Best Chili Recipe

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I am back today with another delicious recipe that I think you are going to love. I decided to take a few days off to recup after all the stress of the holidays etc. and am now feeling fighting fit and raring to go!  I think we all need a breather every now and then, don’t you?  

Like you I am really looking foward to more deliciousness in 2023. Thanks so much for bearing with me! 

 

Of course, I could not leave well enough alone and added a few bits and bobs into the mix, and also changed the cook time, but overall, I pretty much followed the recipe to the “T.”

It was filling, flavorful, and pretty healthy overall!  I added some green pepper to it, used more onion, more tomatoes and only one type of bean. Other than that, I used the recipe pretty much as written.

 

I did change up the cooking method a little bit as well. I toasted the spices for extra flavor. I have always found that toasting your spices before using them in a stew or soup adds something extra special to the taste.

I also thought that the original fifteen minutes cook time was not near enough to really develop the flavors the way I wanted them to be and so I increased it exponentially, with excellent results!  This chili was fabulous!

 

For the most part it is store cupboard ingredients. No fuss, no muss. The perfect winter comfort food supper. 

• 1 TBS flavorless oil (I use light olive oil)
• 1 lb. (450g) lean ground beef/steak
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 1 small green pepper, trimmed, deseeded and diced
• 1 (15 oz/420g) tins of dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 (15 oz/420g) tins of diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (15 oz/420g) tin of tomato sauce/passata
• 3 TBS tomato paste
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 3 TBS chili powder (North American, not UK type)
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 1 cup (240ml) beef stock

 

My ground beef was really lean. It’s an organic locally raised beef that I buy frozen at my local farmer’s market.  Because it was so lean, I browned it in a bit of oil. There is only about 5% fat in it. If your beef is not quite as lean, you may want to cut back on the oil used or leave it out altogether.

I added green pepper for a bit of color and some flavor. We like peppers in our chili. If my father had not been eating it, I might have been tempted to add jalapeno peppers, but we like to keep things a bit milder for him. I also pretty much doubled the amount of onion because we like onions.

In North America I used a can of tomato sauce, which is not the same thing as tomato sauce in the UK. Tomato sauce in the UK is generally thought to mean tomato ketchup.  Their “tomato sauce” is tomato passatta, which is crushed and seived tomatoes, or basically the same thing as North American tomato sauce.

I used two tins of tomatoes rather than the single tin in the original recipe because we really like tomatoes and, to be honest, it gave the chili the perfect consistency.

I do have more than a few chili recipes posted to the blog. If beef is not your thing, you might enjoy this Turkey Chili recipe which is made with ground turkey.

Another favorite is White Chicken Chili. In fact, that is my favorite chili recipe of all.  Rich and creamy.

Don’t worry about leftovers. You will find that things like chili freeze very well. Just divide into airtight freezer containers and freeze. You can keep it for up to six months or so in the freezer. 

Leftovers are also very nice when served over top of jacket potatoes, or mixed into cooked macaroni and cheese for a tasty midweek supper of Easy Chili Mac and Cheese.  Trust me when I say it will all get used up! 

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