Easy Home Canning Chili Beans Recipe
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If you haven’t caught on quite yet, I’m a bean lover. What can I say? I love them. Today, we’re canning chili beans.
Normally, you’ll see recipes for chili beans utilizing red beans or pinto beans, but my very favorite bean for this recipe is, in fact, kidney beans! About a year ago, I snagged ten 2-pound bags of kidney beans for $0.35 for each bag at my local bargain food shop. I almost croaked I was so excited!
I immediately brought them home, vacuum sealed some in jars and put the rest into mylar bags to extend their shelf life. It was getting mighty close to the one year mark for the last jar of vacuum sealed beans I had, so I decided to can up some more chili beans. The winter months are for canning chili beans (and other beans) here!
If you’d like to just can plain beans, like black peans, pintos, garbanzos, and others, check out my blog post here on canning dry beans!
These beans have all the right spices and go perfectly in homemade chili. Just toss some jars of different ingredients together and you have a nourishing soup that warms you to your bones. Bonus points if you make some fresh milled popcorn cornbread to eat with it.
All my canning recipes have become a collection of things I personally reach for and use frequently. No canning things we don’t use around here! In the past, I’ve tried home-canned chili where I make a big batch of chili and then can it, and we really didn’t enjoy the texture of the meat. So, now I make my own cans of chili beans that are spiced to perfection and are enjoyable for soup or eating as is!
And before you get upset, MY CHILI has both beans and meat in it. If yours doesn’t, you’re wrong but I forgive you. Mmmmkayyyy.
Pressure Canning or Water Bath Canning?
Many new canners wrestle with figuring out when to pressure can and when it’s ok to water bath can. Here’s the quick and easy explanation: low-acid ingredients require pressure canning and high-acid ingredients don’t require pressure canning. To expand, anything with a pH greater than 4.6 needs to be pressure canned to guarantee the ingredients reach a certain temperature to kill off all pathogens and bacteria that can alter the shelf stability of food. Low acid foods include vegetables, legumes, and meat.
Do I think you can also water bath low-acid foods? Yes. But that’s a conversation for another day, and for the sake of learning, we gotta learn the rules the right way to understand why they exist before we go bendin’ them. Your high acid foods, meaning they have a pH of 4.6 or below, only require a hot water bath or steam canner for processing. This is because the acidic content of the food inhibits growth of pathogens and bacteria, meaning the food doesn’t need as high of heat or as long of processing. High acid foods are things like tomatoes, fruits, jams & jellies, and salsas and chutneys.
The almighty botulism that everyone preaches about cannot survive a pH of 4.6 or lower. Some high acid foods also have guidelines from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, or NCHFP, to pressure can them if you’d like. This reduces the processing time and the weight you process it at, because of the high temperature reached inside a pressure canner.
When something is high acid and can be water bathed or steam canned, I do just that, as pressure canning can completely obliterate fruit and make is so mushy it’s terrible. And when I can low acid food, I prefer to pressure can it as it takes less time and I know it’s reaching a temperature that will guarantee it stores on the shelf for me due to the pressure canning process. Nothing breaks my heart faster than a jar that comes unsealed in storage. Losing food to spoilage is such a bummer!
Pressure Canner vs. Pressure Cooker
Repeat after me: these are NOT interchangeable terms. For the sake of home canning, you will want to purchase a pressure CANNER. A pressure canner will be larger than a pressure cooker to be able to hold more jars and also be big enough to hold taller jars, like quarts. Most of your countertop pressure cookers are small, don’t allow you to adjust the weight for elevation, and can’t hold many jars anyway.
Now. A pressure CANNER can double as a pressure COOKER. Just not the other way around. Most pressure cookers do not account for changes in elevation to adjust their weight meaning your food could be under processed and go bad in storage. Big ole bummer. I wouldn’t risk it simply for the risk of food loss and waste of time.
I do know folks that successfully use electric pressure cookers and do well. It’s just not my thing! There are electric pressure CANNERS available now that are wonderful for small batches and I have one and use it frequently. The model I use comes with a 10 & 15 pound weight so you can adjust for elevation and works really great.
There’s a lot of good quality pressure canners out there available for home pressure canning in different prices ranges and I’ve used them all and have no issues with them. Find one that will work well for you and also for the surface you plan to be canning on (i.e. glass top stove, gas, open fire, over a volcano… you get my gist).
Why Can Dry Beans?
Canning chili beans and having jars of them on my pantry shelf is one of my favorite things. Not only do they taste better, they are so much cheaper and very little effort to get preserved and ready to use. I’ve had folks come after me on social media about just storing the dry beans and blah blah blah don’t can them it’s stupid blah blah blah just cook them as you need them deal.
BUT. 2 things. Canned beans are uber convenient and are a dump and heat kinda thing. No worry about presoaking or having enough time or planning to get them cooked through!
And even more importantly, dry beans don’t really store for all that long. I give my dry beans a year or two at most before I go ahead and can them. Putting dry beans in mylar with an oxygen absorber will increase the store time to maybeeeee 10 years, but I’m not sure I’d let them go that long before rotating them out for new. Old beans don’t rehydrate and they’re mealy and weird. You could boil them for a week solid or pressure cook them for hours and they’d still have this weird solid center that you definitely don’t want to eat if you aren’t starving. Yeah, you can still eat them, but it’s not the greatest.
