How to Can Homemade Chili
Canning chili was a new adventure for me. My family is picky about their chili. Seriously, if your family doesn’t like your canned food better than what you can buy at the store, you may be wasting your time canning your own food, especially if it is your spouse who doesn’t like the canned food you’ve made!
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When I am testing out canning recipes, my family HAS to like it, or I don’t bother making it again. Some recipes are definitely better than others, and chili recipes are no exception.
I’ve experimented with several different chili recipes, and this one was my family’s favorite. I was really surprised with how good it turned out, and my family LOVED it! Finally, the perfect chili recipe. This is one of my 6 favorite soup canning recipes for food storage.
The Amish Canning Cookbook: Plain and Simple Living at Its Homemade Best
DIY Pickling: Step-By-Step Recipes for Fermented, Fresh, and Quick Pickles
Step by Step Canning Video
New to pressure canning and want to watch me prepare this recipe? Click on the video below and watch me prepare this chili recipe with a pressure canner, step by step.
Canning Chili Recipe
Ingredients:
3 c. dried pinto or kidney beans
5 tsp. salt
3 lb. ground beef
1 1/2 c. onions, chopped
1 c. bell peppers, chopped
3 to 6 tbsp. chili seasoning mix*
1 tsp. black pepper
8 c. tomatoes, chopped
4 c. tomato juice
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
*Note: You can use either store-bought chili seasoning mix or my chili seasoning mix.
Wash beans and place them in a large pot. Cover them with water, at least 2 inches above beans, and then let the beans soak overnight.
[Quickstart method: Bring beans and water to a boil and turn off heat. Place lid on pan and let set for 1 hour before using.]
Rinse beans and replace with fresh water. Add 2 tsp. salt. Heat until simmering and cook for 30 minutes. Drain water from beans.
In a large skillet, brown hamburger, onions, and bell peppers. Place them in a large stock pot and add beans. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, 3 tsp. salt, pepper, and chili seasoning mix. Simmer 5 minutes.
Canning Instructions
Ladle hot mixture into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1 inch head space. Wipe rims of jars with a clean dish towel and place lids and rings on jars.
Process jars in pressure canner* at 11 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts, then remove the jars from the canner and let cool until lids seal.
Yield: 6 quarts or 12 pints
* Note: This recipe has to be prepared with a pressure canner or it will not be safe to eat. You can not process it in a water bath. If you don’t have a pressure canner, you can easily freeze it in these inexpensive freezer containers you can order from Amazon.
More Pressure Canning Recipes
- Canning pulled pork
- Vegetable broth
- Pork and beans
- Canning chicken broth
- Spaghetti sauce
- Garbanzo beans
- Canning split pea soup
- Mixed vegetables
- Canning green beans
- Tomato soup canning recipe
Presto 1755 16-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner
Prepworks by Progressive Canning Funnel for Regular and Wide Mouth JarsDeli Containers with Lids, 16 oz. Leakproof – Pack of 40 Plastic Microwaveable Clear Food Storage Container BPA Free, Premium Quality – by DuraHome
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Can you omit the beans with out effecting the ph?
How much water do you use in the pressure cooker? Do you fill it to 1 inch” below the rims?
Do I need to add lemon juice to jars before adding chili?
Table salt has a ‘non clumping agent’ in it and that is what causes the cloudy look.
i like this idea and the ham n beans . a pot of chili wears out its welcome before you can eat it up and ham n beans ferment in a matter of hours even if refrigerated . i live alone and you know that makes cooking a chore instead of a joy . soon i may have a 5 yr old grandson living here . i can teach him to raise a strong , self sufficient family also who will run him off when they dont need him any longer . the old males are supposed to isolate and die but * wink * , we dont do that .
Thank you! I’m going to try this.
Do you do high heat or medium high heat because I have a glass stovetop and the temp kicks off if I put on high heat. Should I just do medium heat so it doesn’t kick off
Hi! Here is my post about canning beans. You will want to use the pressure and time listed there.
I have left over pinto beans. I want to seal them in jars, store on shelf in pantry for later use. how long and and pounds of pressure do I use to preserve them safely
Hi! You probably could used store bought canned beans, but just keep in mind that when you are pressure canning you are cooking the beans again during the canning process, so the beans would be cooked twice. It wouldn’t hurt anything to do that, but the texture of the beans might not end up as good.
Hi! There are different types of pressure canners/cookers. Most of the new pressure cookers are just for cooking. They still sell the old style pressure canners, and that is what I always recommend. If you cannot see how much pressure you are using while processing your food, then you won’t know if you are processing safely. You have to process at different pressures for different types of foods. The pressure canners have a gauge that tells you how much pressure you are using. Pressure cookers don’t have that gauge. Hope this helps 🙂
Can the newer pressure cookers be used or does it have to be the old type? New to canning..
Hi! When you are pressure canning, amounts of ingredients don’t matter as much as they do for boiling water canning. With boiling water canning you are trying to keep the pH level below 4.6. That’s why it’s so important not to change the amounts of ingredients when boiling water canning. When you are pressure canning, the processing time and pressure are determined by the pH level of the lowest acid food you are canning. So for this recipe that has already been taken into consideration. Changing the amounts of the ingredients doesn’t make any difference. The only way you’d have to change the pressure for this recipe was if you were adding a new ingredient that has a higher pH level. Hope that makes sense!
If you omitted the meat or substituted it with more beans, will the processing time in a pressure canner change?
That’s a very good question! Apparently if you have a weighted gauge canner, the 10 pounds pressure on that canner corresponds to 11 pounds on a dial gauge canner. You can read about it more here.
My canner only has 5, 10, and 15 pounds. What would you suggest for me
Hi Lindsey, I think you would want to use 13 pounds pressure for that altitude. The suggested shelf life is 1-2 years, but I think it would last a little longer as long as the jars are completely sealed.
My elevation is over 3,000… Would you suggest 12 pounds or 13 pounds? Also, what would you say the shelf life is??
Hi Grace, you don’t have to use canning salt in every canning recipe that calls for salt. I know that salt is mainly a preservative, it doesn’t affect the acidity level of the recipe so it is not crucial for that. I think it is most important to use canning salt for when you are pickling things, sometimes the water gets cloudy from using regular salt. I think it’s the iodine in it. Using regular salt is fine for canning soups like this chili.
Hi. Can you use store bought canned beans?
Alot of recipes for canning say salt but I’ve been told to use canning salt so which would be the correct method?
No, sorry, you would still need to use a pressure canner. You can’t process beans in a boiling water canner. They are a low acid food, just like meat.
If you omitted the beef could you can this in a water bath?
Hi! You can’t can this recipe without a pressure canner, it would not be safe to eat. You could freeze it though, in freezer containers. They are very inexpensive on amazon. I’ll add a link to them in the recipe.
Oh ow do I do this if I don’t have a pressure cooker