I am sure chili needs no introduction. Chili is such a versatile crowd-pleasing food. My family loves to eat this chili recipe on a cool night all throughout the fall, winter, and spring. This chili is simple and full of protein and fiber. We like to serve it with white rice, cornbread, baked potatoes, or served as a soup on its own.

It is also an incredibly easy recipe to adapt to your own tastes and time constraints.

How to make the chili recipe

Chop your veggies and saute them on medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. Here’s a little secret: I cut NOTHING for this recipe this time around. I used store-bought minced garlic (not from Costco, as it tastes too acidic, if you have a Winco, we like theirs, or Trader Joe’s). The onion is pre-cut and frozen. Here is a link to more things you can freeze: How to Freeze Stuff.

Add the ground beef and cook it until it is browned. Guess what? I had precooked, frozen meat ready to go too. I didn’t even defrost it.

All this precooking made clean-up tonight MUCH easier.

There’s More Than One Way to Make It

Alternatively, you can cook the onions and garlic and take them out of the pan to be processed in the blender with the tomatoes and then cook the meat. Once the meat is browned, you can add back the tomato blend.

My kids like the second option because they aren’t huge fans of chunks in their food, but I do it both ways. This was especially easy to do tonight because I had already cooked the meat, so I put the tomatoes in the pan with the onions and garlic and used my immersion blender to get it smooth, then I added my frozen cooked meat.

Now Do The Rest

Chop the tomatoes (or open the can) Then puree them in your food processor. (Or puree them with the onion and garlic).

Add the tomatoes to the ground beef once it is fully browned. Then add the rest of the ingredients (except the beans). You can sub sugar for maple syrup or honey, but honestly, there is so very little sugar in this per serving that I don’t worry about it!

Bring this to a boil, then place the lid on top and turn down the heat to medium-low. When placing the lid on top, put it on wonky so that a little steam can release as it cooks and it can reduce a bit. This will really develop the flavor of the chili.

Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Add the beans after about 15 minutes to make sure they have time to heat through and absorb flavor but don’t cook to be too soft.

You can also saute in the instant pot, then leave the chili on the crock pot setting all day. This was my method of choice for this evening’s meal!

Freeze Premade Chili

This chili recipe freezes nicely so that you can have it waiting for you on a busy night. To reheat you have two options. Defrost ahead of time in a bowl in the fridge OR tear open the baggie and place the ice block directly on the stovetop in a pan. Serving the chili this way will even give it that depth of flavor you will find in a chili on the second day.

Simple Chili

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Ingredients

1 tblsp butter or oil
3 cloves garlic pre-minced is about 3 teaspoons
1.5 c onions about an onion and a half
2-3 packages ground beef about 1.25 lbs each
4 cups chopped tomatoes 3 cans (fire-roasted, no chilis) or fresh
2 tblsp sugar honey or maple syrup
3 tsp sea salt
3 tblsp chili powder
2.5 tblsp cumin
3/4 c water or beef broth
3 cans black beans other beans will do too

Instructions

Chop your veggies and saute them on medium-high heat in the oil until the onions are translucent.
Add the ground beef and cook it until it is browned.
Alternately, you can cook the onions and garlic and , take them out of the pan to be processed with the tomatoes and then cook the meat.
Chop the tomatoes (or open the can) Then puree them in your food processor. (Or puree them with the onion and garlic in the processor.)
Add the tomatoes to the ground beef once it is fully browned then add the rest of the ingredients (except the beans). You can sub sugar for maple syrup or honey, as preferred.
Bring this to a boil, then place the lid on top and turn down the heat to medium low. When placing the lid on top, put it on wonky so that a little steam can release as it cooks and it can reduce a bit.
Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour (or more). Add the beans after about 15 minutes to make sure they have time to heat through and absorb flavor, but don't cook to be too soft.

Notes

This recipe is incredibly easy to adapt to your own tastes. Tonight I made it without beans because are having beans for dinner tomorrow night and I wanted to see if my family liked it without. I’ve even made it without the meat, adding extra beans instead. I also didn’t have as much chili powder as the recipe called for, so I upped the cumin.

If you need to have more time in the evening, you can cook the chili in the morning in the instant pot and leave it on the crock pot setting the rest of the day.

This recipe big batches and freezes well.