Quick and easy chili using dried beans. Magic!

If you’re anything like me, you love a hearty bowl of chili. And if you’re anything like me, you’re not always great at planning ahead. So what’s a girl to do when faced with a lack of dinner plans, a craving for chili, and a pantry of dried beans? Make this instant pot chili recipe, that’s what! It uses dried beans without any pre-soaking or cooking required. MAGICAL, I TELL YOU. I developed my chili recipe years ago, and published it here on the blog in 2012. (So basically in the jurassic era of blogs.) I took a better photo a few years ago, but otherwise it’s the same post from five years ago. I’ve been making it for my family in regular rotation all of these years, and it remains a crowd favourite. It’s also the best chili in the entire world, in my super humble opinion. Truth be told, there are a couple of unusual ingredients that make all the difference – like the cocoa powder that brings out the flavours of the tomatoes, and the honey that adds a touch of sweet to contrast the acidity of the dish. There are some pretty happy comments on that original recipe to prove my point. And whatever you do, don’t leave out the coriander. Mmmm, coriander. Of course, I jumped on board the Instant Pot bandwagon at Christmas, thanks to my parents. I have this 8-quart model, and I LOVE it. We’re a family of five (soon to be six), I love to cook double and eat leftovers, and I most definitely would go for the 8-qt again. It’s worth every penny. I remember my mom using a stovetop pressure cooker from time to time when I was a kid. It was a 70’s mossy green and the top handle whistled and wiggled like it had ants in its pants. They fell out of style though (from fears of nutrient loss due to the high pressure, I think?) and she hasn’t owned one since. When the Instant Pot (an electric pressure cooker that sits on your countertop, much like a slow cooker) came onto the scene a few years ago, the discussion reopened, and well-respected health bloggers, like Katie at Wellness Mama, published their researched opinions that pressure cooking is actually a healthy way to cook our food. So the Instant Pot craze has now reached new heights. Every real foodie blogger is either pining for an Instant Pot, experimenting with the Instant Pot, developing recipes for the Instant Pot, or even publishing Instant Pot ebooks (find a great collection of 19 Easy (Real Food) Instant Pot Recipes for Hesitant Beginners here!). For a crowd who typically spends hours in the kitchen making food from single ingredients rather than boxes and cans of processed junk, the ease and convenience of the Instant Pot is straight from heaven. I’m in the process of adapting many of my recipes to be done in the Instant Pot, and naturally chili was the first up. It’s easy enough to throw the ingredients in just like with a slow cooker (browned ground beef, cooked beans, tomatoes, spices, etc.) but to be honest, that still requires forethought. Which is fine and all for Other People. But I needed to develop the ultimate Oops I Did it Again (I forgot to plan dinner) version. And that needed to involve dried beans. So I googled around, found that a few others had done it successfully, and set out on a mission. By following this recipe, I’m hashtag-blessed with perfectly cooked instant pot chili in just 40 minutes of cook time in the Instant Pot. Now, to be clear, that 40 minutes doesn’t include the time that it comes to pressure (probably 15-20 minutes in this case), and this recipe also calls for browning the ground beef (in the Instant Pot on sauté, no need to dirty extra pans) beforehand. Plus there’s a bit of time to let the pressure release afterward. But still, all things considered, this is a pretty fast version of chili since you don’t have to prep your beans ahead. If you do have time and forethought to soak your beans for any amount of time, it may help reduce the chance that one or two will be slightly undercooked in your bowl (nobody complained, but I had one bite with a slightly undercooked bean, so, ya know, full disclosure and all) but again, it’s not necessary. Go ahead and try it. You won’t be sorry!

UPDATE: In order to address some of the issues people were having with undercooked beans, I’ve made the following tweaks:

1) clarified the size of canned diced tomatoes used (28oz cans) 2) added 1/2 cup water to the recipe 3) increased the cook time by 10 minutes. While there a few different factors that may affect the success of a recipe (such as how old your beans are), hopefully these small changes allow everyone to experience success with this recipe! Looking for more posts like this one? Check these out:

Best-ever Instant Pot Chili (w/ dried beans!)

