Walt Disney’s Favorite meal!
Hey Disney fans! I am so excited to share with you Walt Disney’s personal chili recipe adapted for the Instant pot. Personally, I am not a huge fan of Chili but making this recipes just makes it a little more magical and it’s delicious. I was pleasantly surprised and even better than other chili recipes I have made. It might be the magic beans…ha ha.
Walt’s favorite foods
I love hearing about Walt Disney’s life, reading books, documentaries and articles on how he lived. Someday I hope to visit the Disney Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Here you can even find his own personal list of things he liked to eat that survived all these years plus many other interesting things about his life.
A fun fact about Walt Disney his favorite meal was chili and beans. He would eat chili and beans from a can at his desk when no visitors were around. He liked simple food, nothing too fancy. Although he didn’t like sweets that much one of his favorite deserts was Apple Brown Betty and his go to desserts were the “home-style ” type like lemon meringue and apple pie.
Here is Walt’s original recipe as it appears in several older Disney Cookbooks as well as the Disney Files Magazine Summer 2012 Issue. (by the way it is the same publication our son was featured in the back of the Disney Files magazine, he is photo #8 if you want to check him out)
Read further down the page to see the updated recipe I adapted for the Instant Pot cooking and be sure to print it out.
WALT’S ORIGINAL CHILI and Beans RECIPE
Walt Disney’s Favorite Chili & Beans – Instant Pot Version
To adapt this original chili recipes I did make a few changes for the Instant pot. First of all, Walt’s Original Chili recipe makes a ton so I halved the beans and ground beef. Also what is amazing about the Instant Pot is you don’t have to soak the beans overnight. It only takes 30 minutes to soften! Seriously amazing!
The first step is to cook the beans which is normally done overnight because it takes so long. With the Instant pot you just have to dump in the beans, 1 tbs chili powder, broth and onions and set it to the chili/bean setting on your pot or 30 minutes on manual.
Next brown you meat and veggies( you can even do this before doing the beans and set aside). Once beans are done dump it all in the pot along with the rest of spices and tomatoes and cook on the chili/bean setting( 30 minutes manual).
Feel free to add additional spices to make it even more spicy. We like with just a kick and it was perfect the way it is for us. Even my 7 yr old ate it and didn’t complain it was spicy.
Once of Walt Disney's favorite meals. He would often eat chili and beans out of a can in his office. Serve this with Hoop De Doo Revue corn bread to complete the meal.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 whole onions chopped
- 2 whole garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 pounds pink beans (dry- Pinto beans)
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 4 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cups celery (chopped)
- 2 tbs chili powder ( more if you like it spicey)
- 1 tbs paprika
- 1 tsp dried Thyme
- 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz or 2 -14oz cans)
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place beans in Instant pot, pour in beef broth, 1 tbl chili powder and onion. Place lid in locked position and set it on chili/bean setting ( 30 minutes if you do not have a chili button) Quick release when done. Place in beans and broth and set aside.
- On saute setting, add in olive oil. Once heated saute Brown the beef, celery and garlic until beef is browned. Drain fat if needed.
- Add in beans, tomatoes , rest of chili powder, thyme,paprika, salt & pepper and any additional spices you like.
- Place lid on Instant pot and hit the Chili/bean button( or 30 minutes on Manual). Quick release.
- Mix and serve topped with cheddar cheese and cornbread.
Notes
You can fancy it up by serving it in a breadbowl and topping it with cheese and sour cream. If you like it spicier you can add about 1/2 tsp any of the following: coriander, tumeric, chili seeds, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and ground ginger and finish it with hot pepper flakes at the end to taste.
Recipe adapted from Walt Disney Chili and Beans Recipe published in Disney Files Summer 2012 magazine.
