Recipes Using Canned Chili Beans
Rapheal Charlton
I found your site while I was trying to use up the canned chili in our pantry. Really good and easy recipe, which nicely masked the canned chili recipe! I did add your suggestion of canned green chilis and chili and garlic powder, along with oregano, cumin and chopped chilis in adobo. Great way to use pantry ingredients!
Good old-fashioned chili is the obvious use for chili beans. Mix it up and try them in a white chili. This savory recipe is a fan favorite in my house. I love it because it comes together in 30-40 minutes, start to finish, and everybody customizes it to their own taste. I offer all sorts of toppings, and we all take our selections very seriously. My husband covers his in extra roasted chilies. I like a simple dollop of sour cream. My boys crush tortilla chips right on top. White chili night is truly an event for us.
Smash chili beans into a surprisingly perfect "sauce" for individual pizzas. They're a great way to kick-start the imaginations of everyone eating. It calls for fresh tomatoes, spinach and sautéed onions, but you should also try adding roasted peppers, shredded sweet potatoes and finely sliced greens. Trust me, with melty cheese and easy assembly involved, you can get kids to eat just about any vegetable!
I can't keep gushing about chili beans without sharing with you a recipe for classic Texas chili. Regional recipes like this one are what have landed cans of chili beans in your Lazy Susan in the first place. Enjoy a rich and flavorful bowl as-is with a hunk of cornbread. If you're feeling more adventurous, use it as part of a bigger recipe. Spoon it over a roasted potato garnished generously with Greek yogurt and chopped onion. Stir it into homemade macaroni and cheese for a stick-to-your-ribs, cold-weather supper. Ladle it over crispy hash browns and top it with a fried egg for a to-die-for Sunday brunch.
One taste of any of these chili bean dishes, and your big "secrets" will be in high demand. Relish the reaction you get from serving something new. Spend all the time you save using canned chili beans planning your outfit for the next party.
Learn how to can chili (meat and beans) using safe pressure canning guidelines. Recipe yields 8 qts. of old-fashioned chili, for long term storage.
Last summer I canned a variety of foods to stock our pantry with, in order to have plenty for Fall and Winter. I canned vegetables from our garden, fruit picked at local farms, as well as homemade soups and stews. One project I tackled was learning how to can chili (using my recipe) for long term storage.
To the meat mixture, add canned diced tomatoes, kidney beans, chili beans, pinto beans, and black beans. I also added water and the spices (oregano, cumin, salt, chili powder, cayenne powder, paprika, salt, and Worcestershire sauce).
This is in reply to Noemi. I have canned chili once, using my own recipe. I found two things out. 1. It was dry after pressure canning it. I have to add some type of liquid when I reheat, so having more liquid in the exile when you originally can it is better. 2. There was very little spice left after canning it. I have to add more spice when reheating it. I think I will add double the spice the next time I make it to can.
Other than that, I love the fact that I can use my own recipe to can chili and have a quick meal ready when I forget to take meat out, or only have 15 minutes to get a meal on the table.
Hi I have canned chili base before without putting in the meat or beans so that who I give it to can choose what they want to use. So in this case I never pressure cooked it. I just did hot water bath for 40 min. Is this ok?
Hi, Max. Chili beans are sold in most grocery stores (in the U.S.) in the same section where you would find kidney beans. They are wonderful to add to the chili (slightly spiced), but yes you can add the beans you enjoy in the same amount called for. Have a good day.
Hi, Lisa! Thanks for writing! Yes, I believe this will be perfectly fine. Just make sure to use the same amount of canned tomatoes (3, 10 oz. cans will be fine). The taste of the chili will only be very slightly altered, but as long as you follow safe canning guidelines, this should be wonderful. Have a great day.
Hello, Heidi! Thanks for writing. Typically it is said that canned foods (like this chili) are best, if stored for up to a year. However, other people say as long as the jar stays correctly sealed, it can keep for years. I typically try to use my canned goods up within a year of canning them, BUT, I have on occasion found jars of home-canned chili or other soups in the back of our pantry that were about two years old, and they tasted just as good as when it was canned. For peak flavor and color, I would recommend using it within a year, but it is your decision. Hope you have a great day!
Good morning, Kara! Thanks for taking the time to write. The Ball Canning book (Complete Book of Home Preserving) I used to refer to the correct time for canning chili in quart sized jars confirms that it is 75 minutes for pint jars and 90 minutes processing time for quart jars. Not sure of the advice you were given, but the recipe works just perfectly for quart jars at 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure! Have canned chili (and other beef-based soups) for years without problems (in quart sized jars!). Have a great day, and enjoy your chili.
