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The Best Home Made Chili Con Carne

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By Mark Knowles


Making your own home made chili is a breeze. Chili con carne means chili with meat. It’s a simple and easy as cooking gets. Everything gets thrown in a pot and left to cook for a while.

Home made chili is a hundred times better than a store bought meal. You know what went into it and you can adjust the heat to suit your families tastes. This particular version is fairly mild, but if you prefer a hotter chili, just increase the amount of chillies and spices. This recipe serves 6 people. A good family meal with some leftovers. That’s another great thing about chili: it makes wonderful leftovers. I prefer to make my own chili powder and use fresh chillies, but if you are using ready-made chili powder, that will work just fine too.


You will need:

Equipment:

  • A sharp knife
  • A cutting board
  • A large saucepan
  • A wooden spoon
  • A garlic press

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 ½ lb ground beef
  • 1 lb of chopped fresh tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp tomato purée
  • 2 red chillies, thinly sliced ( or 2 tablespoons dried chilli flakes )
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • Salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • 2x tins red kidney beans, drained and washed
  • 1 large bottle of red wine ( a cup for the chilli, the rest for the chef )

For the garnish:

  • 1 large bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped
  • Sour Cream


Cooking Chili
Cooking Chili

First open the wine, pour a glass and sip. Don’t worry, some of it will go in the chili.

Next, prepare the onion, garlic and chillies. Add the oil to a large sauce pan and heat. Fry the garlic and onion in the oil until they start to soften. Add the fresh, chopped chillies and fry for a further couple of minutes. Now, add the spices and fry for another 2 minutes, stirring well. Add the ground beef and brown. Now add the wine and reduce for another 2 minutes.

Now add all the other ingredients, stir and season with a good helping of salt and fresh ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down low, cover and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally. Sit down and have another glass of wine – you deserve it after all that hard work. Serve with grated cheese and a good handful of fresh, chopped coriander, rice and a green salad.

Much like curry, I think this tastes better after leaving for a day or two, so I tend to make this a few days before I plan to serve it, but you can eat it immediately. It freezes well and keeps well in the fridge.

Bon Apetit!


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Comments

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Ishari  says:
2 years ago

Is there anything you can't cook?

Mark Knowles profile image

Mark Knowles  says:
2 years ago

I try everything. If I like it, I keep doing it.

jean  says:
12 months ago

Hello Mr Knowles,

I place your page in my IE favorites so now i could return to try making your chili recipe. Hmmm, smells already good! BTW, i plan to try out, as well, Obama's chili recipe which surfaced upon the web this year. I don't know what you, as a chef, would think about it. There seem to be some differences when compared with yours but i am confident B.O. doesn't eat crap, either chili or con carne. In any case, i will make my judgement on both - Obama's chili and yours - in a near future. (I've added an url to B.O.'s recipes)

Thessy  says:
10 months ago

Made it today.

Boy oh boy, did we love this!

Thanks very much for sharing!

Mark Knowles profile image

Mark Knowles  says:
10 months ago

My pleasure - glad it hit the spot :)

Paul Donaldson  says:
8 months ago

Oh my God! Hands down, the best chilli I've made! and I have tried lot's of recipes. Thanks.

Mark Knowles profile image

Mark Knowles  says:
8 months ago

Thanks Paul - glad you liked it :)

JonSterling profile image

JonSterling  says:
2 months ago

Great recipe mark - hear in East Texas we crumble fresh hot cornbread and mix in our chili then add a little graded sharp cheddar cheese...

Suki C profile image

Suki C  says:
2 weeks ago

Another good one :)

I think that the ground cumin is the key and when I make mine I always add more than the recipe states - we like ours extra hot so I add some more chopped fresh chillis shortly before serving - makes steam comes out of your ears, ha-ha!

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