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Delicious & Hearty Instant Pot Chili Recipe

By Michelle Marine

on Jan 25, 2020, Updated Feb 02, 2025

13 Comments

There’s nothing better on a cold winter night than a big bowl of this hearty Instant Pot Chili – Recipe made with dried beans and ZERO pre-soaking!

Delicious Instant Pot Chili + 20 More Soup Recipes for Winter

I’m excited to team up with a great group of bloggers to bring you this first ever Houseful of Soups post! You will love the comfort foods so many amazing recipe creators are bringing you today. From hearty chili to chicken noodle soup, lentil soup, baked potato soup, French Onion Soup, and more: we’re covering all of your winter soup needs in one easy post.

First up, here is my delicious instant pot chili recipe made with dried beans, bacon, and hidden veggies. Cooked right in your instant pot without soaking the beans, you will love how easy it is to incorporate heart-healthy and frugal dried beans. I love that you can make this chili all in one pot with minimal mess and clean up!

Let’s make this easy pressure cooker chili!

I think chili is one of the best soup recipes for winter! Is chili a soup though?? What do you think?

And instant pot recipes are my favorite because of quick cooking time and the easy clean up. Everything is made right in one pot which means fewer pots to scrub! This recipe is pretty versatile and I hope you love it. So let’s get cooking. 

Gather your supplies! It really is much easier if you get all the ingredients out and prepped ahead of time. I can tell you from experience that it takes forever if you’re cooking and chopping at the same time, while also hunting down the ingredients. 

Turn your instant pot on saute, gather and open cans, get out all the spices, chop your veggies, make sure the ground meat is thawed. 

Once your pressure cooker is hot, cook the bacon lardons until nice and crispy. It should take about 5-6 minutes. Remove bacon from pan, then add the chopped carrots and onions and cook right in the bacon grease. Cook them for several minutes until the carrots are soft and the onions are translucent and fragrant, then add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Remove the veggies from the pan and add the ground meat, cooking until completely browned.

Next, add all remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to get everything nicely mixed. Lock the lid on the Instant Pot and cook on manual high for 45 minutes. Make sure the gasket on the lid is pushed back so it can seal properly. It will take the Instant Pot some time to get up to pressure, probably 10-15 minutes.

Once the cooking time is done, do a natural release of the pressure for 15 minutes, then quick release remaining pressure. I like the cover the gasket with a towel or washcloth so the steam doesn’t spew all over everywhere. Carefully open the lid, making sure to vent it away from you so the steam doesn’t hit your face. 

Stir the soup again and ladle into bowls. I like to serve chili with a variety of toppings like cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, sliced jalapeno, green onions, avocado etc. What toppings do you like on your chili? How about queso dip?

A few notes about the chili ingredients. 

You can use any type of ground meat you like. We buy organic beef in bulk from a local farmer so that’s what I use most often. My mom makes delicious chili with venison that my father hunts and you can’t even tell that it’s venison. Ground turkey is also delicious in this chili, or you can mix and match any way you like!

One thing I love about my instant pot is that I can cook dried beans without soaking. Dried beans are staples in my pantry. I buy them in bulk (25lbs at a time) and always have them on hand. Using my instant pot, I can cook them quickly from scratch when I need them! Learn how easy it is to cook dried beans of all kinds without soaking in this post.

We like to add carrots because their sweetness is a nice contrast to the acidity of the tomatoes. I’ve found that adding carrots to tomato rich soups and sauces is a great way to sweeten without adding sugar.

Last year I learned from a very good cook that you can use ketchup instead of tomato paste! Let me way I was mind-blown! Now instead of buying little cans of tomato paste and having to deal with leftovers, I just use ketchup. My favorite ketchup is Vegetable Ketchup from True Made Foods. I tried it last year at Expo West and love that it uses veggies as a sweetener in place of the sugar!

Here are 20 More Soup Recipes for Winter!

I enjoy participating in Houseful of Soups blog hop and I know you’ll like all of these recipes. Make sure you head over to check them out and them to your dinner menus!

• Neckbone Stew – Houseful of Nicholes
• Sweet Potato + Black Eyed Peas Stew – This Worthey Life
• Easy Creamy Tomato Soup – Big Crazy Life
• Slow Cooker Beef & Vegetable Stew – Ashley & Company
• Sweet Potato Carrot Soup – Someday I’ll Learn
• Corn Chowder Soup – Day By Day In Our World
• Super Simple Cauliflower Soup – Good Girl Gone Redneck
• 20-Minute Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup – Life of A Ginger
• Creamy Butternut Squash Soup – 100 Directions
• Pasta e Fagioli – More Than Thursdays
• Easy One Pot Lasagna Soup – Mama Harris’ Kitchen
• Super Easy Egg Drop Soup – Eat Picks
• Jonah’s Float A Seafood Soup – food:life:love
• Easy Gumbo Recipe – Divas With A Purpose
• Loaded Baked Potato Soup – My Crafty Life
• Haitian Soup Joumou – Anointed Heels

Here are a few more of my soup recipes too!

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

Instant Pot Lasagna Soup

Creamy Chicken Stew – great for immune boosting

Effortless French Onion Soup from Scratch

Delicious Instant Pot Chili Recipe {made with dried beans, no soaking required!)

By: Michelle

This delicious instant pot chili recipe is just what the cold winter weather ordered. Made with dried beans WITHOUT soaking, bacon, and a few hidden veggies, this chili is sure to be a hit with your family!

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 45 minutes mins

Additional Time: 15 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 8 servings

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Equipment

• Farberware Poly Cutting Board
• Classic 8 Inch Chef's Knife | Full-Tang Classic
• Instant Pot

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• ▢ 6 slices bacon, cut into lardon (small pieces)
• ▢ 1 yellow onion, diced
• ▢ 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ▢ 1 cup minced carrots, about 2 medium
• ▢ 3 tablespoons chili powder
• ▢ 2 tablespoons cumin
• ▢ 1 tablespoon oregano
• ▢ 2 teaspoons REAL Salt
• ▢ 4 tablespoons ketchup, or tomato paste
• ▢ 1 - 14.5- ounce can crushed tomatoes
• ▢ 1 - 14.5 ounce can tomato sauce
• ▢ 1 - 10- ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilis
• ▢ 1 cup dried black beans
• ▢ 1 cup dried kidney beans
• ▢ 2 cups beef or chicken broth
• ▢ toppings: avocado, cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, green onion, cilantro

Instructions 

• Turn instant pot on saute. Once it's hot, cook the bacon lardons until nice and crispy, about 5 minutes.
• Remove bacon from pan, then add the chopped carrots and onions and cook right in the bacon grease. Cook them for several minutes until the carrots are soft and the onions are translucent and fragrant, then add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Remove the veggies from the pan and add the ground meat, cooking until completely browned.
• Add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine.
• Lock the lid on the Instant Pot and cook on manual high for 45 minutes.
• Make sure the gasket on the lid is pushed back so it can seal properly. It will take the Instant Pot some time to get up to pressure, probably 10-15 minutes.
• Naturally release pressure for 15 minutes, then quick release remaining pressure.
• I like the cover the gasket with a towel or washcloth so the steam is spewing all over everywhere.
• Carefully open the lid, making sure to vent it away from you so the steam doesn't hit your face. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1g, Calories: 733kcal, Carbohydrates: 49g, Protein: 56g, Fat: 36g, Saturated Fat: 13g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 19g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 139mg, Sodium: 1608mg, Fiber: 13g, Sugar: 9g

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So, what do you think? Which of these soup recipes for winter are you most excited to try? And does chili qualify as a soup or is it in a category all of its own?