Good morning. I canned 21 qts yesterday using dry beans. I soaked over night and while browning meat, I cooked them. I added to pot and used my stewed tomatoes (canned last summer from my garden) as well as my salsa that included cilantro I grow. Put everything in 25 at stock pot simmer for about 3 hrs before jarring up. Always have great success.
Good morning, Misty! Thanks for writing. That is a GREAT question. The sauce WILL thicken as it is processed, but for the most part, the beans are left intact. Even when I make this chili to eat the same day, and cook it for hours (using canned beans), the beans retain their shape, etc. Hope you will give it a try! Have a GREAT weekend.
Which brings me to my last two points: One, even the 5 minute chili was good - chili is hard to mess up. Two, chili is better if you make your own beans in the pressure cooker. Make the beans ahead and freeze them in 2 cup containers. That lets you pull beans out of the freezer, and they taste much better than canned. (And yes, I know that contradicts point one. Hey, who says I have to be consistent?)
Mike,
This is the first recipe I've tried on my Instapot. I played a little bit fast and loose with the ingredients -- I used 2lbs of ground beef (browned separately so that I could drain the immense amount of drippings, I used 80% lean), cut the beans down to one can, added a diced bell pepper (just after putting in the onion and garlic), and added a can of drained corn (with the drained beans). Other than that, your spices and cooking times with the Instapot were dead on. The chili tasted awesome and it was ready go in less than an hour! Thanks!
Hi. I have a friend who makes her chili with stew meat instead of ground beef (on the stove top). Do you think I could try this with stew meat and still use canned beans? If so, would you cook it for 10-15 mins still? Have you tried something similar? Love your blog
This easy chili recipe is made with simple chili ingredients. This can be made in 30 minutes, but it tastes like it's been cooking all day! It's made with ground beef, hearty beans, and has a tasty but mild chili flavor.
This easy chili recipe on stove, is so easy. It only takes about 30 minutes to throw together but your family will think you've been slaving away all day. It's made with ground beef, canned beans, and crushed tomatoes.
This easy chili recipe is made with simple chili ingredients. This can be made in 30 minutes but taste like it's been cooking all day! It's made with ground beef and hearty beans and has a flavorful but mild chili flavor. The entire family will love this beef chili recipe!
This Basic Chili Recipe is a return to the basics of chili. Tender beans (and meat, if you choose) and green chiles stewed with fire roasted tomatoes and spices to create a spectacular marriage of flavors that can be served in so many ways.
It all depends on the quality of the chili, folks. I can my own. This is one of my MUST HAVE home canned foods now.
I make a really good black bean chili, and it is so easy to make meals from it. Someday I'll post the recipe. You won't make it, because you won't have the ingredients. But at least you'll know your recipe is easier!
The beauty of this list is not that you'll ever make every one of these. It is that you can scan the list and find SOMETHING that you have the ingredients for, that you can make with leftover or canned chili.
21. Breakfast Burrito
Cook up some taters - hashbrowns, or tots. Scramble some eggs. Shred up some cheese. Heat up that chili. Layer into your burritos. Serve with salsa.
22. Smothered Tamales
Any kind of tamales work for this, but home canned are the bomb!
Take 2 cans of tomato sauce (the little ones), put them in a pot, and add 2 tsp chili powder and 1/4 tsp cumin. Salt to taste after you've simmered it for about 3 minutes. Pour that sauce into a baking dish that is the right size for about 6-8 tamales (we hope you have that many!). Pour 1 pint of chili over the tamales, and top with cheese. Bake until cheese is melty and browned. Top with all the good stuff.
23. Smothered Burritos
There are all sorts of ways to do this one, but if you make burritos ahead and freeze them, this is easy! Thaw the burritos, or make fresh ones if you must. Brush the burritos with oil (any kind will do, though motor oil is not recommended). Lay into a baking dish. Top with chili - don't worry about any exposed areas of the burrito, this is why we brush it with oil, so it gets crisp instead of hard, so you can make it look pretty if you want. Top with cheese. Bake the whole thing until everything is hot and melty and crispy and browned and the smell drives you crazy.
24. Piggie Chili Bake
There are a gazillion types of pigs in a blanket, the easiest are just refrigerator biscuits (very good with croissants), but we applaud homemade biscuits or homemade roll dough in these.
Basically, get some biscuit dough, however you intend to do it. Wrap some really good hotdogs in the biscuit dough. Heck, if you wanted to, you could remove the sticks from corndogs and use those!
Cover the bottom of a baking dish (you pick the size, depending on how many piggies you have, and how big they are) with at least an inch of chili. Make sure you have at least an inch of clearance on the pan though, the piggies will sink in, and overfilling this will not be pretty! Lay the piggies into the chili. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes. You may need to check at about 25 minutes, and lay a sheet of foil over it to keep the piggies from browning too much. To check, pull two of the piggies apart, and make sure they are not sticky inside.
