Instructions
- Soak beans overnight (or longer)
- Drain and rinse well. Get your hands in there and “massage” beans to get any residue off them
- Boil or pressure cook beans with 3-4 bay leaves, a Tablespoons of salt, and water
- While beans are cooking, chip and sauté onion in olive oil
- Drain cooked beans and pour back into the pot, then and add sautéd onions, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, chili seasoning, and at least 1 tablespoon of salt
- Stir mixture together and heat through
- Add pepper and more salt to taste if needed.
To Can:
- Pour 2 quarts of water in the bottom of clean pressure canner
- Add rack. This is important! You want some water between the bottom of the canner and the jars.
- Place canner over medium heat
- While canner is heating, sterilize your jars by putting them through a dishwasher cycle, bringing them to a boil in a water bath, or heating them in a 250º oven
- Also sterilize your rings and lids in hot water
- When canner, chili, and jars are all hot, you may proceed to the next step
- Pack chili into jars leaving about 1/2 inch head space, and using a canning funnel to keep rims of jars clean
- Fit jars with lids and rings, making sure jar rims are clean (wipe with a clean cloth if any chili spills on them)
- Place in prepared pressure canner, and fit with lid
- Make sure the jiggler is not on your canner or that the steam valve is open
- Heat canner over medium-high heat until steam begins to escape
- Once steam is coming out vigorously, set timer for ten minutes
- After the ten minutes, fit canner lid with jiggler set at 10lbs of pressure
- Bring to pressure and start timer for 90 minutes
- Monitor heat and jiggling to make sure the pressure gets neither too high or too low
- Once the 90 minutes is over, remove canner from heat and let naturally cool ideally until jars are completely cool, but if you need to get a second batch going (if you’re doubling the batch or canning something else),
- Set a towel on a cupboard near the canner
- Remove jars from canner onto the towel after it has depressurized using a bath towel to protect the jar from drafts as you move it from canner. (you will also want to make sure the towel is situated in such a way that it protects you from an exploding jar – it’s very rare, but it can happen!)
- Move hot jars the shortest distance possible to minimize their exposure to cold drafts and potential breakage
- Cover jars with a third towel to protect against drafts as they continue to cool
Your canned chili beans are now ready to store and be put to work!