You can see from the 6 random popular recipes in the chart below that you can pretty much do what you want when making chili. Free yourself. You can use less or more meat, beans, tomatoes, chili powder, liquid, onion, and garlic. You can add all sorts of extra flavorings, or not. You may end up with 12 servings from 1 pound of meat, or 6 servings from 2 pounds of meat, we don’t know. See what you like, and see what you can do with what you have.
See the Substitutions & Additions section after the recipe to really get a feel for what you can do.
Basic Chili Recipe
Brown the ground beef (using 1 Tbsp oil if very lean) (8-10 minutes), and then add the onion and garlic and cook in the beef fat (5 minutes). (You can instead brown the beef and onion and garlic together at the same time without adding any oil. Or brown the onion and garlic first using 1 or 2 Tbsp of oil and, then brown the beef.)
Anyway, cook in a large saucepan or skillet for about 10 minutes. Drain any excess fat.
Add tomatoes. Add beans (no need to drain first, but they may be salty). Add liquid to the chili, unless there’s already a lot. Add spices and any other ingredients.
Boil, reduce to low, cover, simmer 15-60 minutes. You can mash some of the beans against the side of the pot if you want to quickly thicken the chili.
Sample Ingredient Lists for Chili
| Ingredient | Recipe #1 | Recipe #2 | Recipe #3 | Recipe #4 | Recipe #5 | Recipe #6 |
| Ground Beef | 1 lb | 1 lb | 2 lb | 1 lb | 2 lb | 2 lb |
| Onion | 1, diced | 1 cup diced | 1, diced | • 1, diced • ½ tsp onion powder |
1, diced | 1, diced |
| Tomatoes | • 15-oz can tomato sauce • 14.5-oz can stewed tomatoes |
28-oz can crushed tomatoes | • 28-oz can diced tomatoes • 15-oz can tomato purée |
• 15-oz can diced tomatoes • 6 oz can tomato paste |
• 28-oz can crushed tomatoes • 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes • 3 Tbsp tomato paste |
• 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes • (2) 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/green chile peppers • 8 oz tomato sauce |
| Beans | 15-oz can kidney | (2) 15-oz cans kidney | (2) 15-oz cans kidney | • 15-oz can kidney • 15-oz can black |
15-oz can kidney | • 15-oz can kidney • 15-oz can pinto |
| Liquid | 1-1/2 cups water (optional) | — | 1 cup water | 1 cup water | • 1 cup chicken broth • 1 cup beef bouillon |
1 cup water |
| Chili Powder | 1+ tsp | 2 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp mild | 1 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp |
| Garlic | 1 pinch garlic powder | 2 cloves, chopped | 2 cloves, minced | • 2 cloves, minced • ¼ tsp garlic powder |
3 cloves, minced | — |
| Salt & Pepper | to taste | to taste | • 2 tsp salt • 1 tsp pepper |
• 1 tsp salt • ½ tsp pepper |
• 1 tsp salt • pepper to taste |
• 1 Tbsp salt • 1 tsp pepper |
| Additional | — | 1 Tbsp vinegar | • 4-oz can chopped green chile peppers • 1 tsp cumin |
• 1 tsp cumin • ¼ tsp cayenne • ½ Tbsp brown sugar |
• 1 tsp cumin • 1 tsp oregano • 1 tsp mustard powder • ¼ tsp cayenne • 1 pinch red pepper flakes • 1 green bell pepper, diced • 1 jalapeño, diced • 1 Tbsp brown sugar • 2 tsp hot sauce • 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce |
• 2 Tbsp sugar • 1 Tbsp hot pepper sauce • 1 Tbsp cumin |
Substitutions & Additions
Meat
Use ground beef, ground beef with pork sausage, stew beef, cubed beef, ground pork, pork shoulder, ground chicken, ground turkey, ground lamb, ground venison, or variations on these. If using non-ground meats, brown them and then cook the chili slow and long so they get tender, and maybe wait to add beans till last 30 minutes so they don’t get mushy. If using low-fat meat (turkey, venison), brown it in a Tbsp or 2 of fat (olive oil, butter, bacon grease, lard).
