5 Ingredient Instant Pot Chili

Easy 5 ingredient Instant Pot chili recipe ever and costs less than $10 total to make. Healthy pressure cooker one pot meal my kids go crazy over! With ground beef vegetarian if you want. If you love our 5 ingredient crockpot chili recipe this will save you lots of time.

I’ve been obsessed with my crockpot for years but when I saw this new thing called the Instant Pot it got me curious. The first thing I cooked was some of the easiest Instant Pot chili ever. It came out amazing and is now one of our favorite Instant Pot recipes, so easy too. (affiliate links present)

Ninja Foodi Chili

You can certainly use your Crockpot Express or as a Ninja Foodi recipe to make this as well. You just need the high pressure function for about ten minutes and all electric pressure cookers have that. We only use 5 ingredients but it is a great base to add a bunch of other things into the mix too.

Love spicy Instant Pot chili? Then by all means add some Sriracha or red pepper flakes, this one is mild but full of flavor. I typically use a chili seasoning packet but have an alternative listed below too if you don’t have one of those on hand.

Quick and Easy Chili in Instant Pot

This was my first attempt at any recipe in this new pot of mine. I just got it and really wanted to try our favorite meal from our slow cooker in it. Knew it should take a whole lot less time from what I had heard so it was worth a shot. Used the same 5 ingredients and held my breath. OMG did it go beyond my expectations.

• If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can find one here.
• I first set it to sauté and when it beeped I put a bit of olive oil and my ground beef inside
• Then added some diced onions and in about 4 minutes it was browned 
• Next, I added my other 4 ingredients, secured the lid, and pushed bean/chili button
  • I have used high pressure too

This easy chili is so good it’s been on the top 10 most popular Instant Pot ground beef recipes TWO years in a row! And it is versatile so you can make it without the meat, with ground turkey for lower fat, or spicy ground sausage is one of our favorites.

I released the pressure valve at the top and once it was about done I opened the lid. It really did cook it well in just that short amount of time and softened the can of beans inside quite well.

You can still set it for a longer time if you’re going to be gone all day and use the slow cooker function on it but using the pressure cooker function makes it done really fast!

How to Make Instant Pot 5 Ingredient Chili

• Set your Instant Pot to saute
• Add ground beef and onions
• Brown until most of pink is gone
• Add all other ingredients
• Put lid on, close steam valve
• Then push pressure button
• Push pressure button again so it is on high
• Set time to 10 minutes (use + and – buttons to adjust)
• When done allow to naturally release (takes about 15 min.)

Ingredients

1. Lean ground beef, can use ground sausage or ground turkey too
2. Can of kidney beans or red beans some cans say
3. Diced tomatoes, I like the petite versions
4. Tomato sauce – or I have even used red enchilada sauce before for an added kick
5. Chili seasoning packet is what I use to make things easier but you could use a bit of Lawrys with garlic salt and onion powder instead with some chili powder for a bit of heat.

If you need to set it for the day and go follow the directions above but push the slow cooker setting instead of manual and pressure. It should automatically set to 4 hours total so it is still shorter than cooking in a traditional crockpot AND you don’t have to dirty a pan on the stovetop to cook the meat beforehand.

You can also easily leave out the meat and make an easy vegetarian Instant Pot chili too with this. Either way, the fast or slower version tastes great, depends on how much time you have. Heat can be added with red pepper flakes or dry Sriracha. Make a pot of rice or serve inside pressure cooker baked potatoes for a hearty dinner.

Below is a video showing you how easy Instant Pot chili is to make

Variations

• If you like a little spicy, use 1/2 lb. of Jimmy Dean spicy sausage and 1/2 lb. of regular sausage instead of ground beef. I’m telling you, this makes it amazing if you’re okay with ground sausage
• Load it up with diced onions and bell peppers, they will soften as this cooks and brings a great flavor and texture to your chili
• Put a wollop of cheese on top when your chili is done, OMG so good

Can you double this recipe?

YES! Here it is with twice the ingredients but the same pressure cook timing. I will say that in a 6 quart it is close to the line you do not want to pass or it won’t come to pressure though so 8 quart is better.

