Easy and Simple Chili

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Chili made with fresh farm raised beef.

When it’s cold outside and you’re hungry, there’s nothing better than a hardy hot bowl of chili to warm you up and fill your tummy. Not only will chili fill your tummy, it will stick with you for a while! Chili is one of our very favorite things to make during the winter (we actually eat it in the summer as well, maybe not as often).

There are countless variations of chili. A quick Pintrest search for chili recipes will prove that! We tend to keep it simple around here using very basic ingredients. I like easy and I like simple and this recipe is both easy and simple!

Not only is chili a hardy meal, it’s a healthy meal high in protein. As with any meal, you can make it unhealthy depending on the ingredients you use and the leanness of your choice of meat.

This very basic recipe I consider healthy AND it freezes well, which is a plus!

When I say this is a basic recipe, I mean BASIC! You can use this as a baseline to get started or leave it the way it is.

This basic recipe with basic instructions isn’t necessarily for the seasoned cook, as it were. It’s more for the new cook just getting started on their cooking adventure.

Make this recipe your own. Add peppers (I do like to add jalapeños, deseeded, when I have them), mushrooms, different kinds of beans, etc. Over time you will discover what you and your family prefer.

Build your chili the way your family enjoys it!

Ground Meat

I love to use our own homegrown meat. We raise meat sheep on our farm and have a few lambs processed at least once a year.

We use a lot of ground meat so I typically request our butcher to give us as much ground meat as possible. I do like the other cuts of meat but ground meat is so versatile and we tend to use ground more than other cuts so it makes since for us to get lots of ground meat.

We also raised a jersey steer here on our farm in 2023/2024. We had him processed last year and requested to get as much ground meat as possible from him.

Our homegrown meat is super lean as well.

Ground turkey is also a great option for lean meat.

We do not raise enough meat on our farm to exclusively use homegrown meat. The jersey steer we raised gave us enough ground meat to get us through about half a year. And, last year was an off year for us as far as having enough lambs to have processed (we didn’t have any processed in 2024) so I do purchase meat from a supermarket.

When I purchase ground meat from a store, I usually get at least 80/20 and sometimes even leaner meat depending on the price and what they have available.

In this recipe I’m sharing with you today, I used 3 lbs of our fresh homegrown beef.

Tomatoes

I absolutely love to use fresh tomatoes, especially those straight out of a garden, but that is not always possible. Using tomatoes, either canned or fresh, purchased from a supermarket, can work well. However, when out of season, I tend to stick with canned tomatoes because sometimes the supermarket fresh tomatoes just aren’t tomatoey enough!

Ok, let’s talk about fresh tomatoes.

The very best tomatoes are garden-fresh tomatoes. However, chili is one of those things that most people don’t eat during the hot summer months (except us!), and garden-fresh tomatoes just so happen to be more available in summer rather than in the cooler months. If you are a canner and usually can your tomatoes through the summer to have in the winter this is not a problem for you.

I have not learned to can. That is something I have on my list of things to learn how to do, just haven’t made it there yet.

Another way to have garden-fresh tomatoes available to you during the winter is to freeze your tomatoes. This is how I preserve garden-fresh tomatoes and it works wonderfully!

I freeze some tomatoes whole but most tomatoes I puree before freezing. I use pureed tomatoes in chili, soup, and taco casserole. There are many other things to use pureed tomatoes in but these dishes are staples in our home and get rotated through our menu frequently.

The difference in the taste of chili when using garden-fresh tomatoes verses store-bought canned tomatoes is somewhat…..uncanny. (lol!)

As soon as I open a bag of frozen fresh pureed tomatoes, add it to the chili and it starts thawing, I can smell the difference. And, when I take a bite of it, I immediately think of summer and fresh garden vegetables! Frozen tomatoes, once thawed, tastes like you just picked tomatoes earlier that very day.

As for store-bought canned tomatoes:

I don’t always have enough frozen tomatoes stored away to get us through the cooler months so I use store-bought canned tomatoes which still makes great chili.

Whether whole, stewed, or diced I puree them.

Why do I puree the tomatoes? You certainly do not have to puree the tomatoes. My family’s preference is to not have large chunks in chili so I puree them.

In this recipe I used two cans of petite dice tomatoes and one can of tomatoes with green chiles.

Seasonings

My oldest son began showing signs of hypertension at a very young age. When I discovered that, we actually had nutrition classes. I learned so much!

