This Crock Pot or Slow Cooker Chili is such a simple yet amazing crockpot chili recipe. All you need are a few seasonings, beans, tomatoes, and few other simple ingredients to make the best flavor in this comfort food dinner recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There are so many different chili recipes you can make, but the combination of sauces, beans, and tomatoes makes this the best chili recipe. Not to mention, you can make it in the slow cooker over 3-4 hours, and it will be the only chili recipe you want to make. Add this to your list of slow cook recipes when you want homemade chili that is loaded with protein and so much flavor.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our Mom’s crockpot chili, you need the following ingredients:
- Meat: Use lean ground beef for classic chili
- Onion: Use either a yellow onion or white onion, diced
- Celery: Just a few diced stalks celery will add flavor in the best way
- Beans: We like to use dark red kidney beans that have been rinsed and drained
- Seasoning: Keep it simple with a chili seasoning package from your local grocery store
- Tomato: To get the perfect chili recipe, use a combination of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce
- Sauce: A little ketchup and Worcestershire sauce mixed with the brown ground beef mixture is a simple way to add flavor
- Sugar: Simple white sugar is perfect, but you can use brown sugar in Mom’s chili recipe
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Crockpot Chili
Make Beef
- Cook the hamburger and onion together until the hamburger meat is browned all the way through.
- Drain grease with a strainer. Then add to the crockpot.
Add Ingredients to Slow Cooker
- Add all remaining ingredients together in the crockpot.
- Cook on High for 3 hours or on low for about 6 hours.
Serve
- Pour into bowls. We like to add shredded cheese and tortilla chips on top.
Expert Tips
- Add andouille sausage for even more protein.
- To make it spicy, here is what we recommend adding the following ingredients: chopped jalapeño (you could also use canned), cumin or cayenne pepper, or red pepper flakes.
- Thicken up the sauce by adding some tomato paste as needed.
- Favorite toppings to use with chili: Greek yogurt (or sour cream), shredded cheddar cheese, and diced green onions.
- Add more flavor by adding diced green pepper or red pepper.
- Switch out the diced tomatoes for fire-roasted tomatoes for a little more kick.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can do the following with leftover chili: put over a baked potato, serve on top of fries, turn it into a chili taco, serve over hot dogs with melty cheese, or add it to some eggs and turn it into a skillet.
Use one or more of these beans: black beans, pinto beans, chili beans, or great white northern beans.
I love soup, but I also love the side dishes and bread that we serve with soup. If you need a few ideas of what to serve this soup with, here is what we recommend: Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread
30 Minute Dinner Rolls, Italian Fresh Green Salad, or Sweet Cornbread.
Explore More Delicious Chili Recipes
Explore our collection of delicious, homemade chili recipes that are easy-to-make and freezer-friendly. For more chili inspiration, check out our full list of chili recipes!
- BBQ Chicken Chili
- Cream Cheese Chili
- Creamy White Chicken Chili
- Ground Turkey and Pumpkin Chili
- Ground Turkey Chili
- Ground Turkey Taco Chili
- Homemade Chili
- Instant Pot Chili
- Mom’s Easy Slow Cooker Chili
- No-Bean Chili with Ground Beef
- Shepherd’s Pie Chili
- Texas Chili
- Texas Roadhouse Chili
- Wendy’s Chili
Mom’s Crockpot Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 onion, diced
- 3-4 stalks celery, diced
- 15 ounces dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1.25 ounces chili seasoning package
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Cook hamburger and onion together until hamburger is browned all the way through. Drain grease. Then add to crockpot.
- Add all remaining ingredients together in crockpot.
- Cook on High for 3 hours or low for about 6 hours.
- Pour into bowls. We like to add cheese and corn chips on top.
Notes
- Add andouille sausage for even more protein.
- To make it spicy, here is what we recommend adding the following ingredients: chopped jalapeño (you could also use canned), cumin or cayenne pepper, or red pepper flakes.
- Thicken up the sauce by adding some tomato paste as needed.
- Favorite toppings to use with chili: Greek yogurt (or sour cream), shredded cheddar cheese, and diced green onions.
- Add more flavor by adding diced green pepper or red pepper.
- Switch out the diced tomatoes for fire-roasted tomatoes for a little more kick.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
How many servings does this make?
Just made the chili above, added some jalapeno peppers, smells wonderful!
Definitely 6 servings when I made it- maybe more depending on how much you put in each bowl.
How much tomato sauce does this recipe require?
1 8 oz can!
Do you drain the diced tomatoes and or kidney beans??
Do not drain the tomatoes – that is part of your liquid. Drain the kidney beans. I even rinse them off in the can and drain again.
This is a great base recipe for chili, just needs lots more seasonings! I like to add lots of garlic, some hot Mexican chili powder, a bit of salt, and cayenne pepper! Perfecto 🙂
Can the celery be omitted without changing the taste?
You can definitely leave out the celery!
How many servings does one recipe make? Just wondering what the nutrition info is based on. Thanks!
It is based on 8 servings