Easy Crock Pot Chili is a slow cooked chili recipe that I have been making for twenty five years!
Slow Cooked Chili
This recipe came from a Taste of Home magazine from the early 1990s. Anyone else love and remember the old Taste of Home magazines and cookbooks.
Taste of Home helped me learn to love cooking. I still love and use so many of those old Taste Of Home recipes including this Crock Pot chili recipe.
Over the years I have changed this recipe up slightly, but it is the same basic recipe that I started with years ago.
Cook Once Eat Twice
Chili is one of my favorite cook once eat twice meals. Sometimes it is even cook once eat three times.
There are so many ways that you can eat leftover chili that doesn’t feel like you are eating chili every day.
Ways To Use Up Leftover Chili
- Chili Cheese Fries
- Chili Cheese Nachos
- Chili Cheese Pasta
- Chili Dogs
- Chili Bowls
- Pop Up Chili Pie
- Serve over baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream
Freezing Chili
One of the reasons that I love chili so much is because it is so versatile. You can easily double a batch of chili and freeze the extra for serving later on.
This recipe makes enough for about 12 servings, so for most families this recipe will give you plenty to freeze or use later.
Freezer chili works great served as chili or in any of the recipes for using leftover chili that I shared above.
Cook the chili as directed. Let it cool completely. Freeze in freezer-safe containers or zip-top bags. Reheat and serve.
Ingredients
- ground beef
- canned kidney beans
- canned diced tomatoes
- tomato sauce
- onions
- green pepper
- garlic
- chili powder
- salt
- pepper
- Shredded cheddar cheese, optional
What meat is best for chili?
This recipe calls for ground beef. That is the most popular meat for chili. However, I love to use venison or half venison half beef. The venison adds great flavor to the chili.
Ground turkey or ground chicken also works well, but will have a little different flavor.
Easy Crock Pot Chili Recipe
Start easy Crock Pot Chili in the morning and dinner will be waiting for you at the end of the day.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef or ground venison
- 2 cans (16 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 2 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook beef, onions, and peppers over medium heat until the meat is done and onions and peppers are tender.
- Drain fat off.
- Place cooked beef mixture in crock pot and add the remaining ingredients.
- Stir well.
- Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
- Serve with cheese, Fritos, cornbread, etc.
Notes
This chili is gluten free as long as you read labels to make sure all the ingredients are gluten free.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 282Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 484mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 3gSugar: 6gProtein: 25g
Originally posted January 2012. Updated February 2021.
AH! This is my chili recipe too!!
https://betterislittle.com/souper-bowl-sunday/
We *love* it and get asked for the recipe all the time. Enjoy your Souper Monday!
Wow, you have been making it a long time also. 🙂 I am glad to know others like this as well.
We have been struggling to find a chili recipe that we like. I can not wait to try this out!! Thanks for sharing with us.
I made this yesterday for our family. The flavor was great but I made the mistake of putting the full 2 teaspoons of salt in. I like salt but this was too salty for me. 🙁 I would definitely make this again but with only 1 teaspoon of salt.
Looks GREAT!! I’m always looking for crock pot recipes 🙂 Thanks!
I think I may have posted this before on a similar recipe, but you can really thicken up chili by stirring in a can of refried beans about a half hour before serving. Adds some protein and the chili seems to have been simmering longer than it really has! Love your recipes and your comments. You seem to be a genuinely lovely person. Thanks!
Thank you. That is so nice of you. And yes adding refried beans to chili is a really great way to thicken it and add great flavor.
Tried this chili and it was fantastic!
Was easy to make and is one of those recipes you can tweak and add to so that it fits everyone’s taste. I will definitely be making this again.
Thank you for the share!
Thanks for letting me know. This is one of my favorites also.
I add a lil brown sugar and some bacon bits too for flavor
I usually add about 1 tsp raw cocoa (not hot chocolate mix!!) to my chili recipe, which is similar to yours in some ways. I also add 2-3 whole cloves. I make mine on the stovetop starting fairly early in the morning using my ceramic lined Dutch Oven. Now that it’s just my husband and me, I make a smaller batch each time though, it seems. I hate trying to make small batches of anything. I wish there were more cookbooks with “meals for two”.
I can’t add refried beans to mine, which sounds really good to me, but my DH detests them. Not an option. Also instead of using tomato sauce, I use tomato paste (small can) and add just enough water (at various times during cooking on low heat) so it’s not a sloppy chili.
Thanks for sharing your version!