Chili con Carne
Ground beef simmered with tomatoes, kidney beans and a short list of spices. The tomato paste goes in first and cooks dry — that single step is what separates a flat chili from one with actual depth.
Ingredients
- 600 gground beef
- 400 gcanned tomatoes
- 400 gcanned kidney beans
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 1.5 tspcumin
- 1 tspsmoked paprika
- 0.5 tspcayenne pepper
- 0.5 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspsalt
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
- 1 tbspvegetable oil
Method
- Dice the onion finely. Mince the garlic. Drain and rinse the kidney beans.
- Heat a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it turns golden and soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Push the onion to the sides and add the tomato paste to the center of the pot. Let it cook undisturbed for 2 minutes until it darkens slightly and smells caramelized. Stir it into the onion.
- Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the ground beef and spread it out. Leave it for 2–3 minutes without stirring so a crust forms on the bottom. Then break it up and cook until no pink remains. Drain excess fat if needed.
- Add cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir and cook 1 minute to toast the spices. Add canned tomatoes, kidney beans and 100 ml water. Stir, scraping up anything stuck to the bottom.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 35–40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens and the fat rises slightly to the surface. Taste and adjust salt. Serve with rice, sour cream and grated cheddar.
FAQ
Two reasons. First, the beef wasn't browned properly — if you stir it immediately, it releases water instead of forming a crust, and that water stays in the pot. Spread the beef out and leave it untouched for 2–3 minutes before breaking it up. Second, the lid. Simmering covered traps steam. Cook the last 15–20 minutes uncovered over medium-low heat and the chili will thicken on its own. If it's still thin, stir in 1–2 tablespoons of tomato paste and cook another 10 minutes.
At least 45 minutes on low heat, ideally an hour. The first 20 minutes just open up the spices; the next 40 are when they merge with the beef and tomatoes into something unified. The key step before any of that: cook the tomato paste dry in the pot for 2 minutes until it darkens — this removes the sharp acidity and adds depth that no amount of simmering can replicate. Chili the next day is always better than chili fresh from the pot.
Chili freezes well — one of the best dishes for batch cooking. Cool it completely, pack into containers in 2–3 portion sizes, freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat on medium heat with 2–3 tablespoons of water — the sauce thickens during freezing. Don't microwave straight from frozen; the beef turns tough. After thawing, the flavor is often deeper than the day it was made.
Canned corn is the closest swap by texture and adds a slight sweetness. Diced zucchini or eggplant — add them 20 minutes before the end so they soften but keep some shape and absorb the sauce. Bell peppers added at the start bulk up the dish without changing the flavor profile much. Red lentils dissolve completely into the sauce and thicken it — invisible but effective. The strict Texas version has no beans at all: just beef, chili peppers and spices.
Add 1–2 teaspoons of sugar or a couple of squares of dark chocolate (70%+): they don't remove the heat but dull the burning sensation. Extra canned tomatoes or tomato paste dilute the spice concentration. Sour cream and grated cheese at serving cut the heat in every spoonful. If it's really too hot — add another tin of beans and a splash of water, increasing the volume. Next time, start with half the cayenne: adding more is easy, fixing too much is not.
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Comments (1)
Salt the ground beef at least 30 minutes before cooking chili con carne, or right before — never in between. Salt draws moisture to the surface; given 30+ minutes it reabsorbs. At 10 minutes, it's just sitting there making things wet.