Instant Pot Chili that is award winning and bringing home chili cook-off victories across the country.  You don’t want to miss diving into a bowl of our best chili recipe!

If you want chili from scratch, our instant pot chili is your answer. It took us 10 years to discover an award winning chili recipe and this is finally it, plus it’s an instant pot chili which means it’s all done in less than 1 hour (with instructions for cooking on the stove top or crock pot as well)!! It is full of bacon, ground beef, beans, and all the toppings you want!

Let’s talk about how to make this chili step by step, and discuss what goes well with it, and how to freeze chili to eat later. So much to talk about, so let’s get going!

We attended a chili cook-off and brought this awesome Cheesy Ground Beef Enchilada Chili. It was so good, but soooo many arteries were clogged that night. It’s a pretty unhealthy chili, but I heard a rumor that if you don’t eat it alone the calories don’t count.

Pretty sure that’s true.

If you want a healthy chili recipe, you should definitely try our award winning healthy turkey instant pot chili and all chili, healthy or not so healthy, should be accompanied with a side of corn bread or our crazy easy 7-Up biscuits!

Oh! And listen to this, at the chili cook-off a couple of people brought muffin tins and then placed a sample scoop of chili in each well so they could try them all and vote without going back or over eating. GENIUS. That’s seriously the smartest thing ever. Next to figuring out this award winning instant pot chili recipe, right?!

We hurried and made you all a video to help with the questions. Thank you for all of your love and support with making this the #1 instant pot chili recipe out there!

How to Make Chili in an Instant Pot

Making the chili in an instant pot is really easy because there’s an actual setting for chili and beans (if you don’t have that setting, you can totally use “manual”). That pretty much takes all of the thinking out of this, and everything can be done in the instant pot, which means only one dish to clean!!

Have you seen our Instant Pot cheat sheet? Head there are all our tips for cooking all the basics in your Instant Pot!

How Long to Cook Chili in an Instant Pot

From start to finish, 18 minutes is all it took to cook this amazing chili, but you could push it to 30 minutes for even more flavor, and I had no reason for rushing, it was purely because instant pot is in my head so I wanted it instantly done. Let’s go through it step by step:

1. Turn your instant pot to “saute” and cook the bacon until crispy.
2. Remove the bacon and saute the bell peppers and onions until tender.
3. Add the ground beef and cook until browned and drain any excess grease.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir everything together
5. Place the lid on the instant pot and set to “chili” mode (“manual” can be used too).
6. Cook for 18-20 minutes and allow a natural release fro 10-15 minutes. If you get the burn notice, please see the section below.
7. Once it is cooked, serve it up and top with all your favorite toppings.

How to Brown Meat for our Chili in an Instant Pot

1. Alright, start with your bacon. Always.
   • Whenever bacon is going in a dish we crisp it first, drain the fat and leave the browned bits in the pan. All it does is add extra flavor to whatever comes next
   • Start by pressing the saute button and once you can feel the heat, add the chopped bacon, stirring occasionally until crisp. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and drain the fat
2. Next, grab your ground beef. Any kind is fine for chili since other flavors are in there, but there’s more flavor in an 80/20 versus 90/10, though you will need to drain out the fat before continuing on.
   • Make sure you stir occasionally in order to crumble the meat instead of having big chunks. Chili shouldn’t be big and chunky. Leave that to the hippopotamuses.  (Totally had to spell check that one. Who knew hippos could be so difficult.)

Burn Notice on Instant Pot

We’ve had a lot of questions, comments and concerns about the burn notice on the instant pot.

• Cooking the Bacon Burn Notice- Is your bacon extra thin or lacking fat? Both of these can cause the bacon to stick to the bottom of the pot and cause a burn notice. Those browned bits stuck to the pot because of the lack of flat can make the instant pot think that you’ve walked away and left meat to burn.

To counter this, please use a good quality bacon and stir often to keep it from sticking.

• Prior browned bits on the pot- If your pot had previous food stuck to the bottom of the pot it will continue to cook and confuse the pot to thinking that something is burning. Clean your pot well after every use. Bar Keeper’s Friend is my go-to cleaner for browned bits in pots and pans.

• Burn notice after the chili has been combined- If your chili has been combined and then you get the burn notice you probably didn’t thoroughly stir everything together or something is stuck to the bottom of the pot. This is why that bacon step is important. if you added those heavy ingredients and added the lid something will probably stick and burn. Stir well, make sure you measured properly.

We have not ever had a burn notice. If you’re getting quite a few, make sure that pot is clean, stir things well, adding oil while cooking the bacon if it appears that there isn’t much fat, and if none of that works, you should contact instant pot as you may have a model that needs to be replaced.

