I’ve finally created an effin good chili recipe for the Instant Pot. I lost my family recipe years ago and have had a hard time finding a chili recipe — either stove top or Instant Pot — that I find edible. Finally, I found a recipe that most closely resembled the family recipe. It was a stove top recipe but with a few modifications, I’ve adapted it for the Instant Pot. Not only did I modify the directions, but I also modified the ingredients.
Prep time is 15 – 20 minutes. Cook time is 30 minutes. Add 15 – 20 minutes for the Instant Pot to reach pressure and for natural release. Tips on how to shorten times to reach pressure and release pressure are included in the directions.
Makes 9 3-ladle-full servings or 6.5 Jules-sized servings (4 ladles per serving).
Heat index: Medium but I’m not the best judge because I grew up eating spicy food and what some consider medium, I consider no heat. Tips for adaptions included in the directions.
Without further ado, I present to you Instant Pot Effin Good Chili!
Instant Pot Effin Good Chili Needed Items
- One 6 quart or 8 quart Instant Pot
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Small stainless-steel bowl – chilled
- Food processor or food chopper attachment for your immersion blender
- Garlic press
- Measuring spoons and cups
*A lot of these items can be found in my shop if you want to know what I use. Or check out 11 Essential Items for a Disability-Friendly Kitchen.
Disabled Kitchen Recipe: Instant Pot Effin Good Chili
Ingredients
Effin Good Chili
- 0.907 kg extra lean ground beef
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 chopped onion Every second Saturday, I use the food chopper attachment for my immersion blender and chop a bunch of onion, freezing them in sizes used for most of my recipes. This saves a bunch of prep time when it's time to cook
- 1 large chopped red bell pepper
- 2 pepper chopped green jalapeno pepper removing seeds from one
- 1 pepper chopped Serrano pepper seeded
- 4 cloves minced garlic I use an entire head of garlic, roughly 12 cloves
- 2 cube crumbled beef bouillon cubes
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cup water OR 1 can of light beer and 125 ml (1/2 cup) of white wine
- 796 ml can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
- 398 ml can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 156 ml can tomato paste
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp chipotle pepper sauce
- 2 1/2 tsp dried basil or 25 ml (5 tsp) fresh chopped basil
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika or regular paprika if you don't like a definite smoke flavour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano or 5 ml (1 tsp) fresh chopped oregano
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 796 ml can dark red kidney beans drained
Sour Cream Topping (Optional)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
Effin Good Chili
- Turn the Instant Pot on to saute.
- When hot, add the olive oil. Let it heat for a minute.
- Add chopped onions, chopped peppers and minced garlic. Saute until soft. About 1 minute. Tip: If you think this will be too spicy for you, omit the Serrano pepper and thoroughly seed the jalapenos. If you want it extra spicy, leave the seeds in for all of the hot peppers.
- Add the ground beef, Worcestershire sauce and crumbled beef bouillon cubes. Saute for 3 - 5 minutes, just enough to make sure all the ground beef is separated. You don't need to thoroughly brown it. Watch the video about the Maillard reaction and why it's not necessary to pre-brown meat, found in my Instant Pot Resources.
- Add San Marzano tomatoes, fine-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, kidney beans, chili powder, first quantity of cumin, brown sugar, chipolte pepper sauce, basil, paprika, salt, oregano, pepper and water (or beer and wine if you are going that route). Make sure to scrape anything off the bottom of the Instant Pot that may have formed during steps 1 - 5, otherwise your Instant Pot won't reach pressure. Tip: If you want the Instant Pot to reach pressure within 5 minutes, bring the mixture to a slight bubble, taking extra care to scrape the bottom of the pot before placing the lid.
- Place and seal the lid. Make sure the steam release valve is closed. Set to High Pressure for 20 minutes. You can set it for as low as 10 minutes, but setting it for 20 minutes gives it a bit more time for all the flavours to set.
- Allow the Instant Pot to naturally release all of the pressure. Do not do a quick release unless you want chili boiling onto the lid and in/out of the steam valve. Tip: To speed up natural release time, place cold wet dish clothes on the metal parts of the lid. You'll probably have to wet them a second or even a third time, as all of the water will evaporate.
- Remove the lid. If you made your chili with alcohol, turn the Instant Pot back on to saute and let it boil for 5 - 10 minutes to burn off the alcohol. If you made your chili with water, you may want to do the same to boil off any excess water. Stir every few minutes so that it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pot.
Sour Cream Topping
- While the Instant Pot is doing its thing, mix the sour cream, chopped cilantro and second quality of cumin in a chilled stainless-steel bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
Notes
Nutrition
I hope you enjoy this recipe! It makes a heck of a lot of chili! What we don’t eat for dinner, we freeze in portion-sized quantities.
Huh, I hadn’t thought of that method to speed up natural release! Good to know – especially as I don’t think my pot actually *does* a natural release in its own. Every time I’ve tried waiting the 5-10 min for it to cool, I’ve had to go use the valve release anyway and it was still bubbling when I got it open. I’m not sure what I’m missing there.
Okay. I’m about to get nerdy on you to explain some of the science behind the Instant Pot to explain the part you think you’re missing. Understanding the science will likely change how you use your Instant Pot and help you discern when a recipe is bogus (which is most of them).
When the Instant Pot reaches pressure, the contents inside are actually under pressure. Think of reaching pressure as a big plunger coming down from the lid and compressing the food. When the contents are under pressure, they heat up but they have no room to boil. When something is under pressure, it reduces the time needed to cook something by a lot. Unless you are cooking a whole chicken or roast, it’s very rare that you need to set your time to more than 10 minutes under High Pressure.
Also, any recipe that calls for more than 2 cups of water/broth/etc. for a 6 qt recipe, is bogus because all the meat and veg you put in your Instant Pot will release a lot of fluids. Adding more than 2 cups results in a very watery and bland product. Most of my recipes only use the minimum 1 cup needed to reach pressure.
When a recipe says natural release (NR) for 10 minutes, they are signalling that that is when you can do a quick release of any remaining pressure. That extra 10 minutes is necessary because it adds more cooking time. If you’re not in a hurry, just let the Instant Pot release on its own. Sometime, this can take up to 40 minutes because it’s dependent on how long it takes for the steam inside the pot to cool down and slowly release through the valve. Putting the cold wet clothes on the metal part of the lid helps the heat inside the pot to transfer outside of the pot quicker. As the water evaporates, the energy is being transferred.
The reason why the contents boil when you do a quick release is because the steam is displacing so quickly, the contents inside that have reached boiling temperature finally have room to boil as the “plunger” moves up. Contents can’t boil under pressure, even though they reach boiling temperature, because they have no room in which to boil.
And the reason you only fill your Instant Pot 2/3 of the way is because that extra space is needed for the fluids that will be released from the contents as they are under pressure and/or for room for grains to expand as they cook.
I hope you find this helpful and that I didn’t bore you with science things. The science is part of the reason I love the Instant Pot so much. Understanding the science is a huge help when it comes to converting stove top recipes for the Instant Pot, allowing me to modify ingredient quantities and significantly cut down on time needed under pressure.
No actually, that was pretty useful! All hail nerdery! I love the idea of the slow release because it contains the smell and my partner has been hypersensitive to smell since having shingles a few years ago. 🙁
I actually don’t use the pressure cooker half as much as I probably ought for anything outside of hard boiling eggs or making bone broth. I’m still getting the hang of it. I’d probably use it more if I’d gotten a bigger one. I didn’t realize when I bought it that 6qt actually means 4qt and I prefer to do giant batch cooking whenever possible.