Pressure Cooker Chili Con Carne

Pretty basic chili con carne. Modified from Alton Brown’s Pressure Cooker Chili recipe. Directions assuming an Instant Pot or similar modern electric pressure cooker. I increased time to 40 minutes, as the 25 minutes cook time doesn’t break down the beef enough. Alton seems to like things like ribs, pot roast, etc. to have more chew to them than I do.

Cheat: replace the onions, tomatoes, and peppers with salsa if you’re in a hurry.

Finally, I add beans to my chili, because of health and cost reasons.

I’d like to develop a version of this that uses dried beans, but that would probably alter the cook time, and require adding water or stock.

Ingredients:

• 3 lb stew meat (beef and/or pork)
• 2 teaspoons neutral oil, beef tallow, or lard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer, preferably a medium ale
• 30 tortilla chips, crushed into fine crumbs
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small can diced tomatoes
• 1 diced green bell pepper and/or other chile peppers
• 2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• (Optional) 2 x 15 oz. cans beans (kidney, pinto, etc.)

Hardware:

• Pressure cooker (e.g., Instant Pot)
• wooden spoon or rubber spatula
• large knife
• cutting board

Directions

1. Cut meat into 2” chunks, salt liberally.
2. Heat pressure cooker pressure cooker on high in saute mode until hot.
3. Add the meat in batches and brown on all sides. Once each batch is browned, remove and set aside.
4. Add onions and peppers to the pot. Sweat until soft.
5. Add the beer to the cooker to deglaze the pot. Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
6. Add the meat back to the pressure cooker along with the tomatoes, tortilla chips, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and ground cumin and stir to combine.
7. Lock the lid in place and cook under high pressure for 40 minutes.
8. Quick release steam, remove lid.
9. Optionally shred meat with 2 forks.
10. If adding beans, stir in canned beans. Turn pressure cooker to saute setting, and heat for 5-10 minutes.