Chili Con Carne With Beans

Good starter recipe but some recommended tweaks: I'd omit both the tomato paste and canned tomatoes. The tomato sauce and canned diced tomatoes add plenty of tomato flavor and acidity. Double the beans. I personally use 1/2 black and 1/2 red kidney. Feel free to increase the amount of chili powder, as well. I double it but that may be too much for some people; the flavor cooks down nicely, however. Brown the beef first (with salt and pepper.) Drain the beef and set aside. Add some bacon grease to the pan and let it render down, then add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the garlic, saute for about 30 seconds. Return the ground beef. Add the beer (scrap up any loose bits at this stage). Add the other ingredients and stir occasionally. As soon as the mixture starts to have bubbles break, cover and turn down the med-low and simmer.

I use a can of beef broth instead of the beer, which I'd rather drink ;-) I also skip the tomato paste as I find it makes the sauce a little too tangy. Sometimes I'll use 1 lb beef + 1 lb hot italian sausage, depending on what's on sale. Finally, I use black beans, which feel a little less starchy to me than kidney beans.

This is my go-to recipe for Chili and has been for the past few years. I sometimes substitute ground bison and have made it with or without the tomatoes with chilis depending on what I have on hand. I also typically use a can of fire roasted diced or crushed tomatoes which gives it a great flavor. I also rarely have time to let it simmer for 2 hours and it is still great even after only 30 minutes.

I'm glad to give this chili recipe 5 stars. I think it is the best tasting chili I have ever made. I followed the recipe with the exception of using black beans instead of chili beans.

Well I made this today in my slow cooker for 5 hours. Hubby says "this is how a proper chili con carne should taste", which is high praise indeed. This has now been added to our All time favourites recipe book. The only changes we made were to add some water instead of beer, and add a mexican style bean mix. Thank you to yourself and your father in law for an awesome recipe.