Soak the chickpeas one of two ways: Overnight soak: Cover the chickpeas by 4 or more inches with cold salted water (3-4 tablespoons), and let them soak overnight or for 12 hours. Then pour off the soaking liquid. Don’t be tempted to use this liquid as your cooking liquid—fresh water is a must. Consider the soaking liquid 'saturated' and not good for cooking chickpeas. Quick soak: You can use a 'quick soak' method if you don’t have time to soak your beans ahead of time. This will shorten the overall cooking time.

Cook the chickpeas. Place the chickpeas in a large pot and cover by several inches with cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 1.5 – 2 hours, or until soft (but not mushy). Offset the lid of the pot to let some of the steam out during cooking. Salting at this point will slow down the cooking process, so better to wait to salt until the chickpeas are used in whatever dish you are making.

For cooking dried chickpeas in a crock pot, if you did not pre-soak the chickpeas, they will take 3 to 4 hours on HIGH or 6 to 8 hours on LOW to become tender.

For cooking in an Instant Pot, cover 2 cups of beans with 6 cups of water, add in 1 teaspoon salt and any extra seasoning such as garlic, onion, or bay leaves. Set the Instant Pot to High Pressure, and adjust the timer to 20 minutes (40 minutes if using unsoaked chickpeas). When the cooking time is up, turn off the Instant Pot and release the pressure manually 10 minutes after the beep. Strain the liquid and refrigerate or freeze the chickpeas in small batches.