(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you'll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)
Chili is the perfect meal for a snowy winter day. These recipes provide two very different takes on the traditional chili and are both enormously popular at our house. They are assembled using the layering method and are raw-packed, making it simple to create up to family dinners at one cooking session. (Or more if you canner will hold it!)
Soak the beans ahead of time and they will cook perfectly during the canning process.
Another great thing about chili is the nutritional value: it’s loaded with protein, vitamins and fiber!
The canned chili that you get from the grocery store generally contains lower quality meats, the least expensive vegetables available and relies on artificial flavors and chemicals like MSG for its taste. This heat-and-eat meal is a far better addition to your pantry.
Feel free to take liberties with the ingredients, using whatever you are able to source healthfully. The seasoning is the important part!
Mexican-Texican Cowboy Chili
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of ground beef/ground turkey/ground whatever
- 1 cup of diced onion
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 cups of dried pinto beans
- 1 cup of diced bell pepper
- Jalapeno peppers as desired
Liquid
- 8 cups of crushed tomatoes/tomato juice
- 1 can of beer (or water if you don’t have beer on hand)
- ½ cup of chili powder
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp parsley
- Water as needed
Directions
- In a stockpot, bring all liquid ingredients except for water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, layer your meat, dried beans, onions, garlic and bell pepper evenly across your sanitized jars – this will make 4 quarts of very thick chili.
- Pour your hot liquid mixture over the layered ingredients, then top off with water, leaving an inch of headspace.
- Process at 10 pounds of pressure for an hour and a half in your p-canner. Be sure to adjust for altitude.
Sweet and Spicy Chili
This recipe is awesome if you happen to acquire some venison or other game. A lot of people are uncomfortable with the unfamiliar “wild” flavor of the meat and this extremely well-seasoned chili hides that. Minus the jalapenos (at least in my world!) this is a very kid-friendly flavor.
Ingredients:
- 3-4 pounds of stewing beef/stewing whatever
- 1 slice of bacon per jar
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 2 cups of dried red kidney beans
- 1 cup of bell pepper, diced
- Finely minced jalapeno pepper to taste
Liquid:
- 8 cups of tomato puree
- ½ cup of apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup of brown sugar or molasses
- ½ cup of chili powder
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- Water as needed
Directions:
- In a stockpot, bring all liquid ingredients except for water to a boil.
- Layer your raw meat, dried beans, bacon, onions, garlic and bell pepper evenly across your prepped jars – this will make 4 quarts of very thick chili.
- Pour your hot liquid mixture over the layered ingredients, then top off with water as needed, leaving an inch of headspace.
- Process at 10 pounds of pressure for an hour and a half in your p-canner. Be sure to adjust for altitude.
- When serving your chili, be sure to shred the bacon with a fork and stir it in.
Daisy,
These both look so good I can not wait to make them. I have canned pinto beans dry but haven’t tried to do chili.
P.S. love your blogs
Hi, Connie!!!!
Thank you so much for stopping by! Coming from you, that is a really big compliment! Your blog is awesome too. It’s always nice to “meet” a sister canner! I’ll tell ya, my pressure canner is likely my prized possession!
~ D
Hi Daisy, Remember that folks living more than 1,000 feet above sea level need to make adjustments for both the gauge and duration of cooking.
Good luck w/ your blog.
~Zoltanne~
Hi, Zoltanne! Thank you very much for stopping by! You make an excellent point. I’d previously written something about that but haven’t gotten it posted in the tabs. I’m so glad you reminded me!
Have a great Sunday!
Hate to sound stupid but do you brown the meat first ?
Not stupid at all, Paul!
It’s entirely optional. I have noticed very little difference in the end result whether I brown the meat or not. The pro of browning the meat: you can drain the fat first which results in a lower calorie chili. Aside from that there is a slight difference in texture, but not enough to overcome my natural laziness and add in the extra step of browning the meat first. 🙂
Daisy
What is the shelf life? Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi, Melanie. Approximately one year, according to the FDA and USDA. Many people do use home-canned foods past this length of time but I have advise you of the official expiration times. 🙂
Is it okay to use canned beans drained and rinsed rather than dried and re hydrated? All of the recipes I have seen are call for dried but I don’t grow my own beans and canned are cheaper to buy where I live so id prefer to use them.
Shauna ~
Hi – yes, you can use canned beans in these recipes. I use dried because they are far less expensive for me. If you use canned beans, the texture may suffer a bit – they will be very soft because of being subjected to a second high pressure cooking session. However, it shouldn’t be enough of a difference to make the chili turn out badly.
Best wishes ~
Daisy
How much ingredients in each jar. Thanks Don
Hi Don ~
I don’t really measure the ingredients per jar. I just try to divide them evenly across the jars I am canning. I hope this helps 🙂
Daisy
Thank you for your answer.Is the meat cook first. Thanks,Don
Hi Don – you can go either way. Some people like to cook the meat first but I generally leave it raw and allow it to cook during the canning process. 🙂
Daisy
for the 2nd recipe, are you soaking the beans the night before, as in the 1st recipe? This sounds good and I have lots of ground deer left from last fall that I need to use.
Barbara – Yes, soak the beans overnight before canning for best results 🙂
I’m surprised that no one else asked, but is the 1st recipe safe for canning with that thick of a consistency?
A real guide to real food preservation,
heavenly. Thanks for being real and not trying to convince me my family is doomed to die from botulism if I don’t get out a beaker and some litmus paper.
You’ll probably like my canning website 🙂
http://www.theorganiccanner.com/
Just found your site, thanks for sharing! Looks like we may be “neighbors” , I’m in central Virginia.
What would pressure canning times be for pints??
Hi Daisy I am totally confused I had purchased your book and the recipe in the book is different than this one. The reason I looked it up on line is the book calls for 10 cups crushed tomatoes, 8 cups of cumin, 4 lbs of beef, 2 pounds of beans the rest of the recipe is the same – I don’t want to waste this chili so what is the correct recipe. the Book is the prepper’s canning guide
Please get back to me ASAP because I wanted to make and can this today – thanks kindly and God Bless
Hi, Margaret! I’m so very glad you asked. The cumin amount is a typo – it should be 8 TEASPOONS, not cups 🙂 That would be a heck of a lot of cumin!
Please, if you come back and see this, Margaret, and you used the recipe and you all survived, please don’t take that chance again. This book is full of unsafe stuff.
NO, no, no, NO, NO! This is not a recipe anyone should use. You cook the meat for chili before canning, you MUST soak the beans overnight, etc etc etc : this entire recipe is wrong. Not following FDA approved recipes and procedures is why in the US, people still are hospitalized – and some die – every single year. COWBOY canners like this. UGH. Please stop.