Hearty Chili Recipe

The creation of my hearty chili recipe was brought forth by desperation. I love chili. Absolutely love it. I grew up on the Nalley Original Chili and ate it every winter. When you are suffering through a frigid northwestern winter, hearty food that sticks to your ribs is a must. What I didn’t realize when I moved to Texas was that Nalley is a Northwestern company. Their chili isn’t available in the south.

No chili for winter? Unacceptable. So I went on a quest to find the closest chili replica I could and…struck out a bunch of times. A lot of chili recipes include sugar, which I finds sweetens the recipe too much for my taste. After some trial and error, I created my own chili recipe that hits the spot for me.

One of the things I don’t like about canned chili, or any canned foods for that matter, is the amount of preservatives and chemicals added in. By making this simple recipe from scratch, I am able to avoid those added chemicals and still enjoy a delicious meal.

Hearty Chili Recipe Ingredients

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• ½ c. chopped onion
• 1 ½ Tbsp chili powder
• 1 ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp minced garlic
• Dash of red pepper flakes (more of less depending on how hot you like it)
• 15 oz. diced tomatoes
• 15 oz. tomato sauce
• 30 oz. canned pinto beans

Directions

1. Brown ground beef in pot. Add in the onions and cook until clear. Depending on how you like your onions, you can chop them or use a food processor to finely dice them.
2. Add seasonings and mix.
3. Rinse pinto beans and add.
4. Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. I like to blend the diced tomatoes in a food processor so they aren’t as chunky.
5. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve.

Note- For even more spice, dice up some jalapeños and toss in with the seasonings to let it simmer.

And that’s it! It is that simple and it makes a delicious dinner on cold winter nights. I like to enjoy my chili with saltines, my husband likes to eat his with tortilla chips, or you could even eat it with artisan bread (ideally with freshly ground wheat) to make this meal even more filling.