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Frozen Ground Beef Chili

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This super fast and easy Frozen Footing Beef Chili is a kid-friendly dinner that starts with frozen meat and gets added protein and flavor from beans, canned tomatoes, and your favorite dried spices.

A heaping spoonful of ground beef chili suspended over a small white bowl of ground beef, garnished with shredded cheese, tomatoes, and cilantro

❤️ Why Yous'll Love This Recipe: If you're looking for the all-time best chili to serve kids on a decorated weeknight that doesn't require babysitting at the stove or even defrosting the meat, this is information technology!

We love making chili in the Instant Pot, and this streamlined version is our go-to for family meals. It's packed with flavor, just non as complicated or spicy as our fancier version.

We created this chili considering I kept forgetting to thaw the beef before dinner. So if you're like me, no demand to worry!

This is one of the all-time Instant Pot Chili recipes! Nosotros beloved to serve it with 3-Ingredient Instant Pot Cornbread or over a bed of fluffy white rice or noodles.

An overhead shot of the ingredients for chili, including frozen ground beef, beef broth, tomato sauce, kidney beans, and a mixture of dried spices

INGREDIENTS YOU NEED

Here's what you'll need to make this Instant Pot Chili with Frozen Beefiness:

  • Beef broth. Y'all can use store-bought low-sodium goop or brand information technology from scratch!
  • Dried spices. This chili gets its flavor from kitchen staples similar chili pulverization, chipotle chili powder, footing coriander, cumin, garlic powder, stale oregano, stale minced onion, and paprika.
  • Sugar. Just ane/4 teaspoon of granulated carbohydrate adds a nice depth of flavor to highlight the spices and umami from canned tomatoes.
  • Granulated beefiness bouillon. This is a one-ingredient major flavor boost!
  • Frozen basis beef. Nosotros Use 85% lean ground beef, frozen apartment.
  • Crushed tomatoes. You can also use diced for a chunkier texture.
  • Kidney beans. This helps beef up the stew, so to speak. If you prefer, black or white beans will also work.
  • Tortilla chips. This is our clandestine ingredient for thickening chili. You can omit the fries if you adopt a thinner soup, however.
An overhead shot of Frozen Ground Beef on a trivet inside an Instant Pot cooking pot, with the tomatoes and kidney beans at the side

How to Make Frozen Basis Beefiness Chili in an Instant Pot

This piece of cake Frozen Ground Beef Chili recipe will piece of work in whatsoever brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker 40.

Before starting, brand certain your beef is frozen flat

The key to a quick, consistent cook time for cooking frozen ground beef is using beef that has been frozen flat .

Remember, when pressure cooking, yous determine the cook fourth dimension based on how thick your meat is. A thick, round ball of frozen beef will need much longer to fully cook through than a apartment round disk.

Tip: Before y'all freeze your footing beefiness, make sure that your frozen beefiness fits in your Instant Pot cooking pot. My friend Marci from Tidbits taught united states of america to prep our ground beef by shaping it in the pot before freezing.

Add the ingredients

In the pressure cooking pot, combine the beef goop with the dried spices, saccharide, and bullion.

Adjacent, add a trivet to the pot. Place the frozen beef cake on the trivet, then cascade the tomatoes carefully on top. Do not stir.

An overhead shot showing the tomatoes spread over the frozen ground beef in the chili

Pressure level cook at High Pressure for 10 minutes

Melt at High Pressure level for 10 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for x minutes, so terminate with a quick release. When you remove the lid, the meat should be cooked through. Now you tin remove the trivet from the pot.

💡 Tip: If you have a trivial actress time to get dinner on the table, a twenty-infinitesimal cook time will make the footing beef fifty-fifty more tender.

Blend the beans and break up the meat

Use a nutrient processor to blend i can of beans and about 1/four cup of the juices from the Instant Pot until polish. Add this to the chili and stir to break upwardly the meat.

Add the remaining beans and, for a thicker chili, add the crushed tortilla chips.

Let the flavors meld and the chili thicken for ten minutes before serving.

An overhead shot of ground beef chili after pressure cooking inside of an Instant Pot

Important Tips for Making Instant Pot Chili

We dearest to employ crushed tortilla fries for thickening! I just think chips piece of work better in chili than more traditional thickeners like cornmeal, cornstarch, or flour.

However, if you're out of chips or prefer a dissimilar thickener, one of the more than traditional ingredients volition also piece of work. (If you're eating correct away, I'd start with cornstarch—the cornmeal can add a gritty texture that takes several hours to soften.)

Blending the beans with some of the chili juices produces a more than flavorful, thicker chili. You tin can use a food processor or blender for this pace.

A heaping spoonful of ground beef chili suspended over a small white bowl of ground beef, garnished with shredded cheese, tomatoes, and cilantro

Frequently Asked Questions about Frozen Beef Instant Pot Chili

❓ Can I make this with fresh ground beef?

