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:- 19 Easy (Real Food) Instant Pot Recipes for Hesitant Beginners
- 4 Things I Learned About My Instant Pot in the First 6 Months
Best Ever Instant Pot Chili Recipe (Using Dried Beans without Pre-Soaking or Cooking!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup of diced sweet peppers red, yellow, and/or orange
- 2 medium onions diced
- 6 cloves of garlic finely diced or pressed
- 1 pound ground beef I use 2, but might use less if I needed to be a bit more frugal
- 2-3 large cans diced tomatoes 28oz cans
- 4 cups dried kidney beans pre-soaking optional
- 1 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- a few shakes of black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons coriander
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Using the sauté function on your Instant Pot, brown the ground beef.
- Halfway through browning, add the diced peppers and onions. A few minutes later, add the garlic.
- When beef is browned and peppers and onions are softened, add the rest of the ingredients.
- Add lid and set Instant Pot to 50 minutes on manual.
- Allow for natural pressure release (I've done quick release when in a hurry, and it's fine in a pinch.)
- Serve with your favourite toppings, and enjoy!
Tali
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
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
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
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
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
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!!!
Heidi
Hi there! Are you able to convert this recipe to a crock pot or Nesco for me….and using canned beans vs dry ones?? I need to make a huge batch for a party I’m having this weekend. We’ve made this in the instapot and its delicious!!
Fran Ciarlo
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
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed! And how creative to use up tomatoes from the freezer. I love avoiding food waste!!
Michele
Has anyone tried a version without meat? If so, are there any tweaks or tips I should know?
Beth
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
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
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
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
Second time using my early Christmas present. Insta Pot, I do not see a manual setting. Do you mean, the bean & chili setting?
Beth
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
On some of the Instant Pot models instead of “Manual” they call it “Pressure Cook”. they do the exact same thing.
Marcia
Will this fit in a 6 quart instant pot?
Nancie BENTZ
Had to add more liquid and more time. Needed more seasoning as well. Too much to tweak. Pl
JimC
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.