Amazing Slow-Cooker Chili Beans
Wow. I always forget JUST HOW GOOD beans and rice are. This is a great meal to serve a crowd. You can create a burrito bowl bar so everyone can customize their bowl, and these beans will the the star of the show.
There is something about slow-cooked food that is so much better than instant-cooked food. Of course, I love my pressure cooker as much as the next (and it’s usually how I cook my beans), but slow-cooker beans do indeed taste better!
I chopped my onions, peppers and tomatoes extremely fine in the food processor (like, into a pulp), so there are not “onion chunks” for my kids to complain about. I do not recommend throwing the jalepenos in there though, since that increases their surface area and makes it taste hotter/spicier.
You’ve got to try these delicious beans! Even though rice and beans is the classic budget meal, it’s also just a classic delicious meal that needn’t be forgotten!
Here are a couple other legume recipes we love!
Slow-Cooker Lentil Sloppy Joes
Slow Cooker Chili Beans
Ingredients
- 3 cups dry pinto beans, soaked overnight
- 2 onions, chopped
- 3 bell peppers, chopped
- 2-4 jalapeños, seeds removed and diced (2 adds flavor but does not make it spicy)
- 28 oz diced tomatoes (blend first if you don't like tomato chunks)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt (in addition to what the beans are cooked in which is then drained off)
- 1 lime juiced
Instructions
- Soak beans overnight by covering with water and leaving on the counter.
- In the morning, drain the water off, and pour the beans into a slow cooker and cover with 2 inches of fresh water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt (this will get mostly drained off). Set to high for 4-6 hours or until mostly tender (if beans are very hard they will need all 6 hours, otherwise 4 is enough). Chop the onions, peppers, jalapeños and have them ready for quick assembly later.
- Once beans are tender or mostly tender, drain the water off. Add the remaining ingredients. Set to high for 2-3 more hours for the vegetables and beans to finish cooking and flavors to deepen.
- Serve with rice, salsa, avocado, cilantro, tortillas, chips, etc. for one amazing meal! Leftovers store well in the fridge for 5 days, or can be frozen.
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With the Slow cooker recipe it called for lime juice? How much do I and in the mix?
Just a squeeze at the end brings out the flavor! About 1-2 tablespoons.
This could be a five star, but anyone who has been around the sun enough times and cooked enough beans know that it’s a cardinal sin to add salt to uncooked beans. They will remain hard/ never soften, it’s just bad cooking etiquette. Salt is always added to bean AFTER they are soft. Otherwise they stay hard and tough and need to be cooked endlessly. The second critique I would make is to saute spices in a little oil with the onion to bloom the flavor. Adding spices to water is blah. They never taste the same and you have to use three times as much for the same amount of flavor. Otherwise this recipe is nice in the selection of spices and for the amounts of ingredients. That what I use it for.
To each their own–I love cooking my beans with salt because they are more infused with flavor and I haven’t had an issue with them staying hard. I also like to skip sauteeing spices in oil usually because this is an oil-free blog and lots of people like to save many calories by using water instead of oil and don’t notice a big difference in flavor. Thanks so much for trying the recipe and for leaving feedback though!
This very reputable blogger also recommends salting beans during cooking, saying that “Salting the beans while they cook infuses each bean from within with flavor. In contrast, waiting until the end to salt results in beans that are either over salty or lacking in flavor.”
https://rainbowplantlife.com/how-to-cook-beans-in-the-instant-pot/#wprm-recipe-container-5637
I salt my beans all the time and they come out nice and soft and flavorful if cooked long enough, which for me is overnight or at least eight hours a slow cooker.
Made this in my instant pot. (I don’t own a slow cooker anymore) my family really enjoyed it. I chopped all the veggies and sautéed them in the instant pot with water then added the beans and 5 cups of water. Pressure cooked for 40 minutes with natural release.
Delicious.