No Soak Instant Pot Chili is a family-friendly, soon to be favorite in your home! This recipe makes use of small red beans in your dry food storage, without the need to soak the beans for hours.
I love the Instant Pot for cooking dried beans. Using the Instant Pot eliminates the necessity of soaking beans for hours (or overnight) which is often an obstacle to using dried beans of any type! One of my most popular recipes is No-Soak Instant Pot Black Beans. We eat the black bean recipe mostly as a side dish, but occasionally, I also serve it as a main dish.
know your ingredients
So many of us are faced with the reality of dealing with some type of food allergy. Wheat or gluten is one of the most prevalent allergies in ages young children up to adults. When checking the label on a can of pre-made chili and also chili beans, wheat flour is often on the label. You’ll also likely find sugars, corn syrup, salt, starch, spices, MSG, oils… the list goes on. A lot of ingredients that are not needed in a bowl of chili! I’m going to give you a bit of motherly advice. Whenever you can, cut out pre-made products. Honestly, it takes minutes to throw together a pot of homemade chili. You’ll love it and your kids will love to help you put this together. Remember, if they help make it, they’ll be more likely to eat it! Also, disclaimer, I’m not saying I don’t ever cook anything or heat anything up that isn’t processed, but I do know that fresh is best, and choosing less pre-made foods will yield a better tasting and more nutritious finished product!
No Soak no worries
There are oodles of reasons to love a recipe that calls for skipping the soaking of dried beans! To name a few: time spent, the hassle, the stirring, the worry that all of the liquid will cook out of the pot before the beans are done, and the mess. Using the Instant Pot eliminates all of the above. A task that used to take 8 plus hours, now takes a fraction of the time. Remember the Instant Pot doesn’t mean the meal is finished in an instant, but it does significantly cut the amount of time that it would normally take to cook, in this instance, a dinner of No Soak Instant Pot Chili!
the littles will love it
This recipe is really basic. I wanted to share a recipe that is a base for building chili in the Instant Pot. If you like your chili without a lot of extra added ingredients, this is the recipe for you! It’s what I’ve been making, (more or less) for years, for my own family. When our kids were young, I had a basic rotation of a few recipes: Spaghetti, chili, tacos, our favorite enchiladas. Of course, I added in other recipes, but those few were my go-to weeknight meals. Back then, I never used dried beans in my chili because it was too much work to soak the beans overnight and then cook for hours. I wish I would have had an Instant Pot back then! It would have made my life so much easier. This recipe for No Soak Instant Pot Chili is easily adaptable to your liking. If you like chili that is spicy, add some japalepos to the mix, or a few shakes of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes, or more chili powder. If you’re trying to go healthy, use ground turkey instead of ground beef. You can add almost anything to this chili, but keep the liquid level the same to insure the beans will have enough liquid to properly hydrate when pressure cooked!
No Soak Instant Pot Chili your new go-to one pot meal
One of the reasons I love the Instant Pot is the ease of preparing a meal in ONE POT! The saute setting is my go-to for browning meat. After the meat is browned, it’s dump and go. From my childhood days, I love to eat chili over white, Japanese style rice (hot or cold). No Soak Instant Pot Chili is also a perfect dish to serve with tortilla chips, cheese and shredded lettuce. I hope you take the time to experiment with the Instant Pot and the dried beans in your pantry!
No Soak Instant Pot Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb small red beans, dry, or dry pinto beans
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 cups chopped onion, white or sweet onions
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes – undrained, OR fresh tomatoes chopped, with juice to equal 3 cups of tomatoes and liquid total
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 2-14 oz cans beef or chicken broth or one 32 oz box
- 1 diced Anaheim pepper or 1- 4oz can diced green chilies
Instructions
- Turn IP to sauté mode and brown meat- remove and drain any excess oil. Set aside while beans are cooking. I refrigerate the meat until ready to add back to the chili.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot.
- Place the lid on the pot with the seal in place and turn the IP to the locked position.
- Set the timer for 50 minutes on manual setting or high pressure.
- Let the chili cook, when the timer goes off , let the pot sit until the pressure naturally releases, at least 45-60 minutes.
- The remaining pressure may be released manually, after the 50 minutes of pressure cooking AND 45-60 minutes of natural pressure release time.
- The “keep warm” setting may be used until ready to serve.
- A few minutes before serving, add the meat back to the pot and stir.