25. Frito Pie
There are many versions of this, but at its simplest, it is just chili, Fritos, and cheese, with maybe some green onion or chopped cilantro thrown on top to make it look like you really worked at it. There's the microwave version, with a pile of chips on a plate, covered with chili and sprinkled with shredded cheese, and nuked until it is hot. There's the baked version, where you crush Fritos under it, Pour on the chili, top with whole Fritos, and cheese and bake the daylights out of it so the bottom chips are soggy like baked corn tortillas. There's the bake and serve yourself version, where you heat the chili with cheese on top, in the oven, and serve it up at the table over the chips so everything stays perky. And there's a baked version without the bottom layer - just chili, lots of Fritos on top (crushed or not), and lots of cheese on that. However you do it, the flavor combination is the winning feature, and no recipe is needed. 375, folks. 375 degrees F. You can bake ANYTHING at that temp.
26. Chili Ravioli
Chili, even thick chili, is kinda a messy business as a filling, so DO start with thick chili, but also invest in one of these little things.
Dumpling and Ravioli Press
Make a simple pasta dough (water, flour, and egg). Roll it out, and let it rest for a minute so it doesn't shrink when you cut it.
Use the press to cut the dough - the back is a cutter, the top is a press.
Get that chili (don't heat it), and mix in 1 cup of cottage cheese, and 1/2 cup shredded cheese, for every 1 pint of chili.
Put a circle of dough on the press, and put a little chili filling in there (I can't tell you how much, because those presses come in different sizes). BE CAREFUL. DO NOT OVERFILL! If you do, the dough will not seal properly.
Fold the thing over and pinch it tight. Lay it on a plate or cookie sheet, and make a lot more. You can put about 1-2 dozen into a good sized pot of boiling water.
Fill a good sized pot of water, and bring it to a boil. Drop those ravioli in there, and watch them. They'll float, and then 1 will explode, oozing filling into the water. You want to take them out JUST BEFORE they start to leak! Yeah, I know. But set times don't work, there are too many tiny variables. You'll get the hang of it, or you'll just wait until one leaks and then grab them all out. Whatever. It works.
Serve with salsa or taco sauce, or more chili.
If you want a cheese filling to mix with the chili, use 1 pound carton of cottage cheese, 1 egg, , 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, 1 tsp parsley, a nice sprinkle of pepper, and mix all that together. This makes a really lovely cheese ravioli.
27. Chili Cheese Ravioli Bake
Use either Home Made or frozen ravioli. Layer the ravioli into a buttered baking dish, and put a layer of chili over it, followed by a layer of shredded cheese. Repeat 2 or three times, depending on the size of your dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes, until bubbly. Top with diced tomatoes.
NOTE: Go back up to #26 for instructions on how to make Ravioli - there's a recipe for cheese filling at the end of that recipe.
28. Chili Cheese Dip
There are several ways to make this, the simplest being to mix American cheese in with your hot chili, until the cheese melts. You can also make a white sauce and add a lot of cheese to it (don't forget the salt, it is important with this), and that makes a really good cheese sauce. Last, you can use a commercial cheese sauce. Whatever you use for the cheese, you'll need approximately equal parts chili, and cheese sauce.
29. Stuffed Acorn Squash or Small Pumpkin
Excellent with wheat berry chili, but any chili will do! Remove stem from squash, and cut in half. Fill with chili, and cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes. This is best if it is baked until the squash starts to sink down. Remove foil, top with cheese and pop back into the oven for another 10 minutes to melt the cheese.
30. Twist on Tater Tot Casserole
Chili, cheese sauce, and tater tots. Put 2 -3 cans chili into a 9X13 baking dish, decorate it well with cheese sauce, and top with tater tots. Bake until tater tots are crispy and cheese is bubbly. Serve with additional cheese sauce, taco sauce, or sour cream.
31. Breakfast Chili Bake
2 cans chili, 6 eggs. Put chili in 9X13 baking dish. Beat eggs, pour over. Top with a layer of tater tots, bake until the tater tots are browned and the eggs are set. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake a little more to brown the cheese. Serve with salsa.
32. Butternut Squash Chili
2 cans chili, Add 1 tsp curry powder to the chili, and heat the chili completely. Stir in 1 jar of diced butternut squash (if you use fresh squash, cook it first). Serve with sour cream.
33. Chili Over Rice
2 cans chili, 8 oz Corn, mixed together. Serve over rice, and garnish with nacho toppings.
34. Chili Polenta Bake