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.

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.

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.)

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!

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.

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

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.!

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!