This Chili Wins First Place Every Time

Today I'm showing you how to make a chili that will win your next chili cook-off. This is not hyperbole. This is not clickbait. This exact chili recipe, since I published it, I think seven years ago, this has won hundreds of chili competitions. First place. Once the weather starts getting cold, I get so many comments, emails from people, won first place, won first place, huge picture of my trophy. I'm really proud of this one. So let me break down the secrets. And the number one thing I want to tell you about is the base we're going to build our whole chili on. There are a lot of chili recipes out there. They usually start with a little bit of oil in the pan. We're not doing that today. We are going to start by cooking some bacon. I want you to cut up five strips of bacon. This is so important. And we're going to cook these over medium heat till the bacon's nice and crisp. Cutting up the bacon just makes it a little bit easier and quicker to cook it. We'll just spread this in the pan. So there are a couple different tricks I'm going to tell you as we go through the recipe, but this base, this bacon base, is really one of the reasons why my chili has so much depth of flavor and why I think it takes the blue ribbon almost every time it's in competition. So yes, I have more important things we're going to talk about as we go on, but if you skip this step, you're just doing yourself and your taste buds a huge disservice. All right, once your bacon is nice and crisp, we're going to remove it from the pot. Just put it on a paper towel lined plate. A spoon for this. Don't worry, the bacon's coming back later, but for now we want it out. What we don't want out of the pot though is all that bacon grease. So if you have a ton of bacon grease, like more than two tablespoons, you can drain some of it, but you want one and a half, two tablespoons of bacon grease in here, and that's about where we are. So I'm not removing any bacon grease because it's important because this is the base we're going to build our chili on and it's a super flavorful base. So the next thing we're going to add, I've still got my heat on medium, I'm going to add one chopped red bell pepper, and I'm also going to add one large chopped onion or like a cup of chopped yellow onion. Okay, we're going to cook these in the bacon grease. Again, it's all about building that super flavorful base. And these veggies are just going to soak up that bacon grease and you're going to get so much flavor. The whole thing, like it's just a flavor bomb. That's why it wins cook-offs. And then any little brown bits that are at the bottom of the pot from when the bacon was cooking, just scrape those right up with the onions and the pepper because that's a lot of flavor. You want that in your chili, not stuck at the bottom of your pan. Casey's working hard over here saving our camera. Can I get that nice wind blown effect? So once the pepper and onion are nice and soft, and it usually takes like three to five minutes, just stir occasionally, we're going to add our garlic. Just going to make a nice little space in here for the garlic. And this is a tablespoon. It's like three, four medium-sized cloves of garlic. Fresh garlic, mince it yourself. Don't buy this stuff in a jar. Not for this recipe, not if you're trying to win a chili cook-off. We're not leaving any of that behind because the garlic also is super important to building that base. So I made a little space so the garlic gets that direct contact with the pan and that residual bacon grease. Mix that in a little bit on its own first, and then mix it in with the rest of the peppers and onion. We're just going to cook this until it's nice and fragrant. Takes about like 30 seconds. Okay, so while that's cooking, let's talk for a minute about the beef. You will need one pound of ground beef for this recipe. So generally the fattier your beef is, like go for an 80-20, it's going to have even more flavor. This is a leaner beef that I'm using today, actually, because that's what my grocery store had. It's like 90%, I believe. But fattier beef, more flavor. So if you're trying to win a chili cook-off, go for like 85, maybe even 80. Once that garlic's nice and fragrant, I'm going to make another little space for the beef. We'll add this right to the pot. Right to the pot. Get direct contact with the pan there for a minute. In a lot of recipes, we'll cook the beef and then add the onion and pepper. I think that's backwards. You're going to get so much more flavor if you do it this way, and then the beef gets more flavor too. Get a little bit of caramelization on the meat before I start breaking it up, just for like a minute. All right, let's break this up. And we'll cook this until it's like 50% browned. Here we can start mixing in our peppers and onions. That way we get all the flavors nicely melding together. Okay, so once we're at the 50% mark, about, we're going to pause here because we want to add our spices here. That way, again, they can really incorporate with the beef. It's all about building that super flavorful base. So we're going to add a tablespoon of firmly packed brown sugar. Usually use light brown sugar. And let's talk about chili powder for a minute. We're going to be using a tablespoon of chili powder. So I'm in the United States, so chili powder usually means like a blend of different kinds of chilies. Evidently in other countries, chili powder can be a lot stronger and more spicy. So when I say chili powder, I'm talking about the American kind of chili powder. It's a blend of spices. I've used different brands, McCormick, Generic. They all work really well with this recipe. We're going to add a tablespoon of chili powder. Next, we are going to add