lifestyle

The Best Chili with the Crock-Pot® Express Crock Multi Cooker

Last week I showed a sneak peek of the Crock-Pot®  8-in-1 Multi-Use Express Crock Slow Cooker and mentioned that nothing said “adulthood” like getting excited over new kitchen appliances. I can’t tell you the number of people who sent back a message in agreement. A few of you even had the Express Crock Crock-Pot® already on your Christmas list. (Hint: There’s a special discount code at the bottom of the post!)

I was intrigued by this new Crock-Pot® pressure cooker. I’m already a huge fan of my Crock-Pot® slow cooker and everyone seemed to rave about the pressure cooker online too. Basically, this is a one-stop shop. It’s a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. You can steam and sauté. The pot has eight different cooking settings so it can handle making everything from soup to rice.

Crock-Pot 6 Qt 8-in-1 Multi-Use Express Crock Programmable Slow Cooker, Pressure Cooker, Sauté, and Steamer, Stainless Steel

I don’t have many complaints about my slow cooker, but one thing I don’t love is that sometimes you have to prep food before you put it in. Like browning meat before popping it into a chili. Instead, with the Crock-Pot® Express Crock Multi Cooker, you can set it to brown/sauté for the meat and then switch to beans/chili, so you don’t have to dirty another dish. Brilliant.

It’s also a pressure cooker, which honestly I’ve wanted to try. Unlike the slow cooker where it cooks all day, you can make an amazing chili, or a whole rotisserie chicken, or even a loaf of bread in under an hour.

Crock Pot

TBH, sounded a little too good to be true. But I was excited to test it out. Like, really excited. I decided to do my inaugural test of the pot with a chili. Nothing says fall like a warm bowl of chili to me! And now that the sun is setting at what feels like 3 pm, I am all about cozy (and simple) dinners. Chili is also my favorite because it’s so easy to make a big batch to eat throughout the week or freeze and store for later.

I thought it would be a great test because chilis get better and better the more you cook them. So 45-minutes in the Crock-Pot® would be quite the feat. (Spoiler alert: it exceeded my expectations.)

Crock Pot Instant Pot

I started poring through Pinterest to find great recipes for pressure cookers (I’ve pinned a few to this board that I’m dying to try). I used this recipe as my base and pretty much followed it exactly with ground turkey and my own spice mix (chili powder, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper). I would definitely recommend doubling the recipe, I got about four servings out it and prefer to have more leftovers!

Crock Pot Chili

Once my onion and pepper were diced, I set the pot to brown/sauté so I could cook the ground turkey. I hate photos of raw meat, so I spared you photos of it. Once the meat was browned, I popped the onion and pepper in to soften. Then I switched the setting to beans/chili; let it preheat; and added the beans, diced tomato, tomato sauce, and spice mix.

Forty-five minutes later, the chili was done. Because it’s cooked under pressure, you have to let the pot release the steam on its own (or flip the valve to manually “deflate”). The instruction book was a little intimidating, but it’s easy to figure out once you actually start to cook.

Crock Pot Chili Recipe

Success! Softest beans and the perfect fall freshly-made-chili aroma in the air.

Crock Pot Express Crock Multi-Use Cooker

If you have friends coming over, a chili is a super easy thing to make. You can set up a little chili bar so everyone can customize their bowls. Some topping suggestions: avocado, corn chips (my guilty pleasure), lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, scallions, bacon, cilantro, etc.!

Instant Cooker Chili Recipe

Oh and if you weren’t convinced already? The non-stick pot can go right into the dishwasher for the easiest cleanup, ever. It doesn’t get better than that. You can now use “15COLLEGE” for 15% off your Crock-Pot® Express Crock Multi Cooker from now until midnight EST on November 17.

Thank you Crock-Pot® and ShopStyle for sponsoring this post!

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27 Comments

Marcella

My dad just bought an Instant-Pot and it’s cool but I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I feel like I end up adding too much liquid and then it doesn’t evaporate out, haha. But this chili looks good!!

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Alex

Girl, you are so brave for making chili in white pants… I am such a spaz and do not trust myself …

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Christa L Sagmoe

This looks like the perfect size for a crockpot (we have a large version currently). I just love putting on soup before I leave for work and then it’s ready by dinner. Definitely going to try the chili recipe out. YUMMY!

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KLG

I looked chili. And Im conyemplating asking Santa for it over the Air Fryers out everywhere. But have you tried “roasting” fresh veggies in it? Can the convection get them crisps? I hate heating up my oven, thought this might work instead. Thanks!

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carly

Hmmm I don’t know if there’s a roast option, but I think you can do things like potatoes

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Molly

It’s on sale on Amazon Prime right now for $49.99! I ordered one for me AND one for my mom!

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Caroline Spruill

Hey Carly, I’ve really wanted to try this, and I just bought one for my mom for Christmas because we love cooking together! Do you know if there’s a cookbook that goes along with the Express Crock? I know there’s an Instant Pot cookbook, but I’d rather get something actually for the Crock Pot Express Crock. Really appreciate any tips!

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Jordan

Hey Carly! I just thought I’d say, I saw this post back when you first posted it, and instantly wanted an electric pressure cooker sooo bad. I hadn’t heard about them yet at that point. My mom got me one for Christmas, and like you, I thought I’d try out chili in it as my first experience. I adapted my mom’s chili recipe, and it was amazing!

http://a-little-slice-of-my-life.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-instant-pot-chili.html

Just thought I’d say thanks for the inspiration! 🙂

-Jordan

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Shayna

My husband wanted to go through your recipes for inspiration and we stumbled upon this post. I am no great chef, but he highly, highly recommends a pressure cooker. He honestly makes amazing meals in around 20 minutes and I have been so surprised with the variety of meals he has been able to make with it – everything from curry to fried shrimp.

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Peggy Allen

How long does it take to preheat. My cooler has been saying HEAt for about 20 minutes.
Does it not show the time.

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Amy

I did an “Easy Beef Chili” recipe from an Instant Pot cookbook, which said to use the Bean/Chili function. It came out badly – more like soggy chili-flavored soup – so I am trying to figure out if pressure-function recipes for the Instant Pot actually do work in the CP Express. Any tips??

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Jaline McMillan

I don’t know about the instant pot but they usually work the same for the most part. I wouldn’t have cooked the chili for 45 mins in the express cooker because the meat and veggies were already cooked. 10 -15 mins at the most with a quick release or 10 min NR.

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