Best Beef Chili Recipe (Easy & Better the Next Day!)

Beef chili was one of those dishes I actively avoided making for like… eight years? Maybe longer. I’d convinced myself it required hours of obsessive simmering and some kind of complicated spice alchemy that I definitely didn’t possess, plus every recipe I looked at had seventeen ingredients and assumed I had things like “ancho chili powder” just lying around (I did not).

Turns out I was massively overthinking it. Classic me.

The secret to legitimately great chili isn’t some elaborate technique passed down through generations or a spice blend you need to special order, it’s just browning your meat until it’s actually BROWN (not just gray-ish), layering your spices so they actually taste like something, and then basically… waiting. Letting everything hang out together in a pot until the flavors decide to become friends.

What You Actually Need For The Best Beef Chili

The Main Chili Stuff:

• 2 lbs ground beef, get the 80/20, the fat matters for flavor
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, diced (I never measure this, just one onion however big it is)
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (or more if you’re a garlic person like me)
• 2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes, don’t drain these
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilis, optional but really good

The Spice Situation:

• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika (gives it that depth)
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste later)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, adjust based on your heat tolerance
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (TRUST ME on this, it’s the secret weapon)

All the Toppings (The Fun Part):

• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Sour cream
• Diced onions
• Sliced jalapeños
• Fresh cilantro if you’re not one of those people for whom it tastes like soap
• Lime wedges
• Tortilla chips or cornbread for scooping

How to Make Chili That Doesn’t Suck

Building All the Flavor

Get a big Dutch oven or heavy pot, one of those enameled cast iron ones if you have it, but any big pot works honestly and put it over medium-high heat.

Add your ground beef and break it up with a wooden spoon or whatever you use for this. Here’s where most people mess up (I did for YEARS): you gotta actually BROWN it. Like genuinely brown, not just cook it until it’s no longer pink. Keep it moving around, let it develop some color, get those caramelized bits happening. This is where serious flavor comes from.

When it’s properly browned and you’ll know because it’ll look brown instead of gray which seems obvious but apparently I needed this explained to me multiple times, drain off most of the fat. Leave like 2 tablespoons in the pot though, you want some of that for flavor.

Toss in your diced onion and bell pepper. Cook them for maybe 5-7 minutes until they’re soft and the onion is starting to look translucent-ish. Add the minced garlic and cook another minute until your kitchen starts smelling amazing.

Now, and this is IMPORTANT, dump in all those spices. The chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne, and that cocoa powder. Stir everything around for about a minute, maybe a little more. You’re toasting the spices which wakes up their flavors in a way that just dumping them in liquid doesn’t. I didn’t believe this mattered until I tried it and the difference is legitimately noticeable.

Add the tomato paste and stir it around for a couple minutes. It’ll start to caramelize slightly and get a little darker, that’s what you want.

Pour in the diced tomatoes with all their juice, the beef broth, and those green chilis if you’re using them. Mix everything together until it’s combined.

Stir in the kidney beans. Some people have VERY strong opinions about beans in chili. I’m looking at you, Texas purists but I’m firmly team beans and this is my recipe so beans are staying. If you hate beans for some reason you can skip them I guess but you’re missing out.

The Waiting Part (Also Known as Where Magic Happens)

Bring the whole situation to a boil, then drop the heat way down to low. Put the lid on but leave it slightly cracked so some steam can escape, you don’t want it completely sealed.

Let it simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so to make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom. But honestly? Longer is better. Like WAY better. If you’ve got time, let it go for 1.5 to 2 hours. The flavors just keep developing and mellowing and becoming more complex the longer it hangs out.

After the simmering time, however long you managed, taste it and adjust. Need more salt? Add salt. Want it spicier? Cayenne or hot sauce. Not spicy enough even after adding cayenne? Some people just have asbestos mouths and that’s fine, add more heat. This is your chili, make it how you like it.

Turn off the heat and let it sit for like 10-15 minutes before serving. This lets everything calm down and come together, it’s the difference between good and great, I swear.

Serving It Up

Ladle into bowls, big bowls because people always want more than they think they will and set out all your toppings in little bowls so everyone can customize. The combination of hot chili with cold sour cream, sharp cheese, crunchy onions, and a squeeze of lime is what takes this from “yeah it’s chili” to “okay wow this is actually really good.”

Some people put it on hot dogs (chili dogs, obviously). Some people eat it over rice. Some weirdos in Cincinnati serve it over spaghetti with a mountain of shredded cheddar which sounds insane but is apparently delicious? I haven’t tried that yet but I’m curious.

Ways to Mix It Up (Because Variety Matters)

If you want it SPICY: Double the cayenne, throw in some diced jalapeños with the onions, or stir in hot sauce at the end until it hits your preferred pain level.

Smoky as hell version: Add a diced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce when you add the tomatoes. Gives it this incredible smoky depth that’s almost addictive.

Cincinnati-style: Serve it over spaghetti with a pile of shredded cheddar on top. Sounds absolutely insane, apparently tastes incredible, I really need to try this.

White chicken chili: Replace the beef with chicken, swap kidney beans for white beans, use chicken broth instead of beef broth. Completely different but equally delicious, lighter and brighter but still comforting.

Vegetarian route: Skip the meat entirely and double up on beans, or add diced sweet potato and mushrooms for that hearty texture. Works better than you’d think.

This pairs absolutely perfectly with my easy homemade churros for dessert when you’re having people over that spicy-to-sweet transition is genuinely unbeatable and makes you look like you planned a whole cohesive meal instead of just making two things you like.

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