64 Comments

Tali
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I love this recipe, the spice combo is amazing and I’ve used it many times. I do add additional water, about 2 – 2.5 cups is the total water even if I’m using canned beans and it works for me.
KarenB
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In your recipe, it would have been nice if you would have said USE AN 8 qt instant pot. I started with a 6 qt and soon realized it was too small and dumped it into my 8 qt. Also, 4 cups of DRIED beans with ONLY 1/2 cup of water is not correct. All instant Pot recipes say to use at least 1 cup water for 6 qt and at least 1.5 cups water for 8 qt. I’m sorry, but you can’t tell me your dried beans were done at 40 minutes! I added more water for crunchy beans after 60 minutes and then more water after I reaiized they weren’t done. Then, after adding 2 cups of water, I still had the burn message when trying to cook longer
Laura
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Your recipe was great until the amount of liquid to add. I was leery, but tried it since no one mentioned this serious flaw. Dried beans need way more liquid – especially that much beans (4 c!). even the amount of liquid in the cans of tomatoes aren’t enough to hydrate that much dried beans, let alone the 1/2 cup water in your recipe. Fortunately, my Instant Pot has a burn alert feature which saved me from ruining such a big pot of chili. I gave you 2 stars since all the ingredients looked great.
Tom von Strong
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Kidney beans are a dried bean that actually requires a change of water change after soaking before cooking. They also must be cooked properly to get rid of the Phytohaemagglutinin present. So, I would not recommend using any kidney beans in any no soak/ instant pot recipe. It can be toxic.
- barefootmom
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  Tom, as long as the beans boil for ten minutes, it’s safe to eat them (otherwise everyone who has tried this recipe would be not be commenting!). The heat in a pressure cooker is well above the boiling point for a longer period than ten minutes.
  - Pam
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    Tried this recipe because I LOVE my 8 qt instant pot and the idea of using cocoa and honey!!!
    It was delicious!! Beans were perfect!!I gave some away to my church families. Can’t wait to hear they’re feedback!!!
Fran Ciarlo
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I was making this for my son and found all kinds of tomatoes in the freezer that we didn’t use for sauce. So I added 4 c of tomato juice, some tomatoes that were frozen and a little wine. Didn’t use the broth. Turned out amazing. Love the idea of presoaking the beans in the pot while chopping up veggies.
- Beth
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  Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed! And how creative to use up tomatoes from the freezer. I love avoiding food waste!!
Michele
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Has anyone tried a version without meat? If so, are there any tweaks or tips I should know?
- Beth
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  Hi Michele! I have done this recipe with varying amounts of meat. I don’t think I’ve ever gone completely meat-free, but if I did – I would definitely make sure to use a nice variety of legumes to add more dynamics in the taste and texture. Maybe kidney beans + black beans and lentils? (The small green or brown lentils are most reminiscent of ground meat, I’d say.) Hope you enjoy!
Christopher Denney
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I always use this as my starting point for chili, love the cocoa part. I use mushrooms, instead of peppers, and only 2 cans tomato, 1 puree, 1 diced, though. I also like to use some things I stole from other recipe’s like red cooking wine (1 cup) and beef (better than) bullion (2 cup). So no extra water needed.
JD
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What if I wanted to leave the beans out? Any idea if I should add more beef or use less of the liquidy ingredients?
- Beth
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  Hi JD! I’d say you could easily leave the beans out and still enjoy it. I did that with a recent batch for my hubby who was doing Keto. It was still yummy!
- Rhonda Davis
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  Second time using my early Christmas present. Insta Pot, I do not see a manual setting. Do you mean, the bean & chili setting?
  - Beth
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    Hi Rhonda – I’m sorry, I don’t know. “Manual mode” is a pretty standard setting on most instant pot recipes. I’m wondering if the newer versions of the IP have it in a less obvious place? Which model do you have?
    - Sue
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      On some of the Instant Pot models instead of “Manual” they call it “Pressure Cook”. they do the exact same thing.
      - Marcia
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        Will this fit in a 6 quart instant pot?
Nancie BENTZ
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Had to add more liquid and more time. Needed more seasoning as well. Too much to tweak. Pl
JimC
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More water and less tomato works for me. Took 50 + minutes of cook time. Tomato flavor too strong with 2 big cans. Almost like marina sauce with that much tomato. 1 lb dry beans need more than 4 cups water. Just my opinion.