Chili con carne: the homemade recipe with some kick
A good homemade chili con carne depends on the cut of the meat, a point that most French versions ignore. Authentic Texan chili is not made with finely ground supermarket mince, but with coarsely ground beef, almost like small cubes, that holds up for two hours of simmering without falling apart. Allow 800 grams of meat, 400 grams of cooked red beans, a can of tomatoes, and 1 hour and 30 minutes of gentle cooking for six people.
The rest is a matter of spices, and above all, patience: chili eaten the next day is always better. Here is the benchmark recipe, the spice proportions, the variations, and the mistakes that turn the dish into a bean bolognese.
Chili con carne meat: coarse grind is a must
This is the point that separates a real chili from a meat sauce. A fine 5-millimeter mince dissolves into a puree after an hour of simmering, while a 10 to 12-millimeter coarse grind, almost like small cubes, remains identifiable after two hours. Take chuck or top round with 15 or 20% fat, passed through the largest grid, or cut into one-centimeter cubes with a knife for the most Texan version. Cold meat is easier to work with: fifteen minutes in the freezer before grinding, and the fat remains in clean grains.
Sear the meat in two batches over very high heat, without stirring for two minutes, so that it browns instead of boiling. Salt after browning. This crust is the foundation of the flavor: a chili whose meat has not browned remains flat, regardless of the amount of spices. To grind a whole piece yourself, the grid models are gathered in our collection of meat grinders.
Spices, beans, and simmering: the real proportions
For 800 grams of meat, allow:
- two onions, two cloves of garlic, and one red pepper;
- two tablespoons of tomato paste and a 400-gram can of crushed tomatoes;
- 25 centiliters of beef broth;
- for the spices: two teaspoons of ground cumin, two of smoked paprika, one of chili powder to adjust, and one of dried oregano.
A pinch of cinnamon and a square of dark chocolate at the end of cooking rounds it all off, a trick common among chili lovers. The trio of onions, garlic, and pepper is finely and evenly sliced with the vegetable chopper, without a cutting board or tears.
Red beans are cooked separately and only join the pot for the last 30 minutes: added too early, they burst and thicken the sauce. Allow 1 hour and 30 minutes of simmering over low heat, uncovered for the last half hour to thicken. The chili is ready when the fat rises slightly to the surface and the sauce coats the spoon.
| Version | Meat and cut | Cooking time | For who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texan, without beans | Beef in 1 cm cubes cut with a knife | 2 hours and 30 minutes over low heat | Purists of authentic chili |
| Classic Franco-Tex-Mex | 800 g of beef on a 10-12 mm grid | 1 hour and 30 minutes | The benchmark of this guide |
| Express weekday | 500 g of store-bought mince | 40 min | The busy evening, simpler taste |
| Pressure multicooker | 800 g on a large grid | 35 min under pressure | The result simmered without supervision |
| Doubled for freezing | 1.6 kg on a large grid | 1 hour and 45 minutes | The Sunday batch, 2 months in the freezer |
The mistakes that make a bean bolognese
Four mistakes often recur.
- Fine mince thrown into the sauce without browning: we get a pasta sauce texture, not chili.
- Chili added all at once at the beginning of cooking: simmering concentrates the heat, always adjust at the end.
- Shortened simmering: in under an hour, the spices remain separate, the sauce is acidic, and the meat is dry.
- Onions sliced too large: they remain crunchy in a melting dish.
A fine and even chopping of the onions solves the problem, and without tears, as explained in our guide for chopping an onion without crying.
Serving makes up half the pleasure: white rice or corn chips, sour cream or thick yogurt, grated cheddar, fresh cilantro, and lime wedges. And the real cook's advice: make the chili the day before. A night in the cold welds the spices, and the dish reheated for 20 minutes over low heat always beats the same-day version.
How to measure the chili without making the dish inedible?
Chili is the spice that requires the most caution, precisely because simmering intensifies it.
Start with a teaspoon of mild chili at the beginning of cooking, taste halfway through simmering, and adjust by half-teaspoons at the end. Simmering concentrates the heat: a decent dish at 30 minutes becomes strong at 90. Sour cream or yogurt allow everyone to temper their plate.
Batch, storage, and freezing of chili
Chili con carne is ideal for batch cooking: it doubles without extra effort, keeps for three days in the refrigerator and two months in the freezer, in portions or in a flat bag. Reheat over low heat with half a glass of water, rather than in the microwave at full power, which dries out the surface of the meat. For the precise rules on raw meat before cooking, our guide to the storage of ground meat details durations and temperatures.
If you double the quantities, the longest task becomes preparing the vegetables: two onions, one pepper, and the garlic turn into eight units to slice, and a uniform size cooks evenly.
The grain of the meat makes the chili
Remember the essentials: fatty meat in large grains or cubes, seared until browned, spices built around cumin and smoked paprika, beans added at the end, and 1 hour and 30 minutes of patience. We advise you to grind the meat yourself, because it is the only way to get the large grain that holds up to simmering. And prepare it the day before: chili is even better the next day.
All our meat and vegetable grinders are gathered on Hachoir Cuisine.