Hearty Chili – Simple, Bold, and from Scratch
Nothing beats a warm, hearty bowl of chili on a cold evening. And the best part? Making chili is super easy — and if you make a big pot (like the one in this recipe), you’ll have dinner covered for multiple evenings. One less thing to worry about.
Our hearty chili recipe is made using fresh, whole ingredients: onions, celery, tomatoes, peppers — chop ’em up! And last but not least, the beans. This recipe calls for dried kidney beans — none of that canned beans stuff here!
Fresh ingredients, from scratch
Recipe Notes
TOTAL TIME: At least 30 min soak time (for the beans). About 2 hours cooktime (the key is to let the ingredients simmer and stew together for a deep and hearty flavor)
SERVES: 8-10
EQUIPMENT: A good stock pot
Ingredients
- Celery, the entire bunch, sliced – even the leaves
- Onion, white or brown, diced (purple for a pretty garnish)
- Kidney Beans, 2 cups
- Ground Beef (85% lean), 1 lb
- Bay Leaf, 1
- Tomatoes, 2, rough chopped
- Crushed tomato sauce (or pasta sauce, if that’s all you’ve got)
- Peppers (I usually go for jalapeños, but any favorite pepper of yours will work)
- Cumin powder, 1/2 tsp
- Paprika, 1/2 tsp
- Chili powder, 1/2 tsp
- Salt (1.5 tsp, or to taste) and Pepper
- Water, 3-4 cups
Instructions
- Drizzle some oil into a big stock pot, and heat up to medium-high heat
- Dice up your onion and toss in.
- Add the ground beef and cook and sautee together until onion starting to brown and looks translucent
- Toss in celery, peppers, tomatoes, bay leaf, and soaked beans
- Stir all together and add in cumin, paprika, and chili powder
- Add in tomato sauce (even pasta sauce is fine if you find yourself in a bind!) and stir all together
- Add in 3-4 cups of water
- Continue stirring and bring to a boil. Then place lid on and turn down heat to medium-low and let simmer on a gentle boil
- Simmer until beans are cooked, stirring occasionally (about 1.5 hours).
- Add salt and pepper to taste
Kitchen Notes
- Beans – The star of this bowl is the beans. We use fresh beans for this recipe. Soaking and cooking your own beans creates so much more flavor and texture, making it the obvious winner over canned beans. Trust us, using dried beans packs so much more flavor and texture into your dishes than the mushy canned stuff. It’s worth the pre-soak, and worth the time!
- My one exception to this rule of “fresh over canned”, is with canned tomato sauce. This recipe does call for fresh tomatoes, but adding in can of crushed tomatoes gives additional flavor and thickness to the chili. If you find yourself without any crushed tomatoes, jarred marinara sauce will do just fine (I tried it, and I couldn’t taste a difference)
- Spices – The main spices I use are cumin, paprika, and chili powder (which is basically a combination of paprika and cumin). The paprika gives a deep red color. And the cumin is an absolute essential spice for down-right delicious chili. So, don’t forget the cumin powder.
- Let it stew, let it stew, let it stew. The longer this stews on a gental simmer, the greater the flavors blend and meld together. So if you’ve got more time, let it stew for a little longer. Just make sure the beans don’t explode 🙂
- Garnish with cheese, freshly minced onions – white and green – for an added pop in flavor in every spoonful
Let it stew, let it stew.
Goes Great With...
Bake up some cornbread or toast up some sourdough to pair, and you’ve got yourself a complete meal. That’s all I need for a hearty dinner. Toss a salad as a nice balance to this heavy chili bowl or if you’re in the mood for something a little more potato-y, try our Roasted Root Vegetables recipe, for a simple one-sheet pan for a variety of roasted root vegetables, like beets, turnips, parsnips, and of course, potatoes.
If you’re in the mood for an even heartier dish join your chili bowl, try our Thyme Lemon Garlic Chicken for a flavorful yet aromatic main course.
If you’re in the mood for other soups (all vegetarian), check out our favorites below:
Enjoy!
Hearty Chili Recipe
Equipment
- 1 stock pot
Ingredients
- 1 celery the entire bunch, sliced - even the leaves (don't waste!)
- 1 onion white or brown, diced
- 2 cups kidney beans dried and pre-soaked
- 1 lb ground beef 85% lean
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tomatoes rough chopped
- 1 can crushed tomates
- 2-4 peppers jalapeños, preferrably, but your favorite pepper will do
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1.5 tsp salt
- pepper to taste
- 3-4 cups water
Instructions
- Drizzle some oil into a big stock pot, and heat up to medium-high heat
- Dice up your onion and toss in.
- Add the ground beef and cook and sautee together until onion starting to brown and looks translucent
- Toss in celery, peppers, tomatoes, bay leaf, and soaked beans
- Stir all together and add in cumin, paprika, and chili powder
- Add in tomato sauce (even pasta sauce is fine if you find yourself in a bind!) and stir all together
- Add in 3-4 cups of water
- Continue stirring and bring to a boil. Then place lid on and turn down heat to medium-low and let simmer on a gentle boil
- Let simmer until beans are cooked, stirring occasionally (about 1.5 - 2 hours).
- Add salt and pepper to taste
Let me know what you think!
Did you try this recipe? Leave a comment or share, and let me know what you think! Happy simple, tasty eats!
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One Comment
Mara
This looks delicious! It’s going on the list to make!