One of the things I learned is that it’s better to stay away from prepackaged spice mixes such as taco mix or chili mix. The sodium in those things are super high. I’m sure there are low sodium options but the nutritionist we spoke with said it’s better to put your own spices together (and to switch to all purpose flour instead of self rising flour – but, that’s a topic for another day) so you can control the sodium.

For about 12 years I haven’t even looked at prepackaged spice mixes.

Everyone needs sodium – a healthy source of sodium as well as a healthy amount.

My ultimate goal is to purchase organic spices in bulk. For now, my husband and I are focusing on replacing our regular table salt with a healthier salt.

We began using Celtic Sea Salt a few months ago. At first, I thought that salt is salt and thought that the Celtic Sea Salt would taste the same as our regular table salt or other sea salts that I’ve tried.

Nope, I was wrong. The Celtic Sea Salt is so much better. It has a wonderful flavor; I’m not sure how to describe it, it’s like salt but more intense or pure. I also feel that it doesn’t take as much to salt our food.

Health Benefits of Celtic Sea Salt

Let’s go on a rabbit trail and talk a little bit about Celtic Sea Salt and how it differs from regular table salt. Celtic sea salt contains small amounts of minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, and iron due to its minimal processing. These minerals are often stripped from refined table salt.

Celtic sea salt may aid in maintaining proper hydration and electrolyte levels which are crucial for nerve function, muscle contractions, and overall cellular health.

Compared to table salt, Celtic sea salt may have slightly less sodium per volume due to its coarse texture and mineral makeup.

And, last but not least, Celtic sea salt is typically free of artificial additives, unlike table salt which often contains anti-caking agents and sometimes other additives.

Beans

I rarely use dry beans. It’s certainly possible to use dry beans but they would require soaking and then cooking the beans (cooking to almost done) before adding to the chili. I may try to incorporate that in our lives soon but as of right now I don’t have any advice for using dry beans.

Ok, that’s my explanation for some of my choices of ingredients and why I do what I do.

Now, let’s get on to the recipe, shall we…

Ingredients:

  • Ground Meat – I used 3 lbs; use the amount you want – remember to adjust the rest of the ingredients.
  • Tomatoes, canned or fresh
  • Tomatoes with green peppers
  • Kidney Beans
  • Chili Powder
  • Onion Powder
  • Garlic Powder
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

Brown the meat.

Brown the ground meat. Just brown it. Don’t cook it to death. Cook the meat until it’s on the verge of all the pink disappearing.

Don’t worry about thoroughly cooking it at this point. The meat is going to continue cooking once you get the chili assembled.

Drain the meat if needed. There are many ways to do this. When I’m not using our homegrown lean meat which requires hardly, if any, draining, the method I prefer is to spoon the meat into a colander that sits on a plate and allow the grease to drain onto the plate.

If you really want to remove as much grease as possible, after the meat has drained run the colander of meat under very hot tap water and let it drain again (but, consider your drain pipes, etc.)

Put the meat into a large pot. If you have time and want your chili to simmer for several hours, you can use a crock pot. Sometimes, if we are having chili later in the day and I get the chili started early enough, I put it in a crock pot and let it simmer on low all day.

After you have the meat in either your large pot or crock pot, mix the spices together first, then add the pureed tomatoes.

Add the kidney beans (or whatever beans you like) and mix well.

At this point, you may need to add water. We like our chili thick so I don’t add a lot of water but do add some.

Now, all you need to do is cook on it on medium/high heat for a few minutes, bring the chili to a slight boil, turn down the heat, and let it simmer for at least an hour.

That’s it! Now, you have a hearty meal high in protein.

Serving Options

Chili can be served many different ways (some ways healthier than others).

  • Prepare rice and serve chili on top of the rice.
  • Break up tortilla chips and mix in the chili.
  • Add any type of corn chip such as Fritos to your bowl of chili.
  • Serve chili over a softened block of cream cheese and eat with tortilla chips or Fritos (works well at parties).
  • Chili is good with either plain cornbread or Mexican cornbread.
  • Add a dollop of sour cream and diced jalapeños to any serving option.
  • And, of course, the time-tested, original way to eat chili is to break up saltine crackers in the chili, melt cheddar cheese on top of it, and enjoy!

One last note, chili is ALWAYS better the next day!

And, as I stated somewhere above – be creative! Use this as a base for building your own chili recipe. Do it the way you want to, it’s your kitchen!

Are you a seasoned cook? If so, please leave your chili recipe in the comments.

Are you just getting started on your cooking journey? If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes!

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