Chili is, for the most part, composed of kidney beans and ground beef, but there are a number of other ingredients or substitutes that make for a wonderful chili meal. Here is one recipe for delicious, homemade chili that incorporates the flavors of many tasty ingredients.
Homemade Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- Two 15 ounce cans of pre-cooked kidney beans
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 1 small white onion, chopped or minced
- 1/4 of a green bell pepper, chopped or minced
- 1 jalapeno or one fourth of a habanero pepper, minced (optional, these are both very spicy, although the habanero is much spicier)
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- cilantro, for garnish
Directions
- In a large pot, greased lightly with olive oil, warm the kidney beans on the stove over medium heat. Stir the beans every few minutes.
- Dice one large tomato, and chop or mince a small onion, and a satisfactory amount of green bell pepper. If using a jalapeno or habanero pepper, mince it as well.
- Place the ground beef in a frying pan set over medium heat, and stir in about one half of the sliced tomato, onion, bell pepper, and hot pepper (if used). Set the other half of these aside. The frying pan should now contain some of all of the ingredients from the last step, and all of the ground beef.
- Add tomato sauce, chili powder, salt, pepper, and hot sauce to the pan.
- Stir the ingredients of the pan around, until the beef is browned and mostly cooked.
- Pour the contents of the frying pan into the pot with the kidney beans, still heated at medium. Add the remainder of the sliced tomato, onion, and peppers to the pot.
- Cover the pot, and wait. Remove cover, and stir the ingredients around every few minutes, and replace top. After about twenty minutes on medium heat, the chili should be done. Garnish with cilantro, and serve.
This is one homemade chili recipe, although there are many variations of the meal. Grilled chicken may be used instead of ground beef, and great northern beans go well in that version (instead of kidney beans). When making classic chili, kidney beans and beef are the only ingredients that are entirely necessary, although the other ingredients certainly make tasty additions. To make a soupier chili, a little bit of water may be stirred into the pot during step 7. For vegetarian chili, simply use all of the ingredients from the above chili, minus the ground beef. The above chili recipe makes a full meal in itself, although the result may be used to top hot dogs or burgers. Chili is also delicious in a bread bowl.