vegetarian: TVP, tempeh (crumbled and pan-fried), extra-firm tofu (pressed, crumbled, and pan-fried), lentils, sautéed mushrooms, ground toasted walnuts or pecans, eggplant (peeled, diced small, and thoroughly roasted or sautéed before adding to chili), finely diced sweet potato, finely diced squash, bulgur wheat (parboiled cracked whole wheat), commercial plant-based meat substitutes. Good combinations include sautéed mushrooms plus lentils; ground toasted walnuts with black beans; tempeh plus diced sweet potato.
Beans
kidney, pinto (get mushy quickly), black, garbanzo, cannelini (large white pinto), Great Northern, navy, lima, Anasazi, adzuki, black-eyed peas, soybeans, lentils. Beans may be good combined — for instance, kidney and pinto, black and garbanzo. If cooking from scratch, soak overnight if possible (don’t soak lentils). If you like, add seasonings, garlic, onion to the soak water and/or toss these flavorings with beans before adding to chili. Parboil beans till almost done before adding to chili.
Link to HOW TO COOK BEANS FROM SCRATCH, equivalents to canned, final yield
Tomatoes
canned: diced, crushed, stewed, whole (crush or chop them). If you use tomato paste (very intense), or tomato sauce, or tomato purée, combine it with chunkier varieties of tomatoes.
fresh: use whatever kind you have. Meaty, non-watery varieties are best, alone or in combos – Roma, plum, beefsteak, cherry, San Marzano, heirloom tomatoes. If you like, you can remove the skins – cut an ‘x’ on the bottom, dip tomato into boiling water for 1 minute, transfer to a bowl of ice water. Slip the skin off, crush or chop tomato. If you like, remove seeds. You can use roasted tomatoes for all or part of the tomatoes: slice, coat with fat and seasonings, roast at high temp till they start to brown.
Liquids
water, beef stock, chicken stock, tomato juice, V8 juice.
Flavorings
salt, pepper, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, hot sauce, chili peppers, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, mustard powder, oregano, bay leaf, coffee, cola, tea, pinch of white or brown sugar, beer, wine, soy sauce, miso paste, smoked paprika.
More
vegetables: bell peppers, corn, celery, zucchini, carrots, jalapeño peppers. Grate or dice small if veg wouldn’t otherwise cook by the time the chili’s done.
fruit: small amounts of diced or puréed mango, peach, grilled or roasted pineapple, strawberries.
Serve With…
crackers: saltines, ritz, oyster, club, goldfish, sourdough pretzel nuggets.
breads: cornbread, cheese cornbread, jalapeño cornbread, crusty bread, sourdough bread, soft bread or rolls, toasted breads, garlic bread, Texas toast (brush melted butter mixed with minced garlic, garlic powder, dried parsley, and salt, onto both sides of bread; toast in oven, flipping halfway through), biscuits, naan, pita bread, focaccia, pretzels, tortillas.
chips: fritos, tostitos scoops, tortilla chips, pita chips, cheetos, cheezits, ritz toasted cheddar chips, chicarrones (pork rinds).
toppings: shredded or crumbled cheese of any kind, including tex-mex, feta, goat cheese; queso fresco, sour cream, diced onions, diced tomatoes, pico de gallo, salsa, jalapeños, avocado, guacamole, chopped cilantro, chopped green onions, pickled red onions, roasted corn, roasted green chiles, grilled peppers, grilled onions, diced raw onions, ranch dressing, black olives, hot sauce, bacon crumbles, cornbread croutons (cut bite-sized pieces of day-old cornbread, lightly coat in olive oil and salt and, if you like, pepper or other spices, bake 10-15 minutes at 375), a wedge of lime, orange or grapefruit, a squeeze of lime, orange, or grapefruit juice.
Cooked spaghetti or macaroni, rice. Unsweetened chocolate.