The Best Homemade Chili
With a serious (eight-hour) simmer time, this hearty homemade, award-winning chili recipe invites us to spend a cozy day in the kitchen, close to the stove. Don’t you just love when the universe conspires to allow you to spend a whole entire day, lazy at home? Stirring occasionally while the house fills up with heady, savory smells—with all of your favorite people nearby, under foot, on the couch, or helping in the kitchen. And when that big, delicious pot of the best homemade chili you’ve ever tasted is finally done and everyone gathers around with their bowls at the ready? Just kick back, and let the compliments roll on in, and maybe enter a chili cook-off while you're at it.
Wait. Is This Really An Award-Winning Chili Recipe?
YES! This is not a case of “chili so good it deserves an award." Oh no. This is legitimately a four-time award-winning chili. In fact, given the opportunity, Natalie's dad would gladly tell each and every one of you every detail of his chili competition wins. And rightly so! After all, it’s a darn good recipe.
Homemade Chili Ingredients.
Making the best chili from scratch requires the best chili ingredients—of course—and the approach here is MORE is MORE. Here are the eight ingredients that have made this family chili recipe an award-winner:
Pork. Lending a unique depth of flavor, pork anchors this chili with its savory richness.
Beef. Pork AND beef? Yep! Like we said earlier, our homemade chili recipe philosophy is basically that MORE is more.
Red enchilada sauce. A simple way to add lots of flavor, we always have enchilada sauce in the pantry. We especially love La Victoria brand.
Spices. A good dash of both cayenne and cumin—and, as always, be sure your ground spices are as fresh as can be. Our chili recipe calls for ½ cup of mild chili powder. You read that correctly! That’s one half cup of mild chili powder! It adds a bit of smokiness, but doesn’t add heat. All about the flavor, baby!
Tapatio. Because you know that red enchilada sauce isn’t enough. That sprinkle of cayenne? Still not quite enough. This little extra kick, friends, is how you take a regular chili recipe and make it an award-winning chili recipe. You could certainly use whatever hot sauce you have on hand, but Natalie's dad swears by Tapatio, and we defer to his expertise—after all, he’s the award-winner.
Garlic. Four cloves! That long, slow simmer will soften garlic’s sharp pungency into a gorgeous, almost-sweetness that is one of the things that makes this chili recipe so ridiculously good.
Three kinds of beans. Black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans are a classic chili recipe trifecta. More is more is more!
Sugar. Sugar? Yep! Just a little bit of sugar, which both enhances and tempers all of the acidic ingredients—canned tomatoes, enchilada sauce, and Tapatio. Just a few teaspoons of sugar brings all of the ingredients into harmony with each other—don’t skip it!
What Is The Secret To Award Winning Chili?
You make award winning chili by making THIS recipe! Follow it to a T and it won’t let you down. Here are a few tricks for making sure it turns out perfectly every time:
Take your time. Crazy-good, award-winning, show-stopping, homemade chili is not a recipe for a weeknight, and that’s OK! We love quick and easy weeknight meals as much as the next guy, but we also love when we have the chance to let cooking a meal be the thing that slows us down. This homemade chili is one of those meals. Let it slow you down.
The best chili is always going to be the one that suits your own tastes, so after the chili has had its long simmer, adjust the seasonings as you please! Add a little more cayenne, or a dash more Tapatio. Need a little more spice or smoke? Grab some chipotle or ancho chilies.
Garnish, garnish, garnish! A big warm bowl of slow-stewed, meaty, tomato-y chili just screams for bright, cooling, contrasting toppings like a dollop of sour cream, creamy avocado, or vibrant diced green onions. We like to offer a platter of toppings and let everyone make their own bowl into the chili of their dreams.
Why This Chili Recipe is Easy (Even Though it Takes Eight Hours)
We’ve talked a lot about how long this recipe takes, but we haven’t mentioned how easy it actually is! It takes eight hours of slow simmering to achieve perfection, but the active time—the time you actually spend dicing, slicing or sautéing—is really quite short. All you have to do is:
Cook the ground beef and pork with the onions, peppers and garlic until the meat is browned.
Open all of the cans—tomatoes, beans, enchilada sauce.
Add the canned ingredients and spices to the pot, and let that low, slow simmer do the rest.
Tools You Need
What to Serve with Homemade Chili?
A great pot of chili deserves some great side dishes. A few of our favorites:
Guacamole with Homemade Corn Chips. It goes with everything, but especially this chili.
Cornbread with Creamed Corn and Jalapeño Infused Honey! Because cornbread loves chili.
Bacon Cheddar Biscuits. Laced with shredded cheddar cheese, chives and salty bacon—these biscuits are just as easy to whip up as they are to gobble up.
- Or you might also try your hand at Turkey Pumpkin Chili or Vegetarian Chili
Show Us Your Gold Medal!
We really hope you make this award-winning chili and if you do, we’d love to hear about it! Be sure to snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories and tag us @themodernproper and #themodernproper if you do. Also, feel free to leave a comment on the post and tell your friends where you discovered the recipe.
