This Spicy Pork Chili with Pumpkin will wow everyone at your table. Tender chunks of pork simmer in a pumpkin-tomato sauce redolent with chile; it’s such a great way to warm up!
Serve this hearty slow cooker meal alongside homemade tortilla chips and salsa or load it up with shredded cheese and serve some Garlic Focaccia on the site.
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When you’re looking for a hearty meal, you can’t go wrong with a pork chili. Not only does it boast stick-to-yer-ribs goodness, but it’s also incredibly economical. This pork chili with pumpkin is a flavorful one-pot dinner you’ll want to add to your regular weekly repertoire.
Why Make This
It’s super simple to make. Don’t let the length of the ingredients list fool you. This is one of the simplest set-it-and-forget-it meals you can make.
It’s freezer-friendly. Feel free to make a double batch as this chili freezes and reheats beautifully, meaning you can have a simple dinner more than once this month.
It’s delicious. There’s just something magical that the pumpkin puree and chile bring to this bean stew. It’s so yummy. You must make it!
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make homemade pork chili with pumpkin:
pork half loin roast – The pork loin is a large cut of meat that is often portioned smaller into halves or even chops. For this recipe, I can typically cut a half roast in half again. It’s an affordable cut that I can easily stretch over several meals.
spices: salt, pepper, ground chile, and garlic powder – The spice list is pretty short, but also very important. Be sure to use ground chile also labeled chile powder, but NOT chili powder. Chili powder often has salt and other spices added to it. Since we’re already adding salt, you want to make sure you have ground chile.
oil – Use whatever cooking oil you normally use. It’s just to keep the pork and onion from burning when you sauté them.
onion – The onion gives great flavor and texture to the chili. You can use white or yellow onion.
pumpkin puree – The pumpkin adds a really rich flavor to this pork chili. You can use canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) or cook your own pumpkin. In a pinch, use Homemade Butternut Squash Puree.
tomato sauce and canned, diced tomatoes– The tomato sauce rounds out the sauce in this chili and the diced tomatoes add texture. If need be, you can swap in a can of crushed tomatoes for the two.
black and pinto beans – I like using two colors of beans in this chili to give it visual interest. You can also add kidney beans for a third color. Remember it’s often cheaper to cook dried beans instead of using the canned variety.
chopped green chiles – These add a little heat. You can substitute chopped jalapeños or Roasted Poblano Peppers if that’s what you have.
Step-by-Step Instructions
It’s super simple to make this slow cooker pork chili:
- Season the pork cubes with salt and pepper to taste. In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the pork cubes and chopped onion and sauté. Cook until the pork is lightly browned and the onion is clear.
- In the crock of a 6-quart slow cooker, whisk together the pumpkin puree, tomato sauce, chili powder and garlic powder. Add the meat mixture, beans, tomatoes, and chiles to the pot. Stir well to combine. Cover with the slow cooker lid and cook for 4 hours on HIGH or 6 to 8 hours on LOW.
Freezing Instructions
To freeze the chili: divide it into serving size portions and chill completely in the fridge prior to storing in the freezer. Be sure to label the container with the date and the contents.
To serve: reheat from frozen in the microwave or in a pot on the stovetop.
FAQs
Pork chili freezes beautifully and can be reheated from frozen in the microwave or on the stovetop. Chill, package, label, and freeze.
Leftover chili is delicious served atop Baked Potatoes or stirred into Stovetop Mac and Cheese. You can also use it as the filling for Chili Cheese Burritos.
Pork and all the ingredients in this chili recipe are naturally gluten-free. To be on the safe side, be sure to read the labels to ensure that gluten hasn’t been added. This is particularly true for spices and tomato sauce.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- pork half loin roast – $2.99
- spices – $0.15
- oil – $0.10
- onion – $0.15
- pumpkin puree – $0.45
- tomato sauce – $0.45
- beans – $2.00
- diced tomatoes – $0.45
- green chiles – $0.50
Your price may vary depending on where and how you shop, but you can expect to pay about $7.24 for 8 servings of chili, or about 91 cents a serving.
More Great Pork Recipes
Spicy Pork Chili with Pumpkin
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lb pork half loin roast cubed
- salt
- black pepper
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion (1 cup chopped)
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoon chile powder or ground chile
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 40-ounce can pinto beans drained
- 1 30-ounce can black beans drained
- 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 4-ounce can green chiles (chopped)
Instructions
- Season the pork cubes with salt and pepper to taste. In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the pork cubes and chopped onion and sauté. Cook until the pork is lightly browned and the onion is clear.
- In the crock of a 6-quart slow cooker, whisk together the pumpkin puree, tomato sauce, chili powder and garlic powder. Add the meat mixture, beans, tomatoes, and chiles to the pot. Stir well to combine. Cover with the slow cooker lid and cook for 4 hours on HIGH or 6 to 8 hours on LOW.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on December 7, 2015. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Sally
I have a question about the size of the crockpot you cooked the chili in. Will it fit into an older 3 1/2 qt crockpot that is round instead of oval, or would I have to reduce the recipe? And if so, the times don’t really change, do they?
Jessica Fisher
Times shouldn’t change. You don’t want to fill the crockpot more than 2/3 full, so it will be close to fitting. Perhaps dial down the beans and add the last bit at the end. They’ll heat pretty quickly.
Adrienne
We really enjoyed this one. I used home cooked black beans and I feel like it added an element and dimension of flavor. Canned work great, but the home cooked makes the chili richer.
Sandi
I don’t think I have pinto beans, but I have black and kidney which should work just as well, and I have all these other ingredients as well. Thanks to Costco’s pork special on Black Friday ($10 off the vacuum pack loin) I have about 15 lb of pork in the freezer for which I paid about $8. That’s on top of the several pounds I already had in the freezer! I made pulled pork with the Costco rib rub seasoning (I’ve learned I’m not so keen on the pork ribs but love the seasoning on regular pork and it goes fabulously well with Asian salads), made some I diced and simply tossed with spices and pan cooked, and am going to make BBQ pork although I like that a lot better than the kid does. This sounds like an excellent way to continue using some of it up and not be repetitive. Thanks!
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like you scored. Great job mixing things up.
Sandi
I was getting the regular pork to make this when I found some kielbasa that had had the package torn so the meat was a bit dehydrated. I figured soaking it in something like this was a good way to not waste it, so I chopped it up and used it instead of the pork chops. I used fresh chopped garlic instead of powder, and had three different types of beans in it to use up some of what I had. I was surprised how dark the sauce turned but we enjoyed it and the non-spicy-loving kid ate two bowls, Thanks!