Crock Pot Chili is the perfect main dish for family dinners, as a Game Day recipe, or when you’re craving some hearty comfort food. With just a few main ingredients such as ground beef and canned beans, you can focus on ramping up the flavor with homemade chili seasoning. Delicious as-is for the whole family, while being easy to customize for those who live life more on the spicy side with this slow cooker recipe.This is the best chili recipe that tastes great fresh or for the next day as well. This is one of my favorite crockpot recipes for a cold day that has tons of flavor. Top this classic chili recipe with corn chips to make it pure comfort food.

The Best thing about Easy Crock Pot Chili

Ground BeefUse 80/20 or 85/15 when choosing ground beef from the butcher. You can also use ground turkey, ground chicken, or unseasoned ground pork. Lean ground beef helps to cut down on some of the fat.

BeansWe’re using kidney beans here but you can substitute almost any bean you have in your pantry. Beans really add a heartiness to a dish, but do not lend much in the way of flavor, which is super helpful for using up that can of beans that have been in your pantry since last fall. Pinto beans, chili beans, or black beans work great, too.

Onions & Garlic

This is where you can really start to change the flavor of this dish. Using yellow onions is standard and delicious, but if you’re going to crank up the heat in this chili, you may want to consider Vidalia onions that are a bit sweeter and would act as a balancing agent to the heat.

Canned Tomatoes & SauceCanned tomatoes vary in sizes as well as flavors. You can use standard canned diced tomatoes, fire-roasted, or even diced tomatoes with green chilis for more of a Mexican chili.

Beef Broth or Water
For more flavor, always opt for broth.

SeasoningsCumin, Chili, Garlic, Paprika, Salt, and Pepper are the MUST have spices when making a homemade chili. You can easily add more spice with seasonings such as Adobe, Chipotle Chili, and even a Tablespoon of molasses.

How to cook chili in a slow cooker

Step 1: Brown the beef

The best beef to use for chili is full of fat and flavor. You can purchase this as 80/20 or 85/15. Because it’s so high in fat, we do want to make sure to brown it in a skillet and drain the excess fat before adding it to the slow cooker. This will keep your chili from becoming too oily.

(If you love chili, try my Texas Chili too!)

cooking up the ground beef and onions in a skillet

Retain a few tablespoons of that fat to saute the onions in. Onions in the slow cooker tend to not break down well. So this is another step to do on the stove-top to ensure we don’t have crunchy onions in our chili.

Step 3: Add the seasonings

The trick to developing deep flavors, in just about anything, is not adding raw seasonings to the dish. Just as your burger and onions are about done, add in the dry spices and cook for a minute or two. This is a method calling “cooking out” that removes unwanted bitterness from your dried spices.

adding the spices to the skillet of ground beef

Now dump everything into a Crock Pot and stir with a wooden spoon. Cover and allow to cook until your ready to serve.

adding all the ingredients to make chili into the crock pot

As a general rule of thumb, cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. I highly recommend keeping it on low for 6-8 hours if you can. This really gives the flavors a chance to develop without risking the burning of your liquid to the side of the crock-pot.

Tips for success:

An easy way to make this a chili everyone loves is with a chili topping bar. Include little bowls and spoons of ingredients such as cheddar cheese, hot sauce, sour cream, cilantro, parsley, scallions, saltines, and more! Serve with Homemade Corn Muffins. (I love doing this with my White Bean Chicken Chili too!)
Be sure to have the right tools for the job. A 12-inch skillet and this spatula make browning burger a breeze!
Do not overload your Crock-Pot. Be sure to use a 6-quart slow cooker for this recipe. Too big of a slow-cooker and your chili will get too hot too quickly and burn to the side of your Crock Pot. Too small of a slow-cooker and you risk overfilling and again the chili not heating evenly.

bowl of chili topped with chives and sour cream

What to make with leftover Easy Crock Pot Chili

If you love chili and have anywhere from 1 cup to a whole second batch of chili hanging out in your fridge, you’ll want to try one of these delicious recipes.