Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne

This is a recipe for a chilli con carne which can be prepared in under 10 minutes and left to cook in the slow cooker while you go to work.

This is one of my real favourites, just because it is so easy to do. It takes no time to prep, and no time to serve. Come in from work to the delicious aromas of chilli con carne and serve up within 10 minutes.

🥘 Ingredients needed for slow cooker chilli con carne

• Red onion - Learn how to chop and slice an onion in more details with my guide.
• Garlic - Lazy garlic is an alternative to using fresh garlic but fresh also works.
• Mince beef - Ensure you thaw out the beef in advance if you are using frozen mince. 5% fat mince beef should be used for a healthier dish. For a fuller flavour, use 10% fat beef.
• Kidney beans - Drain the kidney beans before placing in the dish. You do not need to wash them, but they should be drained.
• Chopped tomatoes - For a smoother dish you can use passata instead of chopped tomatoes. If you have any left over you can use it for a pizza sauce when making a margherita pizza.
• Button mushrooms - These smaller mushrooms only need cutting in half or quarters. If you are using bigger mushrooms then slice into 2mm to 3mm slices.

Optional

• chopped chilli peppers
• chopped bell peppers

🔪 Instructions to make slow cooker chilli con carne

Fry up the beef, onion and garlic for 8 - 10 minutes until browned off.

Throw all that in the slow cooker with all the other ingredients chopped up.

Cook in the slow cooker for either of the following times:

5 - 7 hours: High

8 - 9 hours: Low

Deciding whether to cook on low or high can be confusing. In simple terms, for every 2 hours of low, its 1 hour of high. (So 3 hours high is 6 hours low). These are ballpark figures to give you a guide.

Serve with rice or pasta. It really is as easy as that.

📖 Variations on slow cooker chilli con carne

There are plenty of slow cooker recipes out there on the internet and the reason is of how simple and filling they are. I love this recipe just for how easy it is.

If you are missing some ingredients in these slow cooker mince beef recipes then don't worry. There are loads of things you can swap out.

• Chilli beans - swap for baked beans
• Peppers - swap for tomatoes
• Mushrooms - Chop some carrot instead
• Mince beef - make it with lamb. Or goat. Try it, you never know you might like it!

Mince recipes for slow cookers

You need a vital piece of equipment to make this - a slow cooker! They vary in price from under £30 to over £300 and choosing a slow cooker is not a quick task. But as there are a wide range of slow cookers on Amazon, there are plenty to choose from.

🥗 Low calorie chilli con carne

This meal is not an unhealthy recipe at all however it is possible to really reduce the calories in the dish by making a few swaps to the dish. Change out the mince to a low fat (less than 5% fat) version. This will not affect the taste, just the consistency slightly, but its not noticeable.

When browning off the meat, use a low calorie cooking spray rather than oil to brown it off. The rest of the ingredients to not add many calories. You could use fresh chopped tomatoes instead of tinned to ensure that you know exactly what is going in the dish.

Keep the recipe warm using the warm mode when your cooking time has finished. It's recommended not to use the warm mode for longer than 4 hours.

A more mild chilli con carne

To make the chilli con carne mild and not as spicy it is possible to swap out the kidney beans for chick peas or regular baked beans. This will reduce a lot of the heat in the dish.

Did you make this recipe?

Leave me a comment and tell me how this recipe worked for you?