How Long Can You Leave Chili In the Slow Cooker? What to Know Before Game Day

If there’s one kitchen essential that shouldn't be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to throwing a game day viewing party, it’s a slow cooker. 

If you're hosting the Super Bowl, odds are you're making chili. You know it tops the ranks of ultimate game day foods and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, but since it's an hours-long affair, you need to know exactly how long you can let it sit in the slow cooker—the last thing you want is your guests leaving during halftime with a stomachache.

“Harmful foodborne illness-causing bacteria will not multiply at temperatures above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why we recommend keeping hot foods hot if they will be held longer than 2 hours,” says Meredith Carothers, public affairs specialist at the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). “The quality may start to diminish if it is in there for an extended period of time, but you can make it the duration of the Super Bowl with chili on ‘low’ or ‘keep warm.’”

So here's the verdict when it comes to chili food safety: You can leave it in the slow cooker for hours after it’s done cooking if the cooker is set to the “low” or “keep warm” setting.

If you decide you don’t want to keep your chili in a slow cooker during the game and instead put it in a cute dish on the snack table, remember to set a timer.

“If the chili is not in a slow cooker that is on ‘low’ or ‘keep warm,’ it will need to follow the two-hour rule,” Carothers says. “When perishable foods are in the ‘danger zone,' when the temperature range is between 40 to 140 degrees, foodborne-illness bacteria can reach dangerous levels after two hours.”

Once you decide to put your chili away in the fridge, Carothers recommends dividing it into smaller portions, in multiple shallow containers. This helps ensure the chili cools quickly enough.

Chili isn’t the only game day food you can serve up in a slow cooker. In fact, you can make all your apps and main dishes with this versatile cooking method: from chicken wings and One-Pot Cuban-Style Barbecue Pulled Pork to Tangy Molasses Barbecue Ribs and All-American Sloppy Joes. According to Carothers, you can follow the chili rules for all of the foods you make in a slow cooker—just know they might lose flavor the longer they sit.

“Quality will start to diminish the longer food is in there, but safety-wise, foods can stay in the slow cooker for long periods of time," Carothers says.

So sit back, keep your slow cooker on, and enjoy the game (without worrying about food poisoning).