Admittedly! You can make the recipe as written with no change to the cook fourth dimension. Just do your best to shape the beefiness and then information technology sits on the trivet while cooking.

(Or, if yous cull, you can brown the beefiness beforehand and and then drain the grease. And then just add it to the pot to cook, no need to bother with the trivet at all.)

❓ How long can I shop beef chili?

As with many chilis, this is even ameliorate the next day. You can make information technology ahead of fourth dimension for a party or game, and reheat information technology on the stove or in the Instant Pot using the sauté function.

Shop leftovers in an airtight container for up to four days in the fridge.

❓ Tin can I freeze leftovers?

Yes. This chili freezes well. Simply place it in a freezer-safe container when it'southward fully cooled. Freeze for up to half-dozen months.

When ready to cook, let information technology thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat it in your Instant Pot or on the stove.

❓ Can I use a different kind of beans or meat?

Certainly. If you like, you can utilise kidney, pinto, or blackness beans for the chili. And for a lighter accept, y'all can use frozen basis turkey or chicken instead of beef. No need to make changes to the recipe.

❓ Do I demand to use chipotle chili pulverization?

The chipotle chili powder adds a actually prissy flavor and I wouldn't recommend skipping it. You can even add together more if you're non worried about spiciness because information technology has a corking flavor!

Even so, yous can substitute it with regular ground chili powder or add together some canned chipotle in adobo for a similar smokey flavor.

❓ What toppings should I serve with beef chili?

We dearest topping bowls of this Instant Pot chili with shredded Mexican, pepper jack or cheddar cheese, fresh cilantro, sour foam, diced fresh tomatoes, lime wedges, and chopped red onion.

Two small bowls of Instant Pot chili made from frozen ground beef, garnished with diced tomatoes and cilantro and tortilla chips, sitting in front of an Instant pot and a plate of cornbread

MORE Instant Pot Chili Recipes

You might love these other succulent chili recipes made in an electric pressure cooker:

  • Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili is a light stew with two kinds of beans and plenty of veggies.
  • White Chicken Chili is refreshing, zippy, and packed with pulled chicken, white beans, and green chilis.
  • Instant Pot Chili Canis familiaris Sauce is our favorite way to upgrade hot dogs at a BBQ!

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Ingredients

  • 1 can (15 oz) beefiness broth
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • ii teaspoons chipotle chili powder
  • ane tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon basis cumin
  • 1 tablespoon garlic pulverization
  • one teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons stale minced onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • one teaspoon salt
  • ane/two teaspoon pepper
  • one/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon granulated beef bouillon
  • 1 pound 85% lean basis beefiness, frozen flat
  • 1 tin can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
  • 2 cans (15 oz, each) kidney beans, divided and rinsed
  • Finely crushed tortilla chips for thickening, if desired

Instructions

  1. In the force per unit area cooking pot, combine the beefiness broth, chili powder, chipotle chili pulverization, coriander, cumin, garlic pulverisation oregano, dried minced onion, salt, pepper, carbohydrate, and beefiness bouillon, and stir until well combined.
  2. Identify a trivet in the lesser of the cooking pot and lay the frozen beef apartment on top. Add the crushed tomatoes on top. (It'southward OK if some tomatoes fall downwards, but the majority of the tomatoes should be on top of the frozen ground beef.)
  3. Lock the lid in identify. Select High Force per unit area and set the cook fourth dimension for 10 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then terminate with a quick release.
  4. When the valve drops, carefully remove the hat. Gently movement the ground beefiness off the trivet and remove the trivet from the cooking pot. Spoon near one/4 cup of juices into a blender jar or food processor, then add 1 tin can of kidney beans to the blender jar and blend until smooth.
  5. Utilise a wooden spoon or hamburger separator and intermission up the ground beefiness in the cooking pot until small and well-combined.
  6. Add together the blended beans to the cooking pot, so stir well to combine. Add the remaining can of kidney beans and stir. Season with boosted table salt and pepper to taste.
  7. If yous prefer a thicker chili, y'all tin stir in up to ane/two cup of finely crushed tortilla fries and let remainder uncovered for ten minutes.
  8. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Notes

You tin can make this recipe with fresh ground beef. If yous'd like, you lot can employ a 5 minute cook time. However, ground beefiness gets even more tender when you pressure melt it longer, so you tin can use the same cook time or as much every bit 20 minutes if you'd like the softest, most tender beefiness..

Nutrition Information:

Yield: viii Serving Size: ane
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 235 Full Fat: 10g Saturated Fat: 4g Trans Fatty: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 5g Cholesterol: 51mg Sodium: 692mg Carbohydrates: 18g Fiber: 4g Sugar: 6g Protein: 20g

Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.

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