Description

Slow Cooker Pepperoni Pizza Chili is the perfect chili for a chilly evening or for tailgating. It is packed with mini pepperonis, Italian sausage and green peppers to give you all your favorite pizza flavors. Plus it’s of course topped with melty mozzarella cheese.

Ingredients

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For cooking the beans

1 (15.5 oz) package Hurst’s Slow Cooker Chili (with seasoning packet reserved for later)
1 Tbsp salt
6 cups water
1 diced yellow onion

To make the chili

1 lb ground Italian sausage, browned and drained of excess grease
1 diced green pepper
2 cups picante sauce
1 (15 oz) jar pizza sauce
1 (5 oz) package mini pepperoni
1–2 cups water (depending on how thick you want your chili)
Mozzarella cheese, grated, for serving

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Instructions

In a large bowl place the dried beans. Reserve the seasoning packet for later. Cover the beans completely with enough water to cover them by 2 inches. They drink up a lot of water. Sprinkle in 1 Tbsp of salt. Let the beans soak in the salty water for 8-12 hours.
Drain the beans of excess water and rinse them off. Place the beans in the bottom of a large slow cooker. (I used a 6 quart oval slow cooker). Place 6 cups of water into the slow cooker and diced onion. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours, or until beans are to desired tenderness.
Drain off any excess water from the beans. Add in browned Italian sausage, diced green pepper, picante sauce, pizza sauce, pepperoni, seasoning packet*, and water.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 1-2 hours. Ladle the chili into bowls and top with grated mozzarella cheese (about 1/4 cup per bowl).

Notes

*If you don’t love spicy foods then add half the seasoning packet first and taste. Add more seasoning as desired. You may also want to use mild picante sauce and mild Italian sausage. I made the recipe as it is written and just used a bit of sour cream to cool it down for my children.