Chili con carne, don’t you just love the sound of that? This dish was a dinner staple for my mom when growing up and she remembers being fascinated with the name chili con carne, and who could blame her? Especially because it sounds as good as it tastes. By the time she was making it for her own family it had been shortened down to just chili. Although I have spent the entirety of my life calling it chili, technically we should be calling it chili con carne because our chili contains meat. I think this paragraph was just an excuse to write chili con carne as much as I could because like my mom’s memories as a child, I also love the sound if it. Moving on.
Like many of the dishes my grandma made, or Mom makes, neither one of them used a recipe. So, when I first moved out and asked my mom for her chili recipe, she didn’t have one. Ever since I have been forcing Mom to write down how she makes her meals so I’ll have a recipe to follow.
We had always assumed that chili con carne was a Mexican dish, but after doing a little research Mom learned that it is in fact more of a Tex-Mex dish. The history of chili is fascinating, if you ever have a chance you should read up on it. What she also noticed while looking into the history of chili is that most recipes call for canned tomatoes. Grandma and Mom however, only use tomato paste. Unlike canned tomatoes, tomato paste has a deep and rich tomato flavour that also adds a certain amount of thickness to our chili con carne. You may also notice that our recipe contains a lot of spices. We have never shied away from spice in any of our recipes and usually add more than what is called for. If we are going to make chili, we want it to taste like chili.
While workshopping the recipe we were very close to omitting one of the spices we like to use in our chili. Years ago, mom found a smoky paprika spice mix made by Victoria V Taylor’s that she loves. It is however very difficult to find, we have only been able to find it at Winners or Home Sense, and even so it’s rarely in stock. We had all but decided to exclude it when Mom thought of looking for an alternative at our local grocery store. She found a few different options, we settled on using 1 tsp of chipotle pepper and ½ tsp smoky paprika. Don’t be afraid to make it your own and, if you like your chili con carne a bit spicier you can always add a little chili flakes.
Typically, when we share a savory post, we also show ideas for leftovers. We usually only have about 2 servings of chili left over which often ends up being lunch the next day. For this post however we used our leftovers to make chili cheese dogs. It was a perfect way to turn two servings into four and a great excuse to have hotdogs.
Mom and I both hope that you enjoy our version of chili con carne. We would love to hear from you, let us know if you have tried our recipe in the comment section below.
1large onion diced
500g lean ground beef
½ tbsp onion powder
½ tbsp garlic powder
½ tbsp cumin
½ tbsp smoky paprika chipotle mix*
4 tbsp chili powder
½ tsp ground ancho chilis
1 157ml can of tomato paste
2 cups or 3 tomato paste cans of water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 540ml can of red kidney beans
* Or substitute with 1 tsp chipotle chili peppers and ½ tsp smoky paprika.
In a non-stick or seasoned cast iron pan add the ground beef breaking it up with a spatula to cook over medium heat. We prefer varying sized pieces of ground beef to add texture to our chili.
To get the most flavour out of your ground beef refrain from over stirring it. It might be tempting to stir frequently but if you do your beef will not brown properly. Make sure to drain the liquid throughout the cooking process. If you allow the liquid to sit in the pan it will steam the meat and hinder the browning process.
While the meat is cooking dice the onion. Once the pink colour of the hamburger is just gone and there is no more liquid to drain you can add the onion to the ground beef.
As you can see in this picture we like our meat nicely browned.
When the onions are translucent, turn down the heat and add the spices. The lower temperature will allow the beef to be coated without scorching the spices. The spices are then gently toasted abd enhance the flavour.
Add the tomato paste to the pan once again stirring until the beef is coated before transferring your mixture to a medium sized pot.
Fill the tomato paste can with water and use it to deglaze the pan before adding it to the pot. You want to make sure you get all the browned goodness into your chili.
Add an additional two cans of water along with sugar, salt and the entire contents of the kidney beans into the pot. We also use the liquid from the canned kidney beans because it adds some salt and thickens the chili.
Let the chili simmer for an hour. Depending on what pot or pan you are using you may need to add more water if it reduces quickly. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes to prevent the chili from sticking to the pot. Enjoy!
Chili Con Carne
Ingredients
- 1 large onion diced
- 500 g lean ground beef
- ½ tbsp onion powder
- ½ tbsp garlic powder
- ½ tbsp cumin
- ½ tbsp smokey paprika chipotle mix or 1 tsp chipotle chili pepper and ½ tsp smokey paprika
- 4 tbsp chili powder
- ½ tsp ground ancho chilis
- 1 157 ml can of tomato paste
- 2 cups or 3 tomato paste cans of water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 540 ml can of read kidney beans
Instructions
- In a non-stick or seasoned cast iron pan add the ground beef breaking it up with a spatula to cook over medium heat. We prefer varying sized pieces of ground beef to add texture to our chili.
- To get the most flavour out of your ground beef refrain from over stirring it. It might be tempting to stir frequently but if you do your beef will not brown properly.
- Make sure to drain the liquid throughout the cooking process. If you allow the liquid to sit in the pan it will steam the meat and hinder the browning process.
- While the meat is cooking dice the onion. Once the pink colour of the hamburger is just gone and there is no more liquid to drain you can add the onion to the ground beef.
- When the onions turn translucent turn down the heat to get that last bit of colour. As you can see in the photo, we like our meat browned.
- Next add the spices to the ground beef and onions stirring until it coats the beef. Heating the spices in the pan will bring out more of their flavour.
- Add the tomato paste to the pan once again stirring until the beef is coated before transferring your mixture to a medium sized pot.
- Fill the tomato paste can with water and use it to deglaze the pan before adding it to the pot. You want to make sure you get all the browned goodness into your chili.
- Add an additional two cans of water along with sugar, salt and the entire contents of the kidney beans into the pot. We also use the liquid from the canned kidney beans because it adds some salt and thickens the chili.
- Let the chili simmer for an hour. Depending on what pot or pan you are using you may need to add more water if it reduces quickly. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes to prevent the chili from sticking to the pot. Enjoy!
