The Best Homemade Chili Recipe with Beans or Chili Con Carne – this is comfort food at its best. Low-carb, high in protein, gluten free this chili con carne is healthy, delicious and nutritious, and it goes down well with the whole family.
Who doesn’t like a nice bowl of hot chili? I certainly do, especially on a cold winter’s day. Chili con carne is just that, spicy ground meat that is beautifully cooked. It’s heart warming, filling, and full of goodness. Plus, it goes well with any side dish, be it rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, jacket potatoes, couscous, nachos, or just some greens on the side.
There is a bit of confusing between the terms ” chili” and “chilli”. Chili, spelt with one “l” is this dish, where the chilli with 2 “l’s” is the spicy pepper that we add to a dish.
You can leave the dish without any beans, but I highly recommend adding some, they are so much more goodness, and flavour too. Pinto beans, red kidney beans, cannellini , just use anything you have, or even a combo of more beans.
How to make chili with beans
It is ridiculously easy to make, and a huge batch costs well under £10. And trust me, with that you get to feed your whole family.
So, all we need is some nice beef mince (ground beef), a small can of kidney beans, onion and garlic, chilli peppers, a bit of earthy spices, some nice cheese, if you want to make it extra nice. And ta-daah, the best dinner of your life is right here, in front of you.
- sautee the onion until golden
- add the beef mince and cook until no longer raw
- add the garlic and chilli peppers
- add the beef stock (broth) and bay leaves, and leave to cook until the liquid is absorbed
- throw in the chopped tomatoes, spices and seasoning, and leave to cook until the liquid from the tomatoes is reduced
Wait, I must tell you a secret. There is something about this chili that makes it super douper special. The combo cinnamon-ground ginger is the best possible match, and you can use as little or as much as you like.
I don’t usually like to use too many spices that overpower the very taste of the ingredients I use. But in this dish, the two spices bring a bit of heat and spiciness that are hard to get by just using cayenne pepper or any other spicy peppers.
How long does it take to cook chili?
If you make it on the stove top like I did, it should not require more than 40-50 minutes at the most. I do prefer to cook the beef for longer than otherwise needed, just so I can get a super soft meat. I don’t really like chewy mince, but if you don’t mind it, skip the beef stock, and just add the canned chopped tomatoes.
Leave to cook until the liquid from the tomatoes is absorbed, and that should do. And there you have, the glorious homemade chili, a Mexican style dish that is so popular all over the world. Easy to guess why.
Chili can also be made in the slow cooker, I have this amazing recipe for Slow Cooker Ground Beef and Sweet Potato Chili. The sweet potatoes can be replaced with any squash or root vegetables. What a glorious dish!
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The Best Homemade Chili Recipe with Beans or Chili Con Carne – this is comfort food at its best. Low-carb, high in protein, gluten free this chili con carne is healthy, delicious and nutritious, and it goes down well with the whole family.
- 500 g ground beef (minced beef)
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g, 13 oz)
- 1 large onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 red chilli pepper
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1 tin kidney beans (200 g, 7 oz)
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- fresh parsley to taste
- grated cheese to serve
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Cut the onion roughly and add the vegetable oil to a large pan.
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Fry the onion until translucent, then add the minced beef and chopped garlic and stir until it the beef becomes brown.
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Chop the red chilli pepper and mix it in. I recommend deseeding the red chilli pepper if you do not like that much spiciness.
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Add the chopped tomatoes, red kidney beans and beef stock. I like to throw the bay leaves in at this stage so the flavours can be released while the beef is cooking.
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Cook on a medium heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the beef is tender, that should take about 30 minutes on a medium heat.
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Add the ground cinnamon, ginger, cayenne peppers, chopped parsley and season with salt and black pepper.
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Remove from the heat and serve with grated cheese, basmati rice, couscous, bulgur wheat or anything else that takes your fancy.
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