Notes
-The total cooking time is 50 minutes for the pressure cooking mode, and 45-60 minutes for the natural pressure release. Make sure to allow time for the cooking mode (heat up of the pot) to begin. This takes approximately 15 minutes. The total cooking time start to finish is a little over 2 hours.
-You may also add additional onion, peppers, meat if you would like.
-Do not reduce the amount of liquid in this recipe. It is necessary to have an adequate amount of liquid for the beans to properly hydrate and cook.
-You may also leave the ground beef in the pot after cooking initially, or remove the meat and add later as the recipe states.
Did you make this recipe?
Be sure to leave a comment and give this recipe a rating, letting me know how you liked it. I’d love to see a photo, tag @abountifulkitchen on Instagram!
Julie
I wanted to double check the amount of black pepper in this. Is it actually 1 tablespoon? It sounds like a lot, compared to the 2 teaspoons of salt, but maybe that’s right!
Si Foster
Hi Julie,
Yes 1 Tablespoon pepper. If you’re not a pepper fan, you might want to try adding 1 teaspoon of pepper at a time until it suits your taste. I hope you enjoy this easy fall recipe. Thanks for reading ABK!
xo,
Si
Stacy
We double this and I swap tomatoes for zucchini due to a tomato allergy- but this is such a great base. Might have commented already! Deserves another one in that case! Thank you
Joseph
For those of you who don’t want to weigh beans, one pound of dry beans is a smidge over two cups. This will probably vary a little depending on the type of bean and exactly how dry they are, but for this recipe one pound = two cups is close enough.
I also tweaked this recipe a little by adding more tomatoes and some chopped bell peppers to add color and make it more to my taste. I also used Italian sausage rather than ground beef, which turned out well. I’ve used chorizo in other chili recipes and I expect it would work well with this one too in place of ground beef.
Alison
I love this chili recipe! It’s everything that I want in a chili recipe, and it only takes 2 1/2 hours to make start to finish! I make it regularly during the winter. When I am trying to convince friends to buy or begin using their instant pot, I always tell them about this recipe!
Alterations: I up the amount of beans, and do about 2/3 black beans and 1/2 red, and it’s perfect.
ALISON
Also, I have used LDS cannery beans as old as 20 years old in this recipe, and they’ve worked great! It’s the perfect way to use them up. I didn’t soak them beforehand, and didn’t notice that they needed additional cooking time.
Si Foster
Love those alterations, Alison, thanks for sharing and for reading ABK!
xo
Si
Suzzanne Vail
Loved finding this recipe on Saturday night. This chili was so quick to prepare and was waiting for us when we got home from church. Three of my kids came to me later and told me how good it was, even my son who is a picky eater!
One adjustment I made was to turn the instant pot back on for 5 more minutes because the beans weren’t quite done. Next time I make it I will set the cooking time at 55 minutes.
Thanks Si!
Si Foster
Thanks so much for sharing, Suzzanne! I love how easy this recipe is to adjust.
xo
Si
Mary Ann
How old can dried beans be to still be able to use? I’ve had some in food storage.
Si Foster
Maryann,
Dried beans can be stored indefinitely, but will begin to lose their moisture after 1-2 years in the pantry. If older than 2 years from the ‘best buy’ date, they will need to be soaked and/or cooked for a longer amount of time than is on the directions. Dried beans do not lose any of their nutritional value with age, so their shelf life is classified as indefinite. Dried and canned beans stay fresh longer by storing them in your pantry (a cool, dark place) at a temperature under 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I hope this information helps!
xo,
Si
Emilia
Hi!
I just have canned beans. Would it be ok to use them? And if so, do you have any idea of the time I should cut? Thanks!
abountifulkitchen
Emilia,
You may substitute canned beans, but you will have to adjust the cooking time. I believe about 5-7 minutes at high pressure or manual setting will be enough time!
Ann Call
As an older…much older…cook, I second all if the above in this article. Using whole foods and the instant pot is a wonderful thing. Our mother had a small Mirro pressure cooker that she used for a lot of things. Same principle…less tech…great results. More nurtients. Fewer chemicals. Thanks, Si! Our mothers have a profound effect on our cooking lives. You are “mothering” a whole generation.
abountifulkitchen
Thank you Ann! My mother had the same pressure cooker, I believe she still has it in her kitchen. It is so fun to be able to create recipes in the Instant Pot that will hopefully get families back in the kitchen! Thanks so much for your wisdom and kind words.
AND for reading ABK 🙂
xo
Si