So, why not just can them and get them shelf stable before they get to that unenjoyable state. I normally can about 5 pints of each variety of dry beans at a time and refill my shelves as needed because it’s so easy. But, when I have long term storage beans aging on me, I just go ahead and can them all. Nothing worse than losing food you squirrelled away; especially when you purchase it in bulk and save a bunch of money.
Let’s get to canning chili beans!
Equipment You Need
- pressure canner
- wide mouth quart canning jars
- canning lids and bands
- jar funnel
- jar lifter
Ingredients
- dried beans (red, pinto, or kidney beans)
- water or beef broth
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- dried oregano
- chili powder
This recipe is per quart jar!
Soak The Beans
If you prefer to prepare your beans according to how the NCHFP recommends for home canning, do that.
Rinse and soak beans, sort and remove wrinkly or broken beans. Measure out 1 cup beans into each quart jar you plan on canning. Fill each jar up with cool, clean water, add a splash of apple cider vinegar, and allow to soak 12-18 hours. After soaking time is up, drain, rinse, and return beans to each jar. Soaking in the jars saves on dishes and that, my friend, is my brand!
Add The Dry Seasonings
Into each quart jar, add:
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Add the Liquid
Bring 2-3 cups of fresh water or beef broth to a boil. Ladle into quart jars to 1 inch headspace. De-bubble to remove any air bubbles trapped within the beans and add more liquid if needed to maintain headspace. I use the de-bubbling time to give the beans a couple stirs to mix in the spices.
Prepare for Canning
Wipe canning jar rims with a clean cloth to ensure no food or spice debris are on the rim, and add lids and screw bands. The reason you wipe the rims is to remove anything that could get between the lid sealing compound and the jar room and prevent the lid from sealing. It’s a simple step to provide an insurance policy for successful lid sealing. Tighten bands onto lids according to manufacturer’s instructions. Different lid manufacturer’s require different tightening methods, so make sure you know what your lid requires, as over or under-tightening can also affect sealing. Over-tightening can cause buckling in your lids and reduce shelf stability and seal success.
Canning
Add hot water to your pressure canner. My All American requires 2 inches of water be added to the canner prior to adding the rack and jars. Place your filled jars in your pressure canner, put the lid on, and pressure can for 90 minutes for quart jars at your elevations recommended pounds of pressure.
Knowing your elevation when canning is once of the first things you find out, as it defines which weight you use when pressure canning low acid food and it affects the length of time you process high acid food in a water bath or steam canner. Once processing time is complete, allow pressure canner to completely depressurize before removing jars and setting aside on a heat proof surface covered with a clean towel to cool for 18-24 hours.
Storing
After cooling, remove bands and test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool, dark place away form direct sunlight. Shelf life is years as long as the seal is good, but aim to use jars within 2 years and rotate your stocks to get peak nutritional value. Due to the pressure canning process, these jars are rendered shelf stable at room temperature and will be good as long as the seal is good!
To Use
We like thick chili in this family, so for a quick and easy chili, I use my slow cooker and I normally brown ground beef or sausage to add (about 1 pound), add a diced onion, 1 quart of chili beans, 1 quart tomato sauce or chili mix, 1 pint beef broth, and 1-4oz jar of tomato paste. Add everything to the crock pot and heat through on low to allow flavors to meld. I adjust seasoning if needed. Make it your own chili! I always serve it with my homemade fresh milled popcorn skillet cornbread!
These can also be used as a side dish, dump and heat, top with some cheese & sour cream, and enjoy!
Notes
If you were prefer pints of chili beans, simply halve all the ingredients and pressure can for 75 minutes instead of 90. Go by the canning guideline times set forth by the NCHFP for dry beans!
Happy canning!
Equipment
- wide mouth quart canning jars
- Lids & Bands
- jar lifter
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry beans red, pinto, kidney
- 3 cups boiling water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsps chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
This recipe is PER QUART JAR.
- The night before, or 12-18 hours prior to canning, rinse and sort beans. Measure out 1 cup of beans into each quart jar you plan on canning. Fill jar with water and set aside to soak.
- After soaking, drain each jar, rinse beans, and return beans to jars.
- Into each jar, add 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 tsp chili powder, salt, & black pepper.
- Add boiling water to 1" headspace. Debubble and add more water if needed to maintain headspace.
- Wipe jar rims with a clean cloth and add lids and secure with bands according to lid manufacturers instructions.
- Pressure can at your elevations recommended weight for 90 minutes for quart jars. After processing time, allow canner to depressurize completely before removing jars and setting aside to cool 18-24 hours.
- After cooling time, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight.
How to use:
- I dump a quart of beans with some canned tomato sauce and add meat and make a quick soup or eat them as is for a taste bean side. Feel free to adjust and add different herbs and seasonings of choice to suit you and your family's tastes!
How many jars does this recipe make? I don’t see that info stated anywhere.
In the long form written instructions it gives measurements per quart jar. Also, in the serving size section of the printable recipe it says 1 quart. Make the recipe as big or a small as you want to tailor to how many jars your pressure canner holds! Happy canning :)
I was hoping for a quart jar count per 1 pound bag of beans.
You’ll get a little over two quarts per 1 pound bag I would estimate.
Do you not add salt to your beans before canning? Even with the seasoning, wouldn’t that make them bland/dull?
I add 1 tsp salt to each quart. It was in the written recipe but didn’t transfer over to the printable recipe card version. Thank you for catching that for me!
I added cumin and tomato paste. It’s delicious
great idea!