Easy Homemade Chili Recipe

This easy Homemade Chili Recipe with flank steak, peppers, caramelized onions, and chili will become your new family favorite. You will love how quickly this comes together and how delicious it is.

I love making and eating soup all year round. It’s just so comforting. If you’re a huge soup fan, then you have to check out my Pasta e Fagioli or Matzo Ball soup.

 

Chili

Chili is a classic Tex-Mex recipe of beef stewed with tomatoes and spices. While many people, like myself, enjoy beans in chili, Texas is classically beanless. You can feel free to remove the beans from this recipe to keep it Texas-style.

There are many ways to make chili, including the meat used, vegetables, and spices added. Because of this, it can be tailored to your specific liking. My recipe is very basic and can be manipulated in any way that you see fit. This makes a very thick, hearty chili, which can also be thinned out using beef stock or water.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Oil – Any neutral-flavored oil will work. You can also use beef tallow, lard, ghee, or clarified butter.
• Onions — This recipe calls for red, yellow, white, or sweet onions. I prefer yellow, as it is best for caramelizing. You’ll also need some whole garlic cloves.
• Bell Peppers – I prefer red and yellow bell peppers as they are more flavorful. However, you can also use green bell peppers or a combination of all three.
• Chilis – I used jalapeño, poblano, and chipotle peppers in chili. You can also use serrano, Fresno, or habanero peppers, depending on the degree of spice you’d like.
• Beef – You can use flank steak, skirt steak, brisket, top round, or sirloin in this.
• Beans — Dark or light kidney beans are the most traditional type of chili. However, you can also use pinto beans, black beans, or chickpeas.
• Tomatoes — I use canned dice, petite dice, whole peeled tomatoes, or a combination of all three in the winter months. If you make this in the summer, fresh tomatoes will work.
• Spices – I use ground cumin, paprika, and chili powder. To add more onion and garlic flavor, add ground or granules.
• Tomato paste – You may need this as a thickener at the end when your soup is done cooking
• Salt and pepper – This seems simple but goes a long way to enhancing the flavor of your homemade chili.

How to Make Homemade Chili

1. Brown the meat well in oil or butter before setting it aside and cooking your veggies.
2. Add the onions and allow them to caramelize before adding anything else. The onions should be golden brown, taking about 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Use different spicy peppers. I used poblano, jalapeño, and chipotle peppers, added them to the onions, and cooked for a few minutes to incorporate them.
4. Add the cooked flank steak back into the pot.
5. Add tomatoes, beans, chili powder, cumin, and paprika.
6. Take the time to simmer it; remember, chili tastes better the longer it cooks.
7. Season with salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and tomato paste if it needs to be thickened.
8. Finish your chili with a tad bit of ground cinnamon and a little amount of dark chocolate to help take this thing to the next level.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 days ahead for freshness.

How to Store: It will hold well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days. It will also freeze well, covered, for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.

How to Reheat: To reheat it, add your desired portion to a small saucepot and heat over low heat until hot. 

More Soup Recipes

• White Chicken Chili
• Italian Minestrone
• Pozole Verde
• Butternut Squash
• Fish Chowder