein or “Soy crumbles”) or soy chorizo!
- 4 cloves garlic, rough chopped (or 1 tablespoon granulated garlic)
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoons chili powder, more to taste
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
- 1 14-ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes with juices ( fire-roasted are nice here)
- 1–3 tablespoons fresh jalapeño, finely chopped (optional, adds a kick of heat)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 ½ cups beef, chicken or veggie broth
- 1 cup dark beer (or sub more broth)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional) or soy sauce
- 1 –2 teaspoons dark cocoa powder, (optional, adds delicious depth)
- 1–2 teaspoons smoked paprika (optional, adds smoky flavor) or ½ teaspoon chipotle powder
- optional additions: frozen corn (fire-roasted is nice) or diced red bell pepper
- Garnishes: grated cheese, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, scallions
Instructions
- Place dry unsoaked beans in the Instant pot, and add water, one inch above the level of the beans. Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes. (See notes). Manually release. Drain and set aside.
- While the beans are pressure cooking prep your onions and garlic, open any cans and gather all the spices.
- Turn Instant Pot to Saute function and heat the oil. Add the onion and saute 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Add garlic and the ground meat or soy crumbles. Saute 3-4 more minutes, while continuously stirring and breaking up the meat. I find a metal spatula comes in handy for this. Add the salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and saute one minute, cooking the spices a bit. Add the diced tomatoes and juices, tomato paste, broth, beer, Worcestershire, cocoa powder, smoked paprika or chipotle, optional jalapeño. Give a good stir, then add the pressure cooked beans (drained) or pre-soaked beans.
- Set Instant Pot to high pressure for 22 minutes. Naturally release for 15 minutes.
- If you like a thicker chili, stir in a little masa harina or masa corn flour, sprinkling it in a tablespoon at a time. This also adds delicious “corn” flavor. You can also stir in frozen corn and set to “saute” function until heated through.
- Taste, adjust spice level and salt. If you want more “kick” add it!
- Serve in bowls and garnish with any or all of the following: sour cream, grated cheese, avocado, sliced jalapeño, cilantro, scallions, corn chips.
Notes
Pre-Soaking: If your beans are very old (like older than a year) increase the Pre-Pressure Cooking Time to at least 15 minutes. Older beans and bigger beans take longer to cook. Or soak in cold water for 8-12 hours until doubled in size, then drain.
You can skip pressure cooking the beans in the beginning if you soak them in cold water for 8-12 hours. (Pre-soaking or pre-pressure cooking the beans cuts the cooking time in half.)
*FYI, if you do not pre-soak or pre-cook the pinto beans, they would take roughly 45-50 minutes of pressure cooking time, with some uneven cooking. That being said, yes, you can absolutely do it this way, just allow for the full, natural, long release. They will need 3 1/2-4 cups of liquid, so I’d add an extra 1/4 – 1/2 cup ( 3 cups broth, 1 cup beer)
I used a 6 Quart Instant Pot. -this recipe doubled, will not fit in a 6 quart.
SLOW COOKER: Yes you can use a slow cooker! Cook on high for at least 6 hours, or low for 8 hours. ( Make sure beans are soaked!)
Keywords: Instant Pot Chili, Instant pot chili dry beans, Instant pot chili vegan, Instant pot chili recipes, instant pot chili beans, instant pot chili healthy, instant pot chili turkey, instant pot chili vegetarian
My husband’s stomach can’t handle chili because of the spice. He loved this recipe! It had more of a beefy taste than spicy. I did leave out the jalapeno and used only 1 T chili powder and 1 t smoked paprika. Very delicious! Definitely our favorite.
★★★★★
Perfect Lori- glad this worked for him!
Made in the slow cooker, modified as follows as I used what I had on hand. Red wine instead of beer, 1 beef bouillon cube with half a cup of water, added paprika for the smoky flavour, my homemade cooked kidney beans, placed in my slow cooker for 6 hrs on low hence not adding too much water. Delicious flavour, the cocoa powder is a must. Served with your vegan cornbread, delicious meal for a cold Montreal evening during lockdown….yes we have a curfew here starting at 10pm.
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed this Pina!
This recipe was so easy and very flavorful! I used red beans and did the 15 minute pre-soak because they were a little old. cooked up perfectly
★★★★★
Thanks Christine! Appreciate the comment and so happy you liked this!
My crew isn’t crazy about beans in chili so I doubled the meat and halved the beans (used the quick soak method). It was a huge hit!! I did add the cocoa and paprika and I also used fire roasted tomatoes. It was so flavorful. We like just a little heat so we skipped the jalapeños and cut the chili powder to 3 teaspoons. Perfect!!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed this!
I used tinned beans, black and great northern, and cooked it on the stovetop. The seasoning was perfect. My Sweetie even had seconds – a delicious chili I will make again. Thank you.
★★★★★
Perfect Martie- great to hear!
Terrific recipe! I bought a bag of heirloom bean blend from Costco and was looking around for what to do, and this was perfect. The cocoa and smoked paprika add so much flavor. I didn’t have beer but will use it next time.
I added celery and carrots for a little veggie boost, Trader Joe’s chili lime salt, and after the chili was cooked I dumped in a can of retried beans I had lying around, which thickened it up really nicely. I will be making this often, thank you!
★★★★★
Love the idea of the refried Beans! Glad you enjoyed this Deepa!
Great recipe – simple to prepare, and the cocoa powder and smoked cumin add a nice depth.
One recommendation – for people who want to add the optional diced bell pepper. Prior to sautéing the onions, sauté some sweet bell pepper and the jalapeno pepper and then reserve them. Add them to the pot only when the pressure cooking is complete, so they’ll still maintain some identity. Including them in the pressure cooking stage would only pulverize them.
★★★★
I like that advice Kevin! Thanks, helpful!
Will a double recipe fit in an 8 qt instantpot?
I’m actually not sure. I use a six-quart and I don’t think it would be enough room to double- but not sure about an 8-quart? Has anyone else tried?
Delicious! This site has turned me on to the power of dried beans in the instant pot! This is my first chili using dried beans and I’ll never go back.
★★★★★
Awesome to hear Katelyn!
OK, no one asked and it does not say in the recipe about what to do with the garlic. Do we add the garlic whole, minced, chopped, or what?
Sorry about that, I updated the recipe Jim – just rough chopped is fine!
It looks great! Thank you for all the helpful hints 😊
★★★★
This is a great recipe! I followed the recipe as written, except to use the immersion blender at the end. It is delicious!
★★★★
I play with recipes and of course this was no different, added 6 cloves garlic, bit more TVP (2cups) bit more chipotle and it was excellent. Served to 2 people that have never had Chili, I’m currently in Kalymnos Greece, where I produce Organic Face, Hair, Body Care products and Therapeutic Herbal Supplements. Have owned my own restaurant (veggie Greek Cuisine my specialty, pastry my forte) and now focus on the finest for face, body and Therapeutic care. I cook a lunch/ dinner for my partners with love and the finest ingredients I can. Health, food, body care it’s all the same.
★★★★★
This was great and so easy. My husband and I like things hotter, so I threw in a whole jalapeño and served another one sliced. Next time a bunch of cayenne should take care of it. I know; we’re crazy but we like things really hot. This was the perfect amount of time to cook the beans. Thank you for a delicious recipe.
★★★★★
Oh, and I can’t drink beer because of the gluten in it, so I didn’t add it or tell my husband it was missing! Tee hee! And without the extra broth, I still needed to thicken it with masa harina.
Fabulous chili! I made it vegan and just added another cup of dried beans and another cup of broth. This is my new favorite veggie chili!
★★★★★
Tasted great but was very soupy – and I decreased the liquid by 1 cup. I’m new to IP but I’m learning that I need to adapt recipes re cook time (I need less) and liquid (also less).
★★★
Did you use dried beans?
Yes. I’m going to try it again tonight with a bit less liquid and see what happens.
Ok sounds good!
This chili came out perfectly! I added chopped carrots and celery while sautéing. I will
Definitely be making this again
★★★★★