Pressure Cooker Cincinnati Chili

Cincinnati Chili Recipe (Instant Pot) - a taste of the queen city from your pressure cooker in about an hour.

I'm an Ohio boy, but I've never been to Cincinnati. I don't care. I love Cincinnati chili, and I had to figure out how to make it at home.

Jump to:

• What is Cincinnati Chili
• Ingredients
• How to Make Cincinnati Chili in an Instant Pot
• How to Serve Cincinnati Chili (All 5 Ways)
• Equipment
• Notes
• Storing Leftovers
• Cincinnati Chili (Instant Pot) Recipe
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

What is Cincinnati Chili

Cincinnati chili is very a very saucy chili, made with ground beef and warm spices, some of which are not traditional chili spices. While it has chili powder and cumin, it also has cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and my favorite bit, a little cocoa powder. Think of Cincinnati chili as a thick, meaty sauce for pasta, closer to spaghetti sauce than a bowl of Texas red. That's because it served on top of spaghetti, topped with a pile of shredded cheese, and (optionally) beans and onions. (Or it's used as chili for coney dogs, which is also fantastic.)

Ingredients

Soaked Kidney Beans

• 1 pound dried red kidney beans, sorted and rinsed
• 2 quarts water
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt (or 1 tablespoon kosher salt)

Chili

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 ½ pounds ground beef
• 4 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 14- to 16-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Other ingredients and condiments

• 1 pound dried spaghetti, cooked according to package directions in salted water
• 8 ounces (4 cups) shredded cheddar cheese
• Minced onions
• Oyster crackers
• Hot sauce (I use Frank's red hot, but it's milder than what they serve at Skyline.)

How to Make Cincinnati Chili in an Instant Pot

Sort and rinse the kidney beans

Sort the kidney beans, discarding any stones, dirt, or broken beans. Rinse the beans, then do an overnight or a quick soak.

Overnight soak

Cover the kidney beans with 8 cups of water, and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Leave the beans to soak at least 8 hours, or overnight. Drain and discard the soaking liquid.

OR: Pressure Quick Soak for 1 minute with a 30 minute rest

Put the kidney beans and 8 cups of water in an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Pressure cook at high pressure for 1 minute (“Manual”, “Pressure Cook”, or "Pressure Cook - Custom" mode in an Instant Pot). Let the beans soak in the pot for 30 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure. Drain the beans and discard the soaking liquid.

Sauté the aromatics

Heat the vegetable oil until shimmering in an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode - High. (Use medium-high heat for a stovetop PC.) Add the onions, garlic, and ½ teaspoon salt to the pressure cooker. Sauté until the the onions and garlic soften, about 5 minutes.

Toast the spices and cook the beef

Make a hole in the center of the onions and add the chili powder, cumin, coriander, cocoa powder, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. Let sit for 30 seconds to toast the spices, then stir them into the onions. Add the ground beef and cook until the beef just loses its pink color, stirring and breaking up the beef, and scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure none of the spices are sticking.

Everything in the pot

Stir the drained and rinsed kidney beans into the pot, coating them with the spices. Pour in the water, add the bay leaf, and then add the crushed tomatoes on top. (Do not stir; the tomatoes may burn if they get to the bottom of the pot.)

Pressure Cook for 20 minutes with a Natural Release

Lock the lid on the pressure cooker. and bring the cooker up to high pressure. (Read your fine pressure cooker manual for how to do this). Cook at high pressure for 20 minutes in an electric PC, 15 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. (You can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.)

Season and Serve

Unlock the lid and fish out the bay leaf. Stir in the cider vinegar, brown sugar, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. To serve, put a layer of spaghetti on a plate, top with a generous layer of chili, sprinkle on the minced onions, then heap on the cheese. Pass the oyster crackers and hot sauce at the table. Enjoy!

How to Serve Cincinnati Chili (All 5 Ways)

Cincinnati chili is served in five different "ways", depending on the toppings you want. The ingredients, listed from bottom to top:

• One way - chili (usually called "a bowl of chili")
• Two way - spaghetti topped with chili
• Three way - spaghetti, chili, cheese
• Four way - spaghetti, chili, onions, cheese
• Five way - spaghetti, chili, beans, onions, cheese

I like to cook the beans in the chili. My favorite Cincinnati Way is 5-way chili, so why cook the beans separately when I can cook them with the spices, and add to the flavor? This makes me a Cincinnati chili heretic, of course. In Cincinnati, the beans are kept separate until someone orders a 5-way. (Watch out for the angry mob coming up I-71, straight towards my house.)

Equipment

A 6-quart instant pot (or other 6-quart pressure cooker)

Notes

• No pressure cooker? No worries: Cook the recipe in a dutch oven, following the instructions. In step 3, instead of pressure cooking on high, bring all the ingredients to a boil, cover the pot and move it to a 350°F oven for 2 hours, or until the beans are tender. Remove from the oven, and season to taste.
• Canned Beans for even quicker pressure cooker chili: If you have canned or pre-cooked beans, you can use them instead of dry beans. If you have pre-cooked beans, don't cook them with the chili; rinse and reheat them (I use the microwave), and cut the water in the recipe from 4 cups to 2 cups. (And, obviously, skip the "Brine the Beans" step.) When you are making plates of chili, add the beans right before you add the cheese.

Storing Leftovers

Leftover chili will last for a few days in the refrigerator, or for months in the freezer. I just freeze the chili, not the cooked spaghetti. I make fresh pasta when I want to serve it again.

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Related Posts

• Pressure cooker pork chili with beans
• Pressure Cooker Turkey, Chorizo and Bean Chili
• My other pressure cooker recipes

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