Can you use frozen ground beef to make chili?

Yes, this is how to defrost Instant Pot frozen ground beef in case you forgot to thaw it out the night before. 😉 You would need to follow them first to thaw, then set to saute, break up the meat to cook and then follow the directions from there below in the recipe card.

Tips

• I HIGHLY suggest you get a non stick pot as you see here!
  • Directions for Crockpot Express chili are almost identical
    • Press the manual pressure button – if you have one
    • Cook for 15 minutes
    • Do a quick release
      • If you don’t have a manual pressure button use the bean/stew button for 20 minutes
      • Quick release
• I suggest using 1 lb. of spicy ground sausage and 1 lb. of regular sausage if you double this recipe
• Make sure you get brown bits of meat off bottom of the pot after saute setting or you may get the burn on Instant Pot notice.

Once you’ve got that covered you can move on with this printable recipe for Instant Pot chili with beans recipe

Can you substitute chicken for beef in chili?

• Yes just cut boneless skinless breasts in half
• Add this and all other ingredients into pot
• Set to high pressure for 10 minutes
• Shred chicken and serve (of course check to ensure meat is done in the middle)

What if you want to make Instant Pot vegetarian chili?

We have a recipe for that too! This is also a delicious recipe using black beans or any style you like. Let us share this meatless hearty chili recipe below with you.

Instant Pot Chili Without Meat

1. 2 tbsp olive oil
2. 1 onion, diced
3. 2 tbsp minced garlic
4. 1/3 cup quinoa
5. 30 oz. canned kidney beans, drained
6. A green and red bell pepper diced
7. One jalapeno, seeds removed and diced finely – optional for heat
8. 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
9. 1 tsp cumin
10. Tsp. salt
11. 3 Tbsp. chili seasoning, dry mix
12. 2 1/2 c. vegetable broth
    1. if you just wanted a meatless chili you could use beef broth
13. A bay leaf is optional

Directions to follow for this vegetarian chili. You can just leave the meat out of the printable recipe card at the bottom really, so it’s really only 4 things needed.

First you’ll want to prep all of your ingredients and have them ready to add in to your pressure cooker. These are both easy recipes with as few steps as I can create so you can eat together more often. 😉

How to Make 5 Ingredient Instant Pot Chili Vegetarian

• Set pot to saute and add olive oil, onion and cook until they’re translucent.
• Add minced garlic and quinoa now stirring to combine well. Cook until quinoa becomes lightly browned.
  • turn Instant Pot off at this time.
• Pour all other ingredients into your pot at this time and stir.
• Close lid and pressure release valve and set to pressure cook chili on high for 15 minutes.
• Do a quick release, remove lid carefully. Discard bay leaf if you added one.
• It will be hot, add to bowls with cheese on top if desired.

In the event that you wanted to transition either of these versions into our Instant Pot chili mac recipe you would just add 1 cup elbow macaroni to submerge and cook time would be just 3-5 minutes.

Can you use ground sausage instead of ground beef to make chili?

Of course!! That is a great option, or use half Jimmy Dean spicy sausage and half beef to make it a little bit spicy. We do this often when we make this homemade like our Pressure cooker chili with dry beans. Love lots of chili toppings and ideas, or want to make a chili bar for a get together??!!

• Shredded cheese is a given, we love sharp the best on this and our Instant Pot red beans and rice dish
• Sliced avocado is a must if I can find them in season
• Some people like sliced olives on top
• Additional chopped tomatoes can be added
• Crush some tortilla chips on top to give it a little crunch and texture
• Salsa is great for a bang!
• If you want to add some real heat, add a few slices of jalapeno y’all!

If you are in need of Ninja Foodi chili instructions refer to the post here. We cook our pressure cooker chili at least 2-3 times a month, sometimes weekly. Or you can transition this one to a pressure cooker cheesy chili mac!

This is one of our cheap Instant Pot recipes as well because all the ingredients run you under $10 and feeds all 5 of us.  If you love this, you should try a few of these other easy Instant Pot recipes