a tablespoon of ancho chili powder. Ancho chili powder is like a slightly smokier, like subtly sweet chili powder. And again, this is one of my key ingredients that really helps this chili recipe stand out. Some recipes use so much regular chili powder. It's like you get like a grainy paste in the aftertaste. So sad. We don't have to, you know, put in a quarter cup of chili powder. Two tablespoons goes a long way, especially when we add it to our beef here, like we do. We start with such a flavorful base. So next we'll do one and a half teaspoons of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of ground cumin. We'll also do a teaspoon of onion powder, three fourths teaspoon of black pepper, ground black pepper, freshly cracked. You get bonus points if you do that. A half teaspoon of a table salt. And we're just going to do a pinch of cayenne pepper. So this is an eighth teaspoon. If you want a spicier chili, go ahead and amp that up a little bit. This adds like a subtle heat. It's not a super spicy chili at all. My kids will eat it with this level of heat. So we're going to go ahead and mix this in really well because we want those spices well distributed over the meat. It's all about that base. Okay, so once that's nicely coated, well incorporated, beef's cooked, at least mostly cooked, I'm going to add my tomato paste. This is one fourth cup of tomato paste. And again, just going to kind of make a little hole right there so the tomato paste can make direct contact with the pan. Just because I'm going to slightly caramelize it just to deepen that flavor a little bit. Another little extra step. It seems extra, but it really makes a big difference. All right, once that's deepened in color, just mix it in with everything else. Should be smelling pretty amazing about now. All right, and now we're going to add the rest of our ingredients. Okay, beans. I don't want to hear anything in the comments about not adding beans. I'm very firm on this. Beans belong in chili. Please do not argue with me on this. If you're in my membership, you can argue with me there. We can talk about it there. I am not accepting any negativity about beans in chili. This is a 15 ounce can of dark red kidney beans. I have rinsed and drained them. And a 15 ounce can of black beans, also rinsed and drained, lightly rinsed. It's okay if you still have a little bit of the, for lack of a better word, like gunk at the bottom of the pan, of the can. That's okay if you have a little bit of that in there. We are also going to add a 14 and a half ounce can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. Fire roasted is really important again here. Regular diced tomatoes will work, but if you're winning a chili competition, you want the fire roasted kind. It makes a really nice difference. We will also be doing a seven ounce can of fire roasted green chilies. Sometimes I can only find the four ounce cans. You can use two of those. Eight ounces is fine in this recipe too. I don't think that's going to hurt your chances of winning your cook-off. Again, look for fire roasted green chilies. I like to use a mild or medium chili. So hot, I feel like can be a little overpowering. I think a chili that's super spicy, like you lose a lot of the flavor to the spice and I want you to actually taste the flavor of the chili. So I don't go too spicy with anything. It's a personal preference. Next is a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Again, a key ingredient, a little bit goes a long way. Subtle, adds to the depth of flavor. And then finally, we're going to add some beef broth. This is one and a fourth cups of beef broth. We're going to stir this in. I do recommend using like a nice brand of beef broth. Personally, this is not like sponsored or anything, but I like kettle and fire, I've said that before. And that's what I use with my chili. So we're doing a lot of work to get a nice flavored base and a different broth won't necessarily break you, but a good broth can move the needle a little bit in your favor. Okay, at this point, we're also going to add back in our cooked bacon. Quick word on this, the bacon's not going to be crispy after it sits in the chili and simmers. That's fine, it blends in with the other flavors, but you do want the pieces to be pretty small. That way they work nicely in the chili and then you don't feel like you've got like an awkward texture in there or anything. Another option is to leave the bacon on the side, but don't do that if you're trying to win a chili cook-off because then you lose that extra flavor. All right, then we're going to bring this to a simmer. And I like to let this simmer for 30 minutes if I'm like serving it for dinner, that way the flavors develop. But obviously letting it simmer for longer will make flavor even deeper and richer. You know, if you want to serve this the next day, you're going to have an even better flavor. So those are just things to keep in mind if you're trying to win a chili cook-off. 30 minutes later, some infrequent stirring and we're ready to serve. Now, yes, the chili is amazing on its own, but I always like to add some sour cream. Sour cream is a must, but I also like some corn chips, a little cheese, maybe a little jalapeno for some extra spice and color. And that's it. You are now ready to go out and win your next chili cook-off. And when you do, come back and let me know how it went because I really do always love hearing from you and I will see you next time. Ooh, this is the best part. Mm, just need a moment to savor that. Wow, that's a good chili. It's like sweater. Pause for a second so my hair's not blowing in the camera. I'm sorry. Okay, sorry. I'm saying the same thing over again because it's so important. It's all about that base.