What to Eat with Chili from Scratch

We’ve already mentioned our corn bread and crazy easy 7-Up biscuits, which make awesome sides. Really any sort of bread will get the job done beautifully, but if you are making this in an instant pot, then you probably want dinner done in a hurry, so these 1 Hour Rolls are your answer! I often like something light and fresh with my chili like this garden balsamic avocado salad. I’ve also heard that people eat cinnamon rolls with chili, and I fully endorse this! Try our World’s Best Cinnamon Rolls!

How to Freeze our Chili

Chili is really easy to freeze as there isn’t any dairy or fibrous vegetables to mess with texture and flavor. Cool your chili completely and store in ziplocs with all the air pressed out, or we prefer to use our Food Saver as the chili tastes as fresh as the day it was made. You can store individual servings to eat for lunch or larger portions to feed the whole family later.

How to Make our Best Chili Recipe in a Slow Cooker or Crock Pot

To make slow cooker chili (I linked up to the brand and model we prefer) or of course make chili in a crock pot if that’s what you have, you’ll need to cook the bacon and ground beef in a pan, then add the peppers and onions to saute them all nice and tender. Then dump it all in a slow cooker and we prefer 5-6 hours on low or 3 hours on high, though I have probably only used the high function twice. Low and slow really allows the spices to bloom, or in other words to open up and really do their thing.

Why Make Soup or Chili in an Instant Pot

THE FLAVOR!!

When you pressure cook something not only does it make it super tender but oh how it enhances flavor!! Our award winning instant pot chili recipe totally proves that a little pressure can be a really good thing!

When it comes to chili, I want it to be full of flavor, bold and comforting! Friends, this recipe is the result of me making dozens of recipes in order to find the greatest chili of all time. So I tell you hands down this chill recipe is the VERY BEST!  

Here are some more CHILI RECIPES that you’ll love:

• Award Winning Healthy Turkey Instant Pot Chili
• Cheesy Ground Beef Enchilada Chili
• Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili
• Pumpkin Apple Cider Chili
• White Chicken Chili
• Surprise Chili
• White Bean Turkey Chili
• Dr Pepper and Chocolate Chili
• Healthy One Pot Chili Macaroni
• All our Chili, Soup, and Stew Recipes here!

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Instant Pot Award Winning Chili Recipe

Instant Pot Chili that is award winning and bringing home chili cook-off victories across the country.  You don't want to miss our best chili recipe ever!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: 100 + BEST Easy Beef Recipes for Dinner

Keyword: beans, ground beef, instant pot, main dish, Our Top 10 Best Chili Recipes, soup

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 459kcal

Author: Sweet Basil

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Pounds Ground Beef
• 6 Strips of Bacon good quality, chopped
• 1 Can 15 ounces Kidney Beans, drained
• 1 Can 15 ounces  Pinto beans, drained
• 1 Can 15 ounces Black beans, drained
• 1 Can 15 ounces Fire Roasted diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 Can 6 ounce Tomato paste
• 1 large Red onion chopped
• 1 Red bell pepper seeded and chopped
• 1 Jalapeño seeded and minced *optional
• 2 Cups Beef stock
• 1 Tablespoon Dried oregano
• 2 Teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 Teaspoons Kosher salt
• 1 Teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Minced garlic

For Garnish

• Sour Cream
• Cilantro
• Cheese shredded

Instructions

• Turn your instant pot to sauté and add the bacon.
• Cook until crisp, stirring often to cook evenly.
• Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.
• Add the onions and peppers and cook until tender.
• Add the meat and cook until browned.
• Drain off any excess grease, we just tilt the pot and use a large spoon.
• Add all of the remaining ingredients and 3/4 of the bacon and stir to combine.
• Turn the instant pot to chili (if you don't have a "chili" setting, use the "manual" setting) and cook for 18-20 minutes*. Allow pressure to release for 10-15 minutes or quick release with the vent.
• Serve with limes, sour cream, cheese, and a little bacon!

Video

Notes

For the stove: Cook everything in the pot just like you do for the instant pot and then allow to simmer on low heat for 3 hours. For the slow cooker: Cook the bacon and set aside on a plate. Cook the onion and peppers and set aside on another plate. Drain any excess grease and add the meat, cooking until browned. Add everything into the pot, leaving out a little bacon for garnish and cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Most batches will be done after 18 minutes, however we've had a few times when the flavor just wasn't there yet, so feel free to pressure cook a little longer for more flavor or if your beans are not as tender as you'd like. To freeze, cool the chili completely. Place in a large ziploc bag or FoodSaver, removing all air and freeze by laying flat for up to 2 months. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1bowl | Calories: 459kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 89mg | Sodium: 1110mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 10g

Tried this recipe?Mention @OhSweetBasil or tag #OhSweetBasil!

If you are still looking for another excellent chili recipe, this Old Fashioned Chili Recipe, this All Beef American chili recipe, and this 5 Ingredient Crockpot Chili Recipe have been some of our favorites!

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