How to Cook Chili in an Instant Pot

Why chili is the Instant Pot's showpiece

Chili is the dish that sells people on a multicooker. You can brown the meat, bloom the spices, and cook the whole pot — including dried beans with no overnight soak — in one vessel, and pressure cooking melds the flavors into something that tastes like it simmered all afternoon in about 30 minutes. It is a slow-cooked classic done fast. The single thing to get right is the tomato, because a chili is exactly the thick, sugary, tomato-heavy mixture most likely to scorch and set off the Burn message— and the fix is just a matter of layering.

Brown the meat and bloom the spices

Start on Sauté. Brown the ground beef, turkey or diced chuck in batches so it sears rather than steams, then add the onion, garlic and peppers and soften them. Stir in the chili powder, cumin and smoked paprikaand let them toast for a minute in the fat — blooming the spices in oil deepens their flavor far more than dumping them into liquid later. This browning step is where chili gets its backbone, and doing it in the pot keeps every bit of that fond in the dish. Then deglaze with a splash of broth or beer, scraping the bottom clean, because anything stuck to the base is what the Burn sensor reacts to.

Beans in the chili, and the tomato on top

You can cook dried beans right in the chili— no pre-soak — which is one of the method's best tricks; just make sure there is enough thin liquid (broth) to cook them and stay below the max-fill line, since beans foam and expand. Now the key move: add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste or sauce last, and float them on top without stirring. Tomato is dense and sugary; stirred to the bottom it scorches and triggers Burn, but left as a layer on the surface it steams safely and mixes in during cooking. Lock the lid, set to Sealing, and pressure cook: about 15 minutes for a chili with canned beans and ground meat, and up to 30–35 if you are cooking dried beans from scratch.

Release, then fix the thickness

Let the pressure drop with a 10-minute natural release— a bean-heavy pot should not be quick-released, as the froth can spit at the valve. Open it and check the consistency. Because nothing evaporates under pressure, chili often comes out thinner than you want; the fix is to simmer it down uncovered on Sauté for a few minutes, or mash some of the beans against the side to thicken it naturally. Taste and adjust — more salt, a little acid, more heat — and let it sit a few minutes to settle. Leftovers taste even better the next day, and the same pot handles the rice to serve it over.