The Best Instant Pot Chili
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Hands down THE BEST chili ever. Done in less than 1 hour with no babysitting, no fuss! So easy and so flavorful!
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I know, It’s not exactly chili season just yet. But, we’ve had the tiniest drizzle of rain with a bit of cold weather these last few days. So we’re staying in with a cozy bowl of chili under the thickest blanket we can find.
But guys, this is not your average bowl of chili. Nope, not at all.
This is the best instant pot chili recipe you can find (loaded statement, I know). The texture of the chili comes out oh-so-perfectly with the lean, tender, crumbled ground beef with all the spices (chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, cocoa powder, and cumin) alongside the black bean goodness.
It’s chunky, it’s hearty, it’s cozy and it’s perfect to dunk your buttery, crumbly buttermilk cornbread right in. Yes to all the cornbread, please.
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt Instant Pot®
The Best Instant Pot Chili: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop.
Buttermilk cornbread or homemade crusty no knead bread are two of our favorite sidekicks to chili!
Yes, you absolutely can! Here is our easy slow cooker chili recipe – also one of our favorites!
The Best Instant Pot Chili
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons canola oil
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 poblano chili, minced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 12 ounces lager or pilsner beer
- 1 ½ cups beef stock
- 2 (10.75-ounce) cans tomato puree
- 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Equipment
Instructions
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting.
- Heat canola oil; add beef and cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks. Drain excess fat and set aside.
- Add garlic, onion, bell pepper and chili to the Instant Pot®. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 4-6 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, chili powder, paprika, oregano, cocoa powder and cumin.
- Stir in beer, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in beef stock, tomato puree, black beans and ground beef; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 18 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Stir in cilantro; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with sour cream and cheese, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I gave this a 4, although i would love to give it a 5. Whether it’s Instant Pot or a soup pot, this is some darn good chili. Like the texture and the sweet heat with just a little more cayenne. Now if you’d leave those beans out, you’d have some great chili. Beans aren’t necessary anymore, they were used a long time ago to take up space when they couldn’t afford prices of meat. They just don’t belong there. But as I said, the ingredients here are right on !!! good stuff. Thank you.
This was a very easy to follow recipe and it was delicious. I highly recommend this chili
Very good, here were my modifications:
1) veggie broth instead of beef stock
2) beyond meat instead of ground beef
3) half red pepper instead of a whole
Overall it turned out great. Very pleased!
This is the only chili recipe I make anymore. Exactly as is. No substitutions. I love it. My partner loves it.
This is my go to recipe and I make it exactly as stated. If you want even more specific, I use Fosters lager 🙂
Made half the recipe in the mini pot. Worked out very well. I agree with everyone else though, could be spicier.
I have a mini IP too. Did you have to adjust pressured cook time? Everything I have cooked in mini seems to do fine with the ‘stew’ or ‘soup’ setting, but I think those are far less than the 18 minutes called for in this recipe.
This chili was good but not great. It needed more spice, and was more watery than I was expecting. Since there is a ton leftover, I added some more chili powder and put the rest in the freezer. That may do the trick, we’ll see!
Made this today and mixed it up slightly by adding diced tomatoes two cans of kidney beans with the black beans. Tastes great! Thanks!
Just made this recipe, thanks very much for it. It turned out well, but I thought the beer came through a little too much (and I am a beer drinker). I soaked my beans overnight and cooked them under pressure for 15 minutes and used natural release. I’ll make this again sans beer.
Great chili. Never thought to put cocoa in a chili before. The ingredients are a bit off though. Says you’ll only need one beer. I found that to be insufficient. I went through three or four before all was said and done. Only one went in the chili though.
Love this!!!
Sounds like my kinda review!
Hahahaha! You cook like me
Hahaha
This was delicious. I used EVOO instead of canola, bone broth instead of beef broth, and added diced tomatoes. The coco powder gave it an amazing depth of flavor.
I wasn’t sure about the cocoa powder. Tasted the concoction before serving and something was just off. Added the cocoa powder and dang…delicious!
62 degrees is cold??
This is a great chili recipe. I prefer vegetarian chili so I added a cup of lentils instead of meat and the texture was perfect. I saw a lot of reviews that said it was too soupy. I think cooking the lentils in it thickened it up. Will definitely be on repeat for us
The instant pot threatened to burn the beans twice. After the first time I added water and used low pressure, the instant pot Max stopped and displayed burn food a second time.
I wound up using the show cooker setting on low for 4 hours.
The beans needed to be kick up a notch for my taste. I add 4 ounces of Canned mild green chilies.
This really is the best recipe I’ve had for chili! The cocoa powder really melds the flavor together. Thank you another fabulous recipe!
This chili. My god. We’ve made it likes 5 times in the last month and it is fantastic. We’ve experimented with different beers, adding grape tomatoes and amounts of poblano. It’s always so good. It isn’t a thick chili but I turn it to saute and let it simmer a little longer and it thickens a bit. Thanks for all the yummy!
Good flavor, a little watery as others said. I did not have a poblano so I would like to try again with one to see the difference. I think I would also reduce beef broth to a cup or less. Not sure this is THE instant pot chili recipe for us yet, but I love lots of the recipes on this site so please keep them coming!!
First Chili recipe made in my Instapot. I used dark chili pepper and it made for a very heavy taste. Very good otherwise and my teenager ate seconds!
Great recipe!! Will definitely be using it again!! Made a few changes. Left out the poblano pepper because I wasn’t sure of the heat. Will add next time. I used half the pureed tomatoes, and added 2 cans of diced tomatoes because we like the texture. I didn’t have black beans so I used red kidney beans instead.
One of best chili recipes I’ve made but I’m a new instant pot user and I got burn message at beginning of cook time but then it went away so I was a little confused by the process but it tasted delicious
I know this is instant pot recipe but can I use this same recipe in slow cooker also?
You can try this slow cooker version instead. 🙂
https://damndelicious.net/2019/04/03/easy-slow-cooker-chili/
Really good. I put it in for 12 min instead of 18 min and threw in just a little bit of brown sugar at the end. Delicious.