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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
- Lentil Chili
- 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 1x
- 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 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 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 1/2 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 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
- Optional additions: For a smoky flavor, add canned chipotle ( or some of the adobo sauce) or a little smoked paprika. Other veggies: frozen corn (fire-roasted is nice) or diced red bell pepper, or poblanos.
- Optional Garnishes: grated cheese, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, scallions, hot sauce, pickled red onions.
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!)
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 294
- Sugar: 4.7 g
- Sodium: 841.7 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 38.9 g
- Fiber: 9.3 g
- Protein: 23.7 g
- Cholesterol: 35.6 mg
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
Excellent, even tho I did not add any meat and left out the beer. Topped with shredded cheese, green onions & sour cream.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent and forgiving recipe.
I added a whole pint of sliced creminis, a guajillo chili, and used onion soup mix in lieu of broth. I even added a spoon of hot chocolate mix because I didn’t have cocoa! And a smidge of red wine vinegar for tartness.
I used yves ground round. And I soaked the beans (a medley pack) the night before which made them perfect.
Next time, I might also try adding a green pepper. 🙂
Definitely a keeper! Thanks!
★★★★★
Love it Kiran! Great additions!
This is now my favorite go-to chili recipe! Oh my, so flavorful and satisfying. The slow cooker instructions were perfect. I made with ground turkey and added 2 finely chopped jalapenos, 1 canned chipotle, chpd, 1diced poblano and 1 diced green bell pepper. And, of course, dark beer! I used Rancho Gordo domingo rojo beans (soaked) from Bowl & Pitcher and they are wonderful. Thank you.
★★★★★
Thanks Joan! Sounds perfect. Those beans are amazing aren’t they?
Absolutely delicious… added mushrooms and chipotle peppers in adobo, otherwise stuck to the script. The best chili recipe yet by far.
★★★★★
Perfect Julia- I love chipotle in this recipe!
YUMMY! This was so delicious and easy to throw together! I chose to “quick soak” my pinto beans with boiling water for a bout 2 hours and the beans were a perfect texture after cooking for 22 minutes with 15 min natural release.
I adjusted recipe to accommodate for my 9month old (omitted salt, jalapeños and beer) and it was still delicious; the whole family loved it This will certainly be on frequent rotation around here!
★★★★★
Oh Great! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! My husband and I have been trying literally for decades to find a chili recipe that we liked. We’ve always been disappointed until now. My husband, in fact, announced this to be the Holy Grail of chilis at dinner tonight. I’m thinking that you can’t get a higher rating than that! Made it with our ground turkey (we raise our own) in the slow cooker. Pretty much did the recipe as written. Clearly a keeper.
Incredible Mary, thanks so much for sharing this!
I have made this recipe now several times and it’s always amazing. I’m not a big fan of tomato so I’ve substituted canned pumpkin for the tomato paste and it comes out great. Also, soaking the beans the night before with a full natural release really seems to make a difference in texture and flavor.
★★★★★
The pumpkin sound so interesting and yummy!
Any tips you might have for us stove-top users? I was gonna switch to canned beans to make it easier on myself
Hi there, I would cook the black beans first on the stove until tender, adding water as needed, drain, then cook pot on the stove, following the rest of the recipe, simmering gently instead of pressure cooking. 🙂
Amazing recipe 👌 I’ve done a few dry bean chilli recipes before and found that leaving the pre-cook to naturally release be better, bit of a longer wait but makes sure they’re all cooked nicely. Also get a nice tablespoon of marmite in there too for some extra umami 😋 book marked this for the next batch 😋😋
★★★★★
Awesome George. I guess I need to try marmite, everyone keeps mentioning it lately!
I had to cook this a little longer than instructed to get my beans all the way done, but other than that, it turned out great. I am not a big fan of chili, but this recipe adds so much depth to the flavors, that it really was a delight to eat. I will add a little more heat next time, as mine turned out too mild.
Thanks Deanna! Yes feel free to spice it up!
When I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, our cook made this soup for us on the day we came back down the mountain. It was so comforting and delicious! I wanted to find a recipe to make for myself, but when I found this one I was a bit skeptical that so much goodness could be achieved with just salt and pepper as seasoning. But it was exactly how I remembered it. Very authentic! I will now crave this soup on every cloudy, drizzly day.
★★★★★
Glad you you enjoyed this one Deanna!
This is a nice simple chili. The grass fed ground beef and whole pinto beans are a hearty spoonful. I made this very close to the recipe and will have to think hard about what I would change. I fear any changes will be a disappointment.
★★★★★
Well, that is good to hear!
I didn’t like chili until I tried this recipe. I believe that says it all!
★★★★★
That is awesome Lily!