Slow Cooker Smoky Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

This chili is built from dried black beans, which cost a fraction of canned and give you a far better pot. The beans absorb the smoke and spice as they cook, and their starch thickens the whole thing without any flour. Sweet potatoes hold their shape and balance the chipotle heat. Made this way, the pot feeds six to eight people for the price of a couple of sandwiches.

Timing is what dried beans ask for in return. They need six hours on their own before the sweet potatoes go in, because beans stop softening once the acidity of the tomatoes takes hold, and the salt goes in at the end rather than the start for the same reason. Taste one before moving on. A bean that is still firm at six hours will still be firm at eight.

The tablespoon of cocoa powder is the ingredient people ask about. It is doing the same job it does in a Mexican mole, adding bitterness and depth underneath the chili powder without reading as chocolate. Leave it out and the pot tastes noticeably flatter, and nothing else on the list replaces it.

Slow Cooker Smoky Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

Dried beans, sweet potatoes, and a chipotle-and-cocoa backbone — the cheapest dinner in this set, and the one that tastes the most like it came from a restaurant kitchen.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8 servings

Equipment

• Slow cooker 6-quart or larger

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound dried black beans soaked overnight and drained
• 2 large sweet potatoes about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 red bell pepper diced
• 5 cloves garlic minced
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo minced, plus 1 tablespoon of the sauce
• 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 1 lime juiced
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions

 

• Soak the dried beans overnight in cold water to cover by three inches. Drain and rinse. If you forget, cover them with water, boil 2 minutes, let sit off the heat 1 hour, and drain.
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion and bell pepper 6-7 minutes until softened.
• Add the garlic, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, and cocoa powder. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring, until fragrant and the tomato paste darkens.
• Scrape the mixture into the slow cooker. Add the soaked beans, crushed tomatoes, chipotles and adobo sauce, broth, and salt. Do not add the sweet potatoes yet.
• Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours, until the beans are fully tender. Taste one before moving on – undercooked beans will not soften once the tomatoes’ acidity takes hold.
• Stir in the sweet potato cubes. Cover and cook on LOW 2 more hours, until tender but not falling apart.
• Stir in the corn and cook 10 more minutes to heat through.
• For a thicker chili, mash some of the beans and sweet potato against the side of the pot and stir to combine.
• Off the heat, stir in the lime juice and taste for salt. It will likely need more than you expect.
• Serve with cilantro and whichever toppings you have on hand.

Notes

A one-pound bag of dried black beans costs roughly the same as a single can of most other proteins and yields about as much as five cans of beans.

If you use canned beans instead, cut the broth to 3 cups and reduce the total cook time to about 4 hours on LOW, adding the sweet potatoes for the last 90 minutes.

Salt at the end, not the start. Salting the cooking liquid too early can keep dried beans firm.

Freeze leftover chipotles in adobo in tablespoon portions on parchment, then bag them.

The cocoa powder is what gives the chili its dark, rounded finish. A square of unsweetened baking chocolate works in a pinch.

Keyword black bean chili, slow cooker, sweet